Date archives "June 2014"

Pixelache Helsinki 2014

It’s probably too late for most of us to attend, but this Friday through Sunday, June 6-8,Pixelache Helsinki 2014 will host an international two-day trans-disciplinary event on “The Commons.” Apart from keynote lectures planned in advance, the agenda of activities of activities at Camp Pixelache – especially the participatory workshops – will be an “unconference” —… Continue reading

Unexpected result of the European elections: the rebirth of a radical left

I’ve always considered Syriza to be a pivotal party. It is a party with many roots in the alterglobalization movements of the late nineties, and with a remarkable openness to distributed movements and p2p/commons/sharing ideas. In the last EU elections, they became the first party in Greece. If they would succeed in the next national… Continue reading

Affective Labor as the Lifeblood of a Commons

We have so internalized the logic of neoliberal economics and modernity, even those of us who would like to think otherwise, that we don’t really appreciate how deeply our minds have been colonized.  It is easy to see homo economicus as silly.  Certainly we are not selfish, utility-maximizing rationalists, not us!  And yet, the proper… Continue reading

Recognizing Each Other in the Commons: The Basis for an Alternative Political Philosophy of Systemic Change?

Another contribution from our good friend Helene Finidori, one of the most interesting thinkers writing about the Commons today. It was originally published in Kosmos Journal. Time is running short for a paradigm shift. When it comes to our individual and collective engagement in making the world a better place, we often talk about uniting… Continue reading

The Enspiral Network on Collaborative Funding

We think that the Enspiral Network is pretty great, and that we can learn a whole lot from their P2P governance and property protocols. The following story – penned by Alanna Krause and originally published in managementexchange,com – will give you a good idea of how they keep things fresh and vibrant in the face of… Continue reading

Alternative to Truecrypt

Following the sudden and bizarre announcement that popular encryption software Truecrypt ‘may contain unfixed security issues’ and the equally bizarre recommendation by the Truecrypt developers to use Microsoft’s Bitlocker program (source of much derision from security professionals who assume it must be backdoored by the NSA), there has been a great deal of speculation as… Continue reading

Contractionary Revolution by Frank Rotering

“Humankind’s economic activities over the last few centuries have driven the biosphere into overshoot, resulting in a looming cataclysm for life on earth.” “To reverse this overshoot condition our species must rapidly reduce its population, lower the consumption of the rich, and increase its ecological efficiencies. However, this solution cannot be implemented by growth-dependent capitalist… Continue reading

Movement of the Day: The Francophone Network for the Commons

Frédéric Sultan describes the group: “The Francophone Network for the commons is an informal network established in September 2012 in response to a call from the Paris-based association VECAM (http://vecam.org/article1255.html) published on July 3, 2012. The network includes individuals and organizations that share the belief that the solutions to our economic, social and ecological crises… Continue reading

Podcast of the Day: How to Reclaim the Commons … and Your Attention, with Howard Rheingold

Excerpted from Value of Simple, here’s a great interview with writer, speaker and virtual community expert (please check out Peeragogy, if you haven’t done so already) Howard Rheingold. From the shownotes to the Podcast: The Commons. How much do you do for them? How much does anyone do these days to preserve and expand the Commons? I tell… Continue reading

Last chance to help this great P2P project!

The Bangla-Pesa project is an alternative currency initiative in Kenya. The organizers have already had to contend with being imprisoned by the local police for ‘counterfeiting money’, but happily they won their court case and the project is now supported by the Kenyan state. Now they have organized a crowdfunding drive to take the project… Continue reading