The excellent Re-Decentralize project presents: “A collection of interesting new networks and tech aiming at decentralisation (in some form).” It includes well-known projects such as Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside some lesser known but up-and-coming things like sandstorm.io and OpenBazaar. Well worth a look; maybe your next project could be less reliant on centralised tech than… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2015"
Impact Economy 2015: A conversation with the Canadian community development activist, Mike Lewis
Tammy Lea Meyer interviewed both Mike Lewis and myself in the very interesting conference on the Impact Economy that took place in Whistler, Canada, thanks to the great efforts of Caroline Smalley and others. Watch the video here:
Video: atmospherics on the Collaborative Economy at OuiShare Fest 2015, Paris
Well done selection of thought-provoking quotes: “DOCU is a documentary film format produced by Nefula to explore Curious Rituals, New Normals and Possible Futures through the faces and the opinions of artists, researchers, designers, scientists, thinkers and activists from all over the World.” Watch the video here:
Douglas Rushkoff: What I think about Uber
Sent by email by Douglas Rushkoff: “My problem with Uber all along has been that it’s optimized for a really specific utility, but at the expense of others. It’s a bit like online universities, which offer courses isolated from the fabric of education or a learning community. That’s the nature of any digital business: you… Continue reading
3 Highlights from the Somero Sharing Cities conference 2015 in Gijon, Spain
Shareable’s Neal Gorenflo recounts the high points of the recent Somero 2015 event in Gijón Spain. Here’s the original article Somero 2015’s five days of workshops, hackathons, and keynotes concluded successfully last Sunday. Hosted by Las Indias Coop, Shareable, the Free Software Foundation, the Gijon town council, and the Spanish government, one of Somero 2015’s… Continue reading
Ubiquitous Commons Imagines a P2P Revolution in Rural Italy
Reposted from Shareable, Anna Bergren Miller gives us the latest from the ever-active Ubiquitous Commons crew. The commons are in the midst of a “double transition,” write Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico, the team behind projects including Art is Open Source, Human Ecosystems, and, most recently, Ubiquitous Commons. On the one hand, the resources at… Continue reading
Voices of the Impact Economy: Marty Frost on Cooperatives
In this podcast, Tammy Lea Meyer chats with Marty Frost on Cooperatives. Learn more about Impact Economy October 5-9, 2015 in Whistler, B.C. Canada here: impacteconomy.io Watch the video here:
From Firms to Platforms to Commons
Republished from Esko Kilpi: “Many people see peer-to-peer platforms as game changers in the world of work with the potential of reinventing the economy and giving individuals the power of the corporation. Others are sceptical and warn that the new architectures of participation and choice are in reality architectures of exploitation, giving rise to a… Continue reading
A Holonic Resource Planner for Open Value Networks Using the Blockchain
Lawrence Qholloi presents an important project in the context of a biomimicry design award: This project is “an open source software design to the Biomimicry Global Food Systems Design Challenge and we made it to the finals. Even though it is a food systems challenge, the design is applicable to any kind of commons based… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Towards Social Plastic with the Plastic Bank currency
Interesting recycling project: “The Plastic Bank is turning plastic waste into a currency that can be exchanged to help lift people out of poverty & transition them into a self-sustaining life of entrepreneurship. We are setting up re-purposing / exchange centers for plastic waste in area that have high concentration of poverty and plastic pollution…. Continue reading
What is the coming Fourth Singularity of our universe ?
There will soon be four singularities of the universe, building on the achievements of the first three, argues Olivier Auber in a brilliant essay. Some backgrond first: – the first Singularity of the Universe (the alleged Big Bang). – the second Singularity that took place on earth and probably on billions of other planets: the… Continue reading
The Ten Commandments of Peer Production and Commons Economics
This is an important synthesis of ten years of research at the P2P Foundation, on the emerging practices of the new productive communities and the ethical entrepreneurial coalitions that create livelihoods for shared resources. I’m working with Neal Gorenflo of Shareable on a more accessible version for a broader public, but this one is for… Continue reading
Yanis Varoufakis: on the ‘platonic’ contempt for democracy in the Euro-group
Great presentation by the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, on the democracy deficit in EU institutions. Watch the video here:
Bologna. The relational ecosystems of the city becomes a commons
Human Ecosystems (HE) is an international city based project running from 2013. Its main goal is to explore the mutation of public spaces in cities, designing performative strategies to promote citizen participation and ubiquitous, peer-to-peer innovation processes, in which citizens and other types of urban dwellers are able to use the city’s infoscape: its informational landscape. The project… Continue reading
Freedom of Expression vs Access to Information

Freedom of expression is the right to not suffer retaliation for what is said or published but it does not give us the right to force anyone to listen, publish or disseminate what we say. The perverse effects that private monopolies like Twitter, Facebook or Google are having on the global conversation and the right… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Oligarchies of the World Unite
* Essay: Oligarchies of the World Unite. By Kees van der Pijl. From the Abstract: “The argument of this paper is that after the crisis of 2008 which has turned into an enduring stagnation amidst proliferating violence, capitalist property relations are increasingly being upheld by authoritarian means. The mode of production and social organisation, including… Continue reading