Shareable’s Darren Sharp writes about recent international developments in the Sharing Cities phenomenon. At Shareable we’ve been advocating for Sharing Cities over the last four years through a range of world-leading initiatives that re-frame the conversation around important questions of shared resources, shared ownership of p2p platforms, the urban commons, and economic justice. We launched the Sharing Cities Network (SCN), a… Continue reading
Date archives "September 2015"
Essay of the Day: Distributed Authorship and Creative Communities
We’re very happy to present this paper, featuring a contribution from our associate Penny Travlou. Biggs, Simon and Travlou, Penny (2015) “Distributed Authorship and Creative Communities”, in Scott Retteberg, Patricia Tomaszek and Sandy Baldwin (eds) Electronic Literature Communities. Morgantown, WV: Computing Literature, The Center for Literacy Computing, pp. 29-44 In its requirement for both… Continue reading
Civil society calls for reform of trialogues in a letter to EU Commission, Parliament and Council
European Parliament President Martin Schulz European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Secretary-General of the Council Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen CC: European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly 30 September 2015 Dear President Schulz, President Juncker, Secretary-General Tranholm-Mikkelsen, We, the undersigned organisations, hereby express our concern regarding the pervasive use of so-called “trialogue” negotiations within the EU decision-making process. It is… Continue reading
From Commons to Commonism, a report from the Solikon 2015 solidarity economy conference
A Conference Report from Birgit Daiber: “Since some years the „Forum für solidarische Ökonomie“ (www.solidarische-oekonomie.de) is organising national conferences on solidarity economy in Germany. This year it took place in Berlin (10/13/9) under the headline “Solidarity Economy and Transformation” (www.solikon2015.org). While in the past it was more or less a commemoration of veteran performers, there… Continue reading
Vinay Gupta About the Blockchain Technologies as Alternatives for the Incompetence of the State Form
Really brilliant presentation, strongly recommended:
Where’s the missing part, Naomi Klein? Ask Pope Francis and Mohammed Mesbahi
The latest book by Naomi Klein is essentially a call to share the world’s resources, but its thesis on social transformation is missing a crucial factor: a profound awareness of the reality of hunger and life-threatening deprivation. While Pope Francis’ recent encyclical calls on us to prioritise this global emergency in our efforts to combat… Continue reading
What might a driver-owned Uber look like?
Excerpted from Nic Wistreich: (the latest and updated version of the article with graphics is available here) “There’s at least three options… 1. Like Uber/Lyft/etc, but a giant Coop. A logical starting point would be simply to recreate Uber/Lyft/etc, with their global network of offices, drivers, marketing and technical infrastructure, as a driver-owned coop, operating… Continue reading
Volkswagen Scandal Confirms the Dangers of Proprietary Code
There is one notable aspect to the Volkswagen emission-cheating scandal that few commentators have mentioned: It would not have happened if the software for the pollution-control equipment had been open source. Volkswagen knew it could defraud consumers and deceive regulators precisely because its software was closed, proprietary and legally protected from outside scrutiny. Hardly anyone… Continue reading
Essay: Can capitalism reform itself and move towards a p2p society?
P2P & INOVAÇÃO is a new journal linked Grupo de Pesquisa Economias colaborativas e produção P2P no Brasil (Collaborative Economy and P2P Production in Brazil Research Group) from Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (IBICT). The second volume has just been published and includes, amongst others, articles authored by P2P Foundation collaborators. This… Continue reading
Debating how to protect and share the commons
The latest discussion among members of the Great Transition Initiative focuses on a pragmatic institutional innovation for protecting and sharing co-owned resources, as outlined in an incisive article by Peter Barnes on Common Wealth Trusts. In response to Barnes’s contribution to this vital debate, STWR’s Rajesh Makwana argues that we must not shy away from the need… Continue reading
Common Wealth Trusts as an Answer to Enclosure
Peter Barnes, an old colleague of mine who writes about the commons from an economic perspective, recently published an essay about “common wealth trusts” as a structure to be used in transitioning to a new economy. The essay, on the Great Transition Initiative website, recapitulates and extends an idea that Barnes has written about in… Continue reading
How to hack the mainstream discourse on ending poverty
The Rules team have initiated an ambitious campaign to ‘hack’ the official logic of the Sustainable Development Goals, in which they highlight the true reality of poverty and point the way towards real solutions for a fair and sustainable world. In less than three weeks’ time, the world’s heads of state will gather at the… Continue reading
Bernie Sanders speaks at Liberty University
Extract from The Guardian: On Monday (September 14 2015), Bernie Sanders sought to reach across the political chasm that divides liberal America from evangelical conservatives. At Liberty University in southern Virginia, the Vermont senator spoke to Christian students, urging them to find common ground with him on issues of poverty and social injustice. Quoting from… Continue reading
Jean Lievens’ Introduction to Michel Bauwens’ “Sauver Le Monde” (original title: De wereld redden)
With thanks to Sam Kinsley who translated this introduction and put it on his blog on September 23 2015 Sam Kinsley translated also Bernard Stiegler’s Preface and Dirk Holeman’s Postface to Michel Bauwens and Jean Lievens’ book Sauver le Monde: Vers une société post-capitaliste avec le peer-to-peer [To Save the World: towards a post-capitalist society… Continue reading
John McDonnell: democratic and policy innovation comes from the grassroots
Labour’s new Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell speaks to Jon Snow about proposed policy approaches after the internal Labour Party election victory of Jeremy Corbyn, with half a million new members. McDonnell calls for local citizen assemblies to start working on participatory budgets. Watch this interesting video here:
The strategy of las Indias for the new year (which begins in October)
Three axis: To give those around us a space to contribute and collaborate, to co-produce with more people, and to provide an integral education for a good life. Yesterday we had an intense morning meeting with Juan. It was time to catch up and discuss the beginning of our plan for the next Indiano year… Continue reading