Global Direct aims to inspire a vision of a concrete global civilization, through creatively structuring participatory governance. Today, global networked connectivity has enabled new forms of participatory societal organization. However, there are still a lack of prototypes for models that can efficiently work towards a new type of autonomous global democracy. Issues such as economic… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2015"
Are Open Data and Democratised Technologies Political Neutral? Call for Papers
2015 Conference of Irish Geographers Queens University Belfast, 21-24 May 2015. – Call for papers closes – 20 March 2015 Themed session: Calculated Spaces: small data, big data, open data and data infrastructures The promise of big and open data and data infrastructures is for greater evidence based decision making, informed policy, and efficient management. … Continue reading
Introducing the Commons Transition Web Platform
Today the P2P Foundation proudly presents The Commons Transition Platform. Commons Transition is a database of practical experiences and policy proposals aimed toward achieving a more humane and environmentally grounded mode of societal organization. Basing a civil society on the Commons (including the collaborative stewardship of our shared resources) would enable a more egalitarian, just,… Continue reading
We start from Greece – We change Europe
An international solidarity campaign of hope against fear By Solidarity4All Dear All The forthcoming elections in Greece promise a hopeful New Year start. The ‘panic’ over the weakest link named Greece haunts once more the European (and not only) elites. Even more so, as the possibility for a break with the Troika regime and austerity… Continue reading
P2P Agri-food Projectfest (2): FarmBot, open source automated farming machine
* FarmBot is humanity’s open-source automated farming machine. Our vision is to grow food for everyone and allow everyone to grow food”. The project describes its Mission as: “Produce free and open-source hardware plans, software, data, and documentation such that anyone can build and operate a farming machine. “Since time immemorial, farmers have benefited from… Continue reading
Desktop Regulatory State Chapter Nine: Open-Source Labor Board
Chapter Nine — The Open-Source Labor Board [This is the fourteenth installment in my serialization of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] , taken from Chapter Nine. Because I have split some chapters into multiple new ones since the previously posted excerpts, there is a loss of continuity in numbering. The current Table of… Continue reading
How Cryptocurrency Could Change the Sharing Economy
A coherent overview by Danny Bradbury at coindesk.com of the place of cryptocurrencies in the ‘sharing economy’, including the vital clarification that what calls itself ‘sharing’ is often a centralised system seeking to profit from otherwise peer-to-peer transactions; what Michel Bauwens calls ‘netarchical’ organisation. The author suggests that cryptocurrencies could be the missing piece in… Continue reading
Policies for a grounded city (2)
Follow up of our article on January 4. Excerpted from Ewald Engelen, Sukhdev Johal, Angelo Salento and Karel Williams: “Here are two new directions and some recommendations for city policy: 1. Invest unshowily in improving the supply of foundational services in specific and locally relevant ways (instead of promoting the ostentation of iconic buildings and… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Sylvia Libow Martinez on Using Arduino for Education
Facilitated by Howard Rheingold. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_XNaf0gAC_E
On the tension between prefigurative and strategic politics
The original article contains many interesting references to the lessons from the struggles of the 1960’s in the U.S. Excerpted from Mark Engler and Paul Engler: “It is an old question in social movements: Should we fight the system or “be the change we wish to see”? Should we push for transformation within existing institutions,… Continue reading
David Korten and David Graeber on the origins of the modern corporation
Two interesting excerpts to show that the corporation is not an eternal form. Excerpted from David Korten: “Buccaneer is a colorful name for the pirates of old who pursued personal fortune with rules of their own making. They were, in their time, an iconic expression of “free market” capitalism. Privateers were buccaneers to whom a… Continue reading
Cooperation and the Commons 2014 in Review
At this time last year, I had just arrived in Ecuador as a researcher for the FLOK Society Project at the National Institute for Advanced Studies (IAEN). I was part of an international research team that had been recruited to develop policies for a “social knowledge economy” that could transform Ecuador’s productive matrix away from… Continue reading
P2P Agri-food Projectfest (1): Growstuff in Melbourne
* 1. Growstuff is “an open source social network for gardeners. Includes a tool to record and share our harvests, and to show how much food is being grown in urban and suburban gardens.” John McKenzie from Permaculture Melbourne writes: “We want to find what the best gardeners can produce on their plots of land…. Continue reading
Desktop Regulatory State: The Assurance Commons (Excerpt of Chapter Eight)
Chapter Eight — Fundamental Infrastructures: The Assurance Commons [This is the thirteenth installment in my serialization of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] , taken from Chapter Eight. Because I have split some chapters into multiple new ones since the previously posted excerpts, there is a loss of continuity in numbering. The current Table… Continue reading
Towards a Grounded City (1)
“A city committed to making access to foundational goods and services more widely available to citizens; and does so, without restricting the privileges of citizenship to a narrow group.” “Four leading academics propose the ‘grounded city’ – where sustainable transport, accessible broadband and modest housing take precedence over ostentatious tower blocks” Excerpted from Ewald Engelen,… Continue reading
Community-driven peer production and permaculture in Detroit
“Permaculture initiatives are indeed popping up throughout the city — including the Chiwara development in Highland Park that Dennis Archambault covered in Model D a few weeks ago. My search for other noteworthy projects led me to Blair Evans, whose organization Incite Focus, a “platform for community production,” demonstrates the revolutionary potential of applying permaculture… Continue reading