In the wake of the financial crisis and with the rapid rise of new technologies, award-winning economist and journalist, Paul Mason, believes we are on the cusp of a seismic economic shift, of a kind yet to be seen in human history.
Date archives "September 2015"
Video: nine different sharing movements thought leaders on what a real sharing economy would look like
Via the NewCommonSense Channel, reporting from the Ouishare Fest 2015: “What do we all share? 9 thought leaders from different movements/entities answer. with: Rob Hopkins, Sara Horowitz, Neal Gorenflo, Lisa Gansky, Michel Bauwens, Pia Mancini, Albert Canigueral, Kathleen Stokes, Javier Creus.” Watch the video here:
Alanna Krause on How to Grow Distributed Leadership
“A truly collaborative environment is one that’s full of diverse leaders. The ultimate success is growing so much leadership that you make yourself obsolete.” Excerpted from Alanna Krause: “In a pyramidal organisational structure, it’s clear who is in charge: leadership is concentrated at the top. But what if your community or organisation is less like… Continue reading
Platform cooperativism instead of netarchical capitalism: imagining a sharing platform owned by its workers and users
“The goal is not to enforce a rigid orthodoxy. Rather, it’s to have a world in which a can-do young entrepreneur—the kind who wants nothing more than to create something new and excellent—will conclude that the best way to proceed is to practice democracy.” Excerpted from Nathan Schneider, one of the co-organizers of the Platform… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Transition Policies for Distributed Energy
* Article: Transforming the energy matrix: Transition Policies for the Development of the Distributed Energy Model. by George Dafermos, Panos Kotsampopoulos, et al. Part of a special issue of the Journal of Peer Production, on the Policies for the Commons. Here is the abstract followed by some excerpts: * Abstract “This policy paper examines the… Continue reading
Biomedical patents reduce innovation by 30%
Is intellectual property necessary for innovation? Is it counterproductive? For the first time, the publication of significant quantities of evidence from the Human Genome Project demonstrates the latter. As much as the official discourse would like it to be, the debate on intellectual property is not about whether authors or inventors would earn the same… Continue reading
Grassroots in Greece
Mehran Khalili, who lives is Greece, is a photojournalist and political communications expert. In last December he delivered a presentation for the Orange Grove on grassroots groups (here you may find the transcript). The grassroots revival of Greece? from Mehran Khalili on Vimeo.
Why Free Money Day Makes You Richer
A contribution from Tegan Tallullah, co-director and blog manager of the Post Growth Institute, one of our Commons Transition Partner Projects. In a world where hoarding wealth is considered the norm, giving money to complete strangers, with no strings attached, seems like a radical idea. Yet, for the hundreds who have taken part in Free… Continue reading
The Strategic Value of Developing Law for the Commons, Final Parts
Below are the final sections of the memo, “Reinventing Law for the Commons,” whose three earlier parts were excerpted over the past several days. The wiki of examples in Part II can be found on the Commons Transition website, and the final document can be downloaded here. III. The Strategic Value of Developing Law… Continue reading
Michel Bauwens at Queens University Belfast Sept 17th
Transition to a PostCarbon World: The New Social Economy
An introduction to the Institutions of Open Source
Excerpted from Lars Zimmermann: “What institutions allow or support open source development? And what is their current state? Here is an (probably incomplete) list. Feel free to add things in the comments or via email to me. The list is followed by a short discussion of each institution. * READ ME FIRST Files * Licenses… Continue reading
Essay of the day: Towards a political ecology of the digital economy
Towards a political ecology of the digital economy: Socio-environmental implications of two competing value models. By Vasilis Kostakis, Andreas Roos and Michel Bauwens. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2015. Abstract This article explores the socio-environmental implications of two different value models currently competing for dominance in the digital economy: the neo-feudal cognitive capitalism (NFCC) and… Continue reading
Project of the Day: the Dyndy open currency project
Dyndy is an online lab providing tools, practices and experiences for the conceptualization, development and deployment of currency, maintained by the hacker Jaromil and others. The site was last updated in May 2015. Here is the self-description of the project: “DYNDY is an effort at building a Pattern Language for Alternative and Complementary Money Systems… Continue reading
The ethics and politics of abundance
While there is no “politics of abundance,” no theory of the State, there does exist the possibility of living in accordance with an ethic of abundance, an ethic that contributes to emancipation from scarcity and uncertainty. Until recently, the words “progress” and “progressive” reflected a relationship with concretely making abundance. “Progress” was that which advanced… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Medieval Hackers by Kathleen Kennedy
The Medieval Review 15.08.29 http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/19629/25716 Kennedy, Kathleen E. Medieval Hackers. Brooklyn, NY: Punctum Books, 2015. pp. 168. $19.00 (paperback) free (ebook). ISBN: 978-0692352465 (paperback). [download here: http://punctumbooks.com/titles/medieval-hackers/ ] Reviewed by: John C. Ford Champollion University [email protected] The basic premise of Kathleen E. Kennedy’s intriguing volume Medieval Hackers is that modern computer hackers are essentially the… Continue reading
A Proposed Strategy for the Commons Movement in 2015
Michel Bauwens, Galway, August 31, 2015: “What do we need to work on NOW ? We are definitely going to a period of dislocation in 2015. The Greek debacle has shown the difficulty of any strategy based on national sovereignty and the end of any real political democracy for European nations ; the difficulties in… Continue reading