Date archives "December 2014"

Desktop Regulatory State, Chapter Seven (First Excerpt): on education and credentialling

Chapter Seven. Fundamental Infrastructures: Education and Credentialing [This is the eleventh installment in my serialization of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] , and the first of two installments on Chapter Seven. Because I have split some chapters into multiple new ones since the previously posted excerpts, there is a loss of continuity in… Continue reading

Co-operative Commonwealth: De-commodifying Land and Money Part 2

Today we present part 2 from Co-operative Commonwealth: De-commodifying Land and Money a paper prepared by Pat Conaty for the 13th International Karl Polanyi Conference at Concordia University, Montreal on 6-8 November 2014. Pat is research associate of Co-operatives UK, a Fellow of New Economics Foundation and author with Mike Lewis of The Resilience Imperative… Continue reading

A Critical Review by Brian Holmes of the “Network Society’ book by Bauwens / Kostakis

A great but critical review by Brian Holmes: “Thanks for this book, Michel and Vasilis. “Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy” is exceedingly timely and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Commons specifically, or in political economy more generally. In response, I’ve written something in between a review and a letter to… Continue reading

A positive evaluation of Occupy as prefigurative practice

From an interview conducted by John Wisniewski: R.C. Smith: “Robert you believe that the Occupy Movement was a success. How did Occupy try to change our ideas about power? Occupy_heartsRCS: This is a fantastic question. Let me first start with a few comments regarding the apparent ‘success’ of Occupy, as I think this will lead… Continue reading

The Role of Money in the Desktop Regulatory State, part 2 (Chapter Six — Second Excerpt)

Chapter Six — Fundamental Infrastructures: Money [This is the tenth installment in my serialization of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] , and the second of two installments on Chapter Six. Because I have split some chapters into multiple new ones since the previously posted excerpts, there is a loss of continuity in numbering…. Continue reading

P2P ProjectFest: Five interesting initiatives (1)

* Project 1: Community CarShare, a local non-profit carsharing co-operative “Community CarShare operates a fleet of 37 vehicles, available to members on a self-serve, pay-per-use basis. Benefits include: saving money on transportation, reducing your carbon footprint, and helping to build a sustainable community. The co-op currently serves Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Elmira, Guelph, and St. Catharines, with… Continue reading

Co-operative Commonwealth: De-commodifying Land and Money Part 1

Today we present the first of 3 parts from Co-operative Commonwealth: De-commodifying Land and Money a paper prepared by Pat Conaty for the 13th International Karl Polanyi Conference at Concordia University, Montreal on 6-8 November 2014. Pat is research associate of Co-operatives UK, a Fellow of New Economics Foundation and author with Mike Lewis of… Continue reading

Video: A documentary on P2P Mesh Networks in the Sarantaporo area of Greece

With English subtitles, an important announcement: “The project is about creating a wireless networking infrastructure as a commons and building a community around it. It is not just about bringing the Internet to remote areas. Locals are already participating in and are offering their premises for infrastructure deployment, forming local support groups in which they… Continue reading

Researching P2P Value (1): Interview with researcher Karthik Iyer

The P2P Foundation participates in a EU-funded research project on value in contributory communities called P2P Value. Here is a first interview with a researcher connected to the P2P Foundation network, Karthik Iyer: “1. Can you re-introduce the P2P Value project to our readers and explain your part in it ? What stage is the… Continue reading

Video of the Day: Janelle Orsi on the Role of Cooperatives in Resilience and Sustainability

“Community-supported enterprise + cooperatives + local investing + social enterprise + local currencies + micro-enterprise + sharing … these all adds up to LOCAL, RESILIENT ECONOMIES, that much we know. But it’s difficult, even SCARY, to picture how we’ll get there. The more our economy falters, the more we feel stuck: Stuck in jobs we… Continue reading

The Role of Money in the Desktop Regulatory State (Chapter Six — First Excerpt)

Chapter Six — Fundamental Infrastructures: Money [This is the ninth installment in my serialization of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] , and the first of two installments on Chapter Six. Since this is a draft manuscript, it contains placeholders for additional material. Because I have split some chapters into multiple new ones since… Continue reading