By David Charles The IT industry is founded on systematic exploitation, from the mining of raw materials right through to the way we dispose of our old technology. Why is the industry so exploitative? The usual hoary reason: profit. Companies don’t pay sufficient attention to the ethical consequences of their entire supply chain or the… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2015"
Call for an Internet Social Forum
Call for an Internet Social Forum The Internet belongs to all people – Let’s occupy it More and more, the Internet is the place where we meet up with our friends, get information, organise work, store our pictures and texts, do our banking, see videos, buy tickets and get public services. As we use the… Continue reading
Lost in Transition? Join the global collaborative economy @OuiShareFest May 20-22 in Paris
OuiShare Fest is an annual event uniting the global collaborative economy community for three days of conference, co-creating and connecting. The 2015 edition, themed “Lost in Transition?”, will take place at the Cabaret Sauvage, Paris, from May 20-22. In its 3rd year, the program will feature inspiring speakers and thought leaders such as Jeremiah Owyang,… Continue reading
The emerging relationship between the state and a commons-based civil society
An emerging relationship between the state and a commons-based civil society is starting to challenge the narrow thinking of the UK’s main political parties By Jonathan Dawson for the Guardian I have always been attracted to the notion that disruption to powerful systems comes not from the heart of the empire, but from the margins…. Continue reading
Cooperation Unbound: a reciprocal model for democratic education
By Henry Tam The problem with undemocratic institutions – be they the government of a country or a business – is that they do the bidding of those in charge at the top, without being accountable to others who have to live with the consequences of their actions. One of the most notable features of… Continue reading
How does real change occur? P2P Theory vs. socialist theory
This article was originally published on this blog in 2009 Marxism, and other forms of socialism based on a ‘a priori’ political struggle to take power and achieve change ‘afterwards’, are in my opinion wrong in their understanding of how fundamental social change can be achieved. I would summarize my interpretation of their key ideas… Continue reading
New strategies for legal order: is collaborative governance the way to go?
Source: http://www.labgov.it/new-strategies-for-legality-can-we-achieve-this-goal-by-collaborative-governance/ On March 17th, 2015, LabGov will host the Conference Land and new forms of legal order at LUISS University of Rome. The Conference – that will start at 4:30 PM in Aula Nocco, Via Parenzo 11, LUISS School of Law – will address the issue of collaborative governance for the commons as a tool to fight… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Democratizing Wealth for Building a Citizens’ Economy
* e-Book: Democratic Wealth: Building a Citizens’ Economy. Ed. by Stuart White, and Niki Sethi-Smith. openDemocracy and Politics in Spires, 2014 URL = http://www.scribd.com/doc/211019686/Democratic-Wealth Description “Democratic Wealth’ is a collection of essays that challenges the poverty of thinking around economic policy, particularly after the 2007 financial crash. It explores the renewed interest in republicanism… Continue reading
Own the change
A few days ago Shareable published a post about a new documentary that seeks to promote cooperativism and show how local economies based on cooperatives contribute to creating more resilient surroundings. It’s noteworthy in the first minutes of the documentary that the main idea, the drive shaft that connects pieces of the story, is none… Continue reading
The Future of Protest
During the fall of 2011, when Occupy Wall Street inhabited a chunk of New York’s Financial District, many of us reporters found ourselves especially fascinated with the media center on the northeast end, a huddle of laptops and generators surrounded (at first) by a phalanx of bikes. I spent a lot of time there myself…. Continue reading
Michel Bauwens #Lausanne #Geneve 19th – 21st March
See Also – http://www.ville-geneve.ch/agenda/detail/agenda/conference-debat-economie-collaborative/
An inevitable collision: Centralizing networks against personal autonomy
In recent years we have been through “a zombie attack” against the socialization and culture born in the Internet. This is known as the stage of recentralization, whose best-known proponent is the FbT-model. This is a socialization model that cut off conversations, wherever they took root, and the birth of new identities and the abundance… Continue reading
Defending Free Software Against Privatizers
How can you protect a commons of software code from free riders who attempt to take it private for their commercial gain? The traditional answer has been copyright-based licenses such as the General Public License, a legendary legal hack on copyright law that ensures the perpetual “shareability” of all licensed code. The GPL requires that… Continue reading
Reductionism Undermines Both Science and Culture
By Ramray Bhat and Nikos Salingaros. Original text here. Introduction Reductionistic thinking, which is the philosophy of contracting complex systems in science and society to smaller or single causalities, is dangerous. With this contraction comes an indifference towards uncovering and appreciating complex explanations and the variability contributed by the context. In the sciences, reductionism leads to… Continue reading
Integral Urbanism, by Nan Ellin (Book)
Nan Ellin says that “Urban design success should be measured by its capacity to support humanity”, and “an Integral Urbanism offers guideposts along that path toward a more sustainable human habitat.” To accomplish this, Integral Urbanism must embody five qualities: Hybridity, Connectivity, Porosity, Authenticity, and Vulnerability. The author briefly summarizes the definition of these terms… Continue reading
Reflections on the future of the sharing economy
At a time when inequality is on the rise and nations are failing to reduce global carbon emissions, what does the future hold for the sharing economy movement unless it mobilises to reform government policies that are the root cause of climate change and socio-economic exclusion? Evidence suggests that most sharing economy activities attract mainly… Continue reading