Key Thesis: “The tech boom today is characterized by a another kind of disruption. It’s social disruption. New technologies and business models don’t just attack the existing dominant corporations; they attack social relations and transform non-business spheres of life into methodical instances of economic exchange from which the new tech innovators extract revenue. The tech… Continue reading
Date archives "February 2014"
Namecoin promotes Dot-Bit as hard-to-censor non ICANN top level domain
Namecoin is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Litecoin, but it has a feature that sets it apart from all other crypto-coins. According to namecoin.org that feature is a secure key/pair data storage which also acts as decentralized domain name system for the global top level domain “.bit”. “There are plenty of possible uses, such as… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century
* Book: Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century. By Alex Sayf Cummings.Oxford University Press, 2013 URL = http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=a336096bf2d43e301b974b9d2d10999e Abstract ‘It was a time when music fans copied and traded recordings without permission. An outraged music industry pushed Congress to pass anti-piracy legislation. Yes, that time is now;… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca
Carlos Delclos interviews Elvi Mármol, a PAH activist from the city of Sabadell, just north of Barcelona: * What spurred the creation of the PAH? EM: In 2007, housing prices were at an all-time high. If we consider these disproportionate prices along with soaring interest rates and decreasing income (since unemployment went from 8.3% in… Continue reading
Video of the Day: A short introduction to the Commons
Courtesy of, CommonsDeutschland a short, charming introduction to the Commons. Please share far and wide!
Put the Environment at the Center of the Global Economy:An Argument for the Eco-Currency
We’ve already featured Emanuel Pastreich’s writing in collaboration with the P2P Foundation’s Layne Hartsell. In the following short essay, originally published at hani.co.kr, the former makes a compelling argument for the design patterns we could be emulating when speaking of new currencies. The environmental challenges we face today, from spreading deserts to rising oceans compel… Continue reading
Cooperative Firms as a New Mode of Production
* Essay: Cooperative Firms as a New Mode of Production. Bruno Jossa. Review of Political Economy. Volume 24, Issue 3, 2012. From the Abstract: “The importance of the notion of ‘the mode of production’ is emphasised by all those scholars who hold that the ‘history-as-totality’ approach is the core of Marx’s theory of society. Among… Continue reading
Podcast of the Day/XE: John D.Liu on ecosystem restoration
From our friends at The Extraenviromentalist Podcast. A must-listen conversation about the real origins of capital and the potential for large scale restoration work. http://www.xepodcast.com/extraenvironmentalist/065-restoringfunction.mp3 From the episode notes: “A fundamental flaw in our economy drives the consumption of our ecosystems until they enter terminal dysfunction. This logical error has eroded numerous civilizations and landscapes…. Continue reading
The Decade We Fight Back
Tuesday 13th was #TheDayWeFightBack a global day of action to raise awareness and make our voices heard in protest against mass surveillance. We took part in our own small way so hopefully some of you saw the banner when visiting our site and showed your support. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation – “nearly 250,000… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Permacities
Isn’t this a great idea? Here’s an Open-source game that, instead of uselessly abstracting you from the huge problems we face as a species, actually teaches you some of the more viable solutions. Extracted from their webpage: PermaCities: Permaculture meets Urban Design “Permacities came from the idea of creating social media games like FarmVille that… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: the Association for Sustainability and Democracy
“Alda’s goal is introduce new ideas about how to deepen democracy and re-think the nature of the economy into public debate. Alda’s board has seven elected members and two randomly selected members. The board manages administrative tasks and can take decisions in between monthly general meetings when absolutely necessary. Otherwise a board member has no… Continue reading
Matter, Makers , Microbiomes and Generation M
Interesting manifesto for the (bio) maker generation: * Article / Manifesto : Generation M. Matter, Makers, Microbiomes::Compost for Gaia. By Dimitris Papadopoulos. “1. Language, information and the virtual space were distinctive features of the previous generation. Craft, matter and the fusion of the digital and the material are defining generation M, the first generation of… Continue reading
Stimulating the emergence of necessary “Higher We-Spaces”.
Excerpted from George Por: “I am irresistibly drawn to observe and participate in the emergence of situations and communities, where people are capable to sense, think, relate, and act, momentarily or in a sustained way, from a beyond-ego state or stage of consciousness. They exist in a domain that I call “higher We-spaces.” My passion… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Restakis, Maclurcan, Lewis and Williams on Strategies for Economic Democracy
How’s this for a line up? Donnie Maclurcan, John Restakis, Mike Lewis and Bob Williams in a panel discussion from last year’s New Economy Summit. This video recording comes courtesy of our good friends at The Extraenviromentalist. From the text accompanying the video: Donnie Maclurcan is co-founder of the Post Growth Institute, an international group… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Swarmwise
Book: Swarmwise. By Rick Falkvinge. 2013 URL = http://falkvinge.net/files/2013/04/Swarmwise-2013-by-Rick-Falkvinge-v1-Final-2013Jul18.pdf pdf] Description 1. “It is an instruction manual for recruiting and leading tens of thousands of activists on a mission to change the world for the better, without having access to money, resources, or fame. The book is based on Falkvinge’s experiences in leading the Swedish… Continue reading
The Student as (Peer) Producer ?
* Essay : The Student as Producer: A Pedagogy for the Avant-Garde; or, how do revolutionary teachers teach? By Mike Neary. Summary / Abstract: “In this paper I set out the intellectual ideas that lie behind the concept of Student as Producer, and how that idea is being developed across the sector and at the… Continue reading