In answer to the question posed in the title, I don’t think we can do much to reclaim our rights as producers of content and use value in netarchical platforms. However, we can work to raise awareness on the subject and help the shift toward real P2P platforms. This is already happening right now, with… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2014"
Book of the Day: Digital Solidarity
Book: Digital Solidarity. Felix Stalder. Mute Books and Post-Media Lab, 2013 Review “Felix Stalder’s extended essay, Digital Solidarity, takes its point of departure from the waves of new forms of networked political organisation which have met the onset of the global economic crisis of 2008. Following Karl Marx, Stalder lays out how in the… Continue reading
Spanish lawmakers to kill CC licensing
As usual, Spanish politicians react with fear and repression when confronted with the effects of new ways of sharing information: they are preparing a new law (to go with the ones restricting crowdfunding and services like AirBnB and Uber) to tax those who wish to share information freely. The pattern appears to be: existing industry… Continue reading
Call for Papers: The Materiality of the Immaterial: ICTs and the Digital Commons
CfP: tripleC-Special Issue “The Materiality of the Immaterial: ICTs and the Digital Commons” Special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique (http://www.triple-c.at) Abstract submission deadline: January 15, 2015 Guest editors: Vasilis Kostakis, Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), P2P Lab (Greece); Andreas Roos, Human Ecology Division, Lund University (Sweden)… Continue reading
Why is the world ignoring the revolutionary Kurds in Syria?
The PKK ‘has adopted the vision of “libertarian municipalism” calling for Kurds to create self-governing communities, based on principles of direct democracy’ Extract from the article by David Graeber http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis In 1937, my father volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic. A would-be fascist coup had been temporarily halted… Continue reading
Book of the Day: A Route Map to the Enabling State
A Route Map to the Enabling State. Sir John Elvidge. Carnegie UK Trust, 2014 URL = http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=5b79f25d-3771-4b28-8b28-22fadee2356a Description “The Carnegie UK Trust has been a supporter and advocate of community led initiatives and ‘bottom up’ approaches to decision making and development throughout our 100 year history. Whether it was our early support for rural… Continue reading
“To Grow Without Bureaucracy, Only Hire Fully Formed Adults…”
John Robb shares the winning formula that has allowed Netflix to reinvent itself three times. Apart from setting a very different example to the special interest group-led P2P witch hunts of the mainstream entertainment industry, there may be a lesson here regarding ongoing, more focused peer-production projects. The article was originally published in HomeFree America This… Continue reading
Podcast of the Day/C-Realm: March Then Flood
KMO shares a variety of interviews, along with his impressions on the pseudo-mainstream People’s Climate March and the wilder affair that was Flood Wall Street. Originally published at C-Realm.com From the Shownotes to the episode: KMO attended the People’s Climate March on Sunday and Flood Wall Street the next day. The first event was a permitted… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Mutual Ownership Revolution That Britain Needs
* Book: Making It Mutual. The ownership revolution that Britain needs. Edited by Caroline Julian. pdf: http://www.respublica.org.uk/documents/qrz_Making%20It%20Mutual_The%20ownership%20revolution%20that%20Britain%20needs.pdf Description “Diverse and devolved ownership, power and capital, alongside user, consumer and employee participation in governance and decision-making, are principles that we can all agree with. Unlike any other policy agenda, mutual, employee-owned and co-operative models, and their… Continue reading
Should we remain cognitive slaves ?
An older piece from John Robb, still very relevant: “The companies that have created the most new value in the last decade, are Internet companies like Facebook, Google, etc. They’ve created hundreds of billions in market value, driven by billions in financial profits. Good for them, but bad for us. Why? IF these companies represent… Continue reading
John Holloway on Changing the World Without Taking Power
John Holloway, a sociology professor in Mexico, recently gave an interview with Roar magazine suggesting how to introduce a new social and economic logic in the face of the mighty machine of neoliberal capitalism. Holloway’s idea, recapitulating themes from his previous book and 2002 thesis, is to build “cracks” in the system in which people… Continue reading
Pia Mancini: Upgrading democracy for the Internet era
Pia Mancini and her colleagues want to upgrade democracy for the Internet age. In this Ted talk she discusses their experience developing an open-source mobile platform to bring citizens inside the legislative process, the challenges they faced and their subsequent decision to start their own political party ‘Patido de la red’ and run candidates who… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Autopsy of an Island Currency
* Book: Autopsy of an Island Currency. By Nathalie Aubret et al. Pixelache, 2014 URL = http://www.pixelache.ac/autopsy/ (pdf) Description “This book documents and reflects on a long-term Pixelache project called Suomenlinna Money Lab, that tried to create an experimental local currency for the small island of Suomenlinna in Helsinki. It looks at the particular challenges faced… Continue reading
Beyond capitalism: not-for-profit business ethos motivates sustainable behaviour
For-profit capitalism has created social and economic inequality; successful not-for-profit businesses including Mozilla and the Big Issue point to an alternative path At the heart of the failing capitalist system is the “for-profit” ethic. Based on the myth that humans are mostly selfish and competitive, the for-profit ethic says the best way to incentivise innovation… Continue reading
Recreating Collective Meaning: Unravelling the Collaborative Economy – A Dissertation by Felipe Cunha
I am delighted to be able to introduce this new dissertation Recreating Collective Meaning: An Unravelling of the Collaborative Economy through the Sensibility of Culture. Felipe, who is Brazilian, recently graduated in the Economics for Transition masters degree from Schumacher College, and in this dissertation he describes the essential focus of his enquiry as: In… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Acquisitive Society
Book: The Acquisitive Society. R.H. Tawney. Full access= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33741/33741-h/33741-h.htm Description Pat Conaty: “In his brilliant book the Acquisitive Society, written about 1920, RH Tawney argues that Democracy is an evolutionary construct emerging to greater fullness over the past 1100 years. The first phase of this evolution is the charter to trade in exchange for… Continue reading