“The Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership is a trade deal between the EU and the US – and is anything but harmless. The deal boosts corporate power and endangers people and the planet.”
Date archives "August 2014"
The sharing economy is a ploy for the commodification of everything
Some technology critics, with their laments of cultural decline enabled by Twitter and e-books, are partly to blame. Instead of engaging with attention and distraction socio-economically — as was done with earlier media by Walter Benjamin and Sigfried Kracauer — we get Nicholas Carr, with his embrace of neuroscience, or Douglas Rushkoff, with his biophysiological… Continue reading
The Malware
“This is not about being nice. It is about staying focused on our real goals and not letting ourselves be hijacked by other motives. Again, there is no formula for how to do this, but I think that striving to accurately understand the world of the CEO – what it is like to be them,… Continue reading
Peer production, disruption and the law – call for debates, essays and interviews
From The Journal of Peer Production – http://peerproduction.net We are now inviting contributions to this special edition of the Journal of Peer Production in the form of short essays of between 1000 and 3000 words to complement the longer peer reviewed articles that will appear in thisedition of the journal, due to be published in… Continue reading
Legislation and Finance for community ownership of renewable energy across Europe
Source: http://www.rescoop.eu/events/conference-legislation-and-finance-peoples-ownership-community-renewable-energy-across-europe Monday, 6 October, 2014 – 09:30 to 16:30 | Brussels, Belgium REScoop 20-20-20 in cooperation with Co-power and the European Union organises a conference on legislation and finance for people’s ownership of community renewable energy across Europe. Conference objectives We urgently need to change our energy system into one powered by renewable energy… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Social Lives of Networked Teens
It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd Description ‘What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens’ lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert danah boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens’… Continue reading
Leadership in the Age of Complexity: From Hero to Host
By Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze, 2010 – First published in Resurgence Magazine For too long, too many of us have been entranced by heroes. Perhaps it’s our desire to be saved, to not have to do the hard work, to rely on someone else to figure things out. Constantly we are barraged by politicians… Continue reading
Video: Jim Zemlin on the Importance of Foundations for Collaborative Technological Development and Economics
Jim Zemlin gave an excellent talk about the importance of foundations in facilitating collaborative development at the 2014 State of Linux conference. He focuses on the key role of FLOSS Foundations, such as the Linux Foundation, and their key role in facilitating open production. His main points: * A neutral home for collection and sharing… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Critical Introduction to Social Media
Christian Fuchs. Social Media. A Critical Introduction. Sage, 2014. URL = http://fuchs.uti.at/books/social-media-a-critical-introduction/ Description Now more than ever, we need to understand social media – the good as well as the bad. We need critical knowledge that helps us to navigate the controversies and contradictions of this complex digital media landscape. Only then can we make informed… Continue reading
The Art of Being Many | an assembly of assemblies
The Art Of Being Many – Trailer from Katharina Duve on Vimeo. Hamburg, September 25-28, 2014 End of September 2014 artists, activists, researchers and participants from all over Europe and beyond will gather in Hamburg for an assembly of assemblies. Sharing experiences from real-democracy-movements and artistic experimentation they want to explore new ways of coming… Continue reading
How Algorithmic Scheduling is complicating working lives and the parenting of the poor
Excerpted from the NYT: (worth reading the detailed working life profiles in detail) “Like increasing numbers of low-income mothers and fathers, Ms. Navarro is at the center of a new collision that pits sophisticated workplace technology against some fundamental requirements of parenting, with particularly harsh consequences for poor single mothers. Along with virtually every major… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Supply Shock
Book: Brian Czech. Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution. New Society Publishers. Review Wayne Hurlbert : “Brian Czech recognizes that politicians and economists who advocate constant economic growth have what they perceive as the best interest of the people at heart. The author points out that those same politicians and economists… Continue reading
Critique of political economy of water and the collaborative alternative
An thought-provoking critique on the political economy of water along with a collaborative, Commons-oriented proposal have been published at the European Water Movement website, by Kostas Nikolaou, member of the initiative K136. Kostas begins his article criticizing the current practices regarding the water management and the recent efforts to privatize another Commons so to… Continue reading
Storj – decentralized data storage will beat corporate cloud while substantially reducing cost
Storj (pronounced “storage”) is a p2p decentralised data storage system that makes use of people’s free computer hard disk space for secure low-cost cloud storage of data. Storj has its own crypto currency (SJCX) to pay incentives to users who give up storage space on their computers and who faithfully keep copies of files, returning… Continue reading
Growing a Resilient City – Possibilities for Collaboration in NYC’s Solidarity Economy
A new report by SolidarityNYC.org Growing a Resilient City SolidarityNYC Report
Book of the Day: Anthropological Trompe l’Oeil for a Common World
Anthropological trompe l’oeil for a common world. Alberto Corsin-Jimenez Description from publisher: Our political age is characterized by forms of description as ‘big’ as the world itself: talk of ‘public knowledge’ and ‘public goods,’ ‘the commons’ or ‘global justice’ create an exigency for modes of governance that leave little room for smallness itself. Rather than… Continue reading