Commoners from the CommonsFest and the P2P Lab, amongst many others, took part in the ”Commoners Unite” Camp 2014 organized by the Helsinki-based Pixelache. The three-day long unconference began with the two keynotes by Alain Ambrosi and Markus Schmidt on “Co-inventing the art of commoning” and on Bio-Commons respectively, held at the Helsinki University. Then… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2014"
Video: Tomas Diez on Evolving From Fab Labs To Fab Cities in Barcelona
How Barcelona is redefining itself around digital fabrication. Ouishare Fest 2014 presentation via Tomas Diez on Evolving From Fab Labs To Fab Cities Watch the video here:
Essay of the Day: Reproducing Wealth Through 3D Printers
* Article: REPRODUCING WEALTH WITHOUT MONEY, ONE 3D PRINTER AT A TIME: THE CUNNING OF INSTRUMENTAL REASON. Johan Soderbergh. Journal of Peer Production, Issue 4. A Summary: “This paper reflects a long tradition of utopian thought in engineering, a tradition in which the progressive application of human reason to nature is projected to make the… Continue reading
Green Governance 1: Reimagining Our Stewardship of Nature
Professor Burns Weston and I recently published a series of six essays on CSRWire(CSR = “Corporate Social Responsibility”) that were derived from our book Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Law of the Commons, published by Cambridge University Press in January 2013. The book – an outgrowth of the Commons Law Project — is a direct response… Continue reading
CommonsFest 2014: An insider’s report
Hereby we cite, almost in full, a report concerning the recent CommonsFest which took place in Crete. The text was collaboratively written by CF organizers and participants. CommonsFest was held for the second consecutive year in Heraklion, Crete on May 9th ,10th and 11th. In this celebration of collaboration, solidarity and sharing took part members… Continue reading
The Return of the Subject After Postmodernism
I find this text very congruent with what I have written in the past on p2p subjectivity. Excerpted from Simone Stirner: “Over the last ten years, quite astonishing changes have happened, for instance in terms of discussing subjectivity in academia. Across a variety of disciplines – literary studies, philosophy, political theory and even psychology –… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Principles of LiquidFeedback
* Book: The Principles of LiquidFeedback. January 2014. Info via [email protected] Summary from the author/publisher: “This book gives an in-depth insight into the philosophical, political and technological aspects of decision making using the internet and the “secrets” of LiquidFeedback, a computer software designed to empower organizations to make democratic decisions independent of physical assemblies, giving… Continue reading
Life and Complexity in Architecture From a Thermodynamic Analogy
Nikos A. Salingaros Original article here. To appear in Physics Essays, March 1997 issue, volume 10 Number 1. Posted by permission of Physics Essays Publications Table of Contents Introduction Detail and Temperature in Architectural Design Randomness and Harmony in Architectural Design Estimating the Architectural Harmony Architectural Harmony and Pattern Recognition Raising the Harmony by Lowering… Continue reading
Video: Michele D’Alena on the City as Commons Project in Bologna
Interesting lecture at the Ouishare Fest on the pioneering efforts in Bologna:
The end of Bitcoin’s decentralization promise: monopoly of Bitcoin’s total computational power
Excerpted from an analysis by Dan Goodin: “For the first time in Bitcoin’s five-year history, a single entity has repeatedly provided more than half of the total computational power required to mine new digital coins, in some cases for sustained periods of time. It’s an event that, if it persists, signals the end of the… Continue reading
Our Changing View of Food: From Commodity to Commons – An interview with @JoseLViveroPol
Our Changing View of Food: From Commodity to Commons – An interview with Jose Luis Vivero Pol
Book of the Day: Solidarity Economy Alternatives
* Book: Solidarity Economy I: Building Alternatives for People and Planet. By Emily Kawano, Thomas Neal Masterson, Jonathan Teller-Elsberg . Lulu.com Author Summary: “Another world is not just possible. It is being built. So many of us wish for something more—an economy we can feel a part of, not that makes us feel like a… Continue reading
France / Ecuador: Most public debt is illegitimate and not linked to public spending
Excerpted from Razmig Keucheyan: “France made a decisive contribution to the reinvention of a radical politics for the 21st century … the committee for a citizen’s audit on the public debt issued a 30-page report on French public debt, its origins and evolution in the past decades. The report was written by a group of… Continue reading
Open Cooperativism for the P2P Age
“Yes coops are more democratic than their capitalist counterparts based on wage-dependency and internal hierarchy. But cooperatives that work in the capitalist marketplace tend to gradually take over competitive mentalities, and even if they would not, they work for their own members, not the common good…” The cooperative movement and cooperative enterprises are in the… Continue reading
Working for a phase transition to an open commons-based knowledge society: the Poynder-Bauwens Interview
Continuing our coverage of FLOK Society’s recent “Buen Conocer” summit, we’re glad to present this special long-form conversation between Open Access chronicler Richard Poynder and Michel Bauwens, held just before the summit took place. The interview is specially noteworthy for being a very honest across-the-board examination of FLOK as a process, including both its virtues… Continue reading
How a Commons Way of Life Helps Curb Climate Change
Here’s an excellent and brief op-ed by Jay Walljasper, republished from the always recommendable OntheCommons.org website. “An impossibly naive dream? Not really. For much of history, human progress was guided by a different set of principles than the industrialized, market-driven system now accepted as the natural order of the universe. Look around—at indigenous people and… Continue reading