Date archives "October 2015"

The Commons Strategies Group in Berlin: 800 Years of Commoning

A summary from the Commons Strategies Group recent event in Berlin. Originally published in the Böll Foundation website. Two noted activists, David Bollier and Michel Bauwens of the Commons Strategies Group/P2P Foundation, discussed the role of the commons and peer to peer production in meeting people’s needs and the many enclosures of the commons that… Continue reading

Platform cooperativism: bringing together new technology with the long history of democratic, cooperative enterprise

Excerpted from Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider: (The authors are co-organizers of “Platform Cooperativism: The Internet, Ownership, Democracy” at the New School on November 13-14.) “Companies like Uber now tend to describe what they do as the “on-demand economy” rather than “sharing.” But there is also a movement underway to create a real sharing economy… Continue reading

Las Indias: The Anchovies become a club

The League of the Anchovy changes its statutes, name, and logo to become a tool for the network that was born over this last year.   A little more than a year ago, we took a radical turn: we refounded our life-long association, the Library of the Indies. With Juan Urrutia, Neal Gorenflo, Matt Scales,… Continue reading

A world of unethical objects is upon us

We exceptionally republish the whole article by Marcelo Rinesi: “Volkswagen didn’t make a faulty car: they programmed it to cheat intelligently. The difference isn’t semantics, it’s game-theoretical (and it borders on applied demonology). Regulatory practices assume untrustworthy humans living in a reliable universe. People will be tempted to lie if they think the benefits outweigh… Continue reading

Scaffolds of an Intentional Tech Movement

A guest post by Alexa Clay. This past weekend at the Berlin Future Forum (BFF), a conference bringing together creative artists and entrepreneurs, technologists and spiritualists, an agenda crystallized for me that has been nagging at me for some time: what are the conditions for a more intentional technology movement? As some of you know,… Continue reading

Video: Migrants and their commoning

One of the interesting talks at the IdeaCamp 2015, dedicated to the urban commons and organized by the European Cultural Foundation: “During the 2015 edition of the Idea Camp, Dr. Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe has given an Idea Talk entitled ‘When Commoning Strategies Travel’. Dr. Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe, a London-born urban anthropologist with Nigerian-Irish/English-Guyanese roots, dedicates… Continue reading

The history, present status and future potential of the Network Commons

Excerpted from Armin Medosch: “At the moment of the demise of the New Economy, a new cycle started with new projects and new ideas. In London in the year 2000, and in Athens independently from London, two years later, movements started to build wireless community networks. Using a license exempt part of the electromagnetic spectrum… Continue reading

POC21: Eco-hacking a Fossil-Free, Collaborative Future

At the upcoming COP Summit in Paris (the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), no one expects the world’s governments to make serious headway against global climate change. Neoliberal-obsessed governments are more concerned with propping up collapsing capitalist structures than in reducing carbon emissions (which have doubled over the past generation).  Corporations are more intent… Continue reading

Now Organizing: A Chicago Chamber of Commons

The coming together of commons-oriented projects seems to be intensifying.  Even as the Le Temps des Communes festival in dozens of Francophone cities convenes thousands of commoners, an organizing meeting for a Chicago Chamber of Commons in planned for Saturday, October 10. (You can register for the event here.) This idea has been kicking around… Continue reading

The Future of Work: Owning What We Share

The latest entry in a special project in which business and labor leaders, social scientists, technology visionaries, activists, and journalists weigh in on the most consequential changes in the workplace. The culture surrounding the Internet has a way of changing the meanings of common words. “Democratizing” now means that more people can book air travel… Continue reading

Sustainable Development: Something New or More of the Same?

Two years ago when he was 14, my son Matthew grew six inches. Last year he only grew two inches, and this year he has only grown half an inch. Should I be worried? Of course not. At a certain stage of maturity, quantifiable physical growth slows and stops, and a new mode of development… Continue reading