* Article: Economics 2.0: The Natural Step towards A Self-Regulating, Participatory Market Society. Dirk Helbing. From the Abstract: “Despite all our great advances in science, technology and financial innovations, many soci- eties today are struggling with a financial, economic and public spending crisis, over-regulation, and mass unemployment, as well as lack of sustainability and innovation…. Continue reading
Date archives "July 2014"
P2P Trendfest (7): Mutual Development
Jay Cousins explains the new p2p-driven model of development: “There are “no experts”, we are all equal participants Everyone should benefit Share your ideas, skills, knowledge and resources with others Seize the opportunity to challenge your prejudices, engage with empathy, listen without judgement, seek to learn Do not look for funding, instead communicate your actual… Continue reading
Limiting Noise
Excerpt from Charles Siegel’s book Unplanning, chapter 7. I strongly recommend to visit Siegel’s Preservation Institute for reading free e-books and other resources. Noise is another telling example of the failure of growth. All through the nineteenth and twentieth century, the middle class tried to move to quieter neighborhoods by moving to lower density suburbs. Until World… Continue reading
P2P Trendfest (6): User-Generated Urbanism
Jordan Kushins refers to three different models: “The traditional model of city-making has historically involved experts with a definitive, long-term plan executed over time. The issue with that is that culture changes faster than infrastructure; we’ve surpassed our ability to keep up. One of the consequences is that we’re left living in cities we planned… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Transforming History of Land Ownership
* Book: Owning the Earth: The Transforming History of Land Ownership. By Andro Linklater. Bloomsbury, 2013. From a review by David Bollier: “the new book .. describes how the Pilgrims imposed their notions of private property on the land commons in the New World. The consequences – while perhaps inevitable, whether from them or other… Continue reading
Colombian Student Faces Prison Charges for Sharing an Academic Article Online
From EFF DeepLinks Blog In many parts of the developing world, students face barriers to access academic materials. Libraries are often inadequate, and schools and universities are often unable to pay dues for expensive, specialized databases. For these students, the Internet is a vital tool and resource to access materials that are otherwise unavailable to… Continue reading
P2P Trendfest (5): Social Recession
Excerpted from Charles Hugh Smith: “Social recession is my term for the social and cultural consequences of a permanently recessionary economy such as that of Japan—and now, Europe and the U.S. Forget Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of expansion (“growth”) or recession—what really matters is the social recession, which continues to deepen in… Continue reading
Essay: Grassroots Sustainable Community-Based Enterprise in India
* Article: Jasmine growers of coastal Karnataka: Grassroots Sustainable Community-Based Enterprise in India. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal. Volume 23, Issue 5-6, 2011. Special Issue: Community-Based, Social & Societal Entrepreneurship From the Abstract: “The case of the jasmine flower growers in coastal Karnataka is an example of a local successful grassroots enterprise that… Continue reading
Building an Open Source Cellular Network at Burning Man
More from HOPE X today from our friends at the excellent Geeks Without Bounds. There is literally nowhere else on earth where you can run an experimental mobile phone network with a potential 50,000 users and get away with it (legally). Nowhere else can you learn so much in as short a timeframe about people’s… Continue reading
P2P Trendfest (4): Community Biolabs
Excerpted from Aaron Saenz: “No matter what intentions the community has, however, the idea of people performing biotech research on their own (even at a low level and just for fun) doesn’t sit well with many in power. It often doesn’t sit well with me. DIY biologists are generally a responsible bunch, but DIY biology… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Revisiting Associative Democracy
* eBook: Revisiting Associative Democracy. How to get more co-operation, co-ordination and collaboration into our economy, our democracy, our public services, and our lives . Ed. by Andrea Westhall, 2011 This eBook further develops Paul Hirst’s views of Associative Democracy and their current relevance. Andrea Westhall explains: “What are the limits of representative, deliberative or… Continue reading
Community Owned and Operated Cellular Networks in Rural Mexico
I recently attended HOPE X in NYC and really enjoyed this presentation on community owned cellular networks in rural Mexico. You can find out more about Rhizomatica at http://rhizomatica.org/. (41 mins) Why try to avoid them spying on us on their networks when we could just build our own? This is what the Rhizomatica project… Continue reading
P2P Trendfest (3): Stochastic Science
Excerpted from Sebastian A.B. : “Nassim Nicholas Taleb recognizes that “stochastic tinkering” rather than systematic, institutional agendas yield the greatest discoveries. Taleb is best known for coining the term “Black Swan,” to describe hard-to-predict and disproportionately momentous events. Stochastic tinkering is a process of trial and error, present in all creative endeavors, where randomness plays… Continue reading
Video: Vinay Gupta on Solving Global Crises through Peer Production
Morosopher writes: “This is a keynote speech by researcher, engineer and thinker Vinay Gupta held at Camp Pixelache in Helsinki last Friday (2012). In it, Gupta uses projects he’s been personally involved with, such as the hexayurt and STAR-TIDES to show how peer production principles can be used to solve crises from the level of… Continue reading
Improve Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde’s prison conditions immediately
Our friend Nadia EL-Imam, from Edgeryders has alerted us to this important campaign. Please read the article below and add your signature to the petition. Improve Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde’s prison conditions immediately “I am suffering tremendously – socially, physically, as well as psychologically – by the shortcomings of [the prison,] Västervik.” ~ Peter… Continue reading
Indigenous Knowledge and the Commons
This essay by Preston Hardison calls into question western assumptions regarding indigenous knowledge and its relationship to movements for a global knowledge commons. Indigenous People and the Commons