Michel Bauwens and Vasilis Kostakis Michel Bauwens’ and Vasilis Kostakis’ breakthrough paper, “From the Communism of Capital to Capital for the Commons: Towards an Open Co-operativism” was originally published by Triple C: Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. It was also featured as part of Heathwood Press’ Global Voice Project. It’s an excellent time… Continue reading
Date archives "July 2014"
Project of the Day: The Open Food Network
The Open Food Network is a free, open source project aimed at supporting diverse food enterprises and easy access to local and sustainable food.They’re not only addressing one of the critical issues of our time (and future), they’re also “…proudly open source and not for profit”, working under P2P protocols. Please support their current crowdfunding campaign. Watch… Continue reading
Podcast of the Day: Remixing the Commons
Originally published on Commons.fi, here’s a conversation with Alain Ambrosi, from Remix the Commons. From the shownotes to the Podcast: Alain Ambrosi from Remix the commons collective discussing in Finnish autonomous radio program Totuusradio (“The Truth Radio”) on Monday, 9th June 2014, about the commons, cultural revolution, and revolution in culture. The broadcast starts at… Continue reading
New essay: The political economy of Bitcoin
The open access journal tripleC recently published a new reflection on Bitcoin and distributed capitalism titled “The (A)Political Economy of Bitcoin”. The abstract: The still raging financial crisis of 2007–2008 has enabled the emergence of several alternative practices concerning the production, circulation and use of money. This essay explores the political economy of the Bitcoin… Continue reading
Push for water privatization in Detroit – should water be a commons or private property?
Hard times are coming for many in Detroit as the City administration decides water must make a profit. Ultimately, this is pressure from the financial system, the bankers, and there does not seem to be place for compassion. Common Dreams reports on this in an article titled Will Detroit’s Water be Privatized or Recognized as… Continue reading
Why Climate Destruction Is Illegal
Excerpted from Jeremy Brecher: “The Justinian Code, issued by the Roman Emperor in 535 A.D., defined the concept of res communes (common things): “By the law of nature these things are common to mankind — the air, running water, the sea and consequently the shores of the sea.” The right of fishing in the sea… Continue reading
The Former CIA Spy Who Discovered the Commons
A few weeks ago, The Guardian ran a profile of Robert David Steele, a former CIA spy who discovered the commons more than two decades ago and never looked back. Steele, a former U.S. Marine and CIA case officer who spent 18 years in US intelligence, is now, improbably, a vigorous advocate of “open source… Continue reading
Nathan Lewis: The Eco-Technic Civilization
Reprinted with permission. Original post here. More essays by Nathan Lewis here. The notion of an “eco-technic civilization” is popular these days. It is a good alternative to the “retro-eco” idea which is everywhere today — that to be in harmony with the earth, one should live in some sort of 19th century pioneer subsistence-farmer… Continue reading
The Radical Tactics of the Offline Library
The Radical Tactics of the Offline Library from henry warwick on Vimeo. The Radical Tactics of the Offline Library is based on the new book “Radical Tactics: Reversalism and Personal Portable Libraries” By Henry Warwick which is free to download and share from the Institute of Network Cultures. “The Personal Portable Library in its most… Continue reading
Elements of a new commons-oriented (Res Communes) economics
Excerpted from Jules Peck: “I’m involved currently with a group of people from the Transition Towns movement, Nef and elsewhere which is developing a draft document which we plan to put online as an open-sourced wiki manifesto. The idea is that anyone out there will be able to help us fill in the gaps. It’s… Continue reading
A Charter for Democracy
Here’s a very special treat. Originally published on Guerrilla Translation, Movimiento por la Democracia´s “Charter for Democracy” stands out as premier example of citizen-led solution making to the various crises we face. It is a constitution for the commons written by commons. We plan to break this into sections eventually, but if you’re ready for a long… Continue reading
Social Co-operatives a Democratic Co-production Agenda
New report offers ‘statement of intent’ to develop quality co-operative care for vulnerable citizens. Co-operatives UK, the Wales Co-operative Centre and Co-operatives and Mutuals Wales launch a new report into the potential for stimulating co-operative delivery of social care in Britain, at an event at the Senydd this evening (Tuesday 2nd July 7.00pm). The event… Continue reading
Robert Steele on the Open Source Everything Manifesto
Please watch this excellent presentation by our friend Robert Steele:
A Provisional Informal Assessment of the FLOK Transition process in Ecuador
Dear friends, I am leaving Ecuador tomorrow after a rich but difficult experience with many up and downs … (one of the downs being is that we are leaving the country with still 2.5 months of salary due); though the summit was a success in terms of its own dynamic, we discovered that the president… Continue reading