David Solomonoff, who monitors the intersection between the real and the virtual, cites the article by David Morris (in Aeon magazine) who writes about the Decentralized Autonomous Corporations that operate with minimal human intervention after being put in motion: “In the allegedly imminent world of the Internet of Things … these autonomous cloud robots will… Continue reading
Date archives "December 2015"
RE:PUBLICA 2016
We republish the announcement: RE:PUBLICA 2016 re:publica is Europe’s largest and most prominent conference on the future of society and all things digital. The annual event attracts over 7,000 participants but has preserved an open and familiar atmosphere, a high-level conference with a festival feel. In 2016, re:publica will take place in Berlin, Germany, from… Continue reading
Democratizing rent extraction is all but true disruption
“The more you disrupt banking, or trading, or asset management, the cheaper and easier it becomes for anyone to set themselves as a bank or trading shop. That makes it much more profitable for a far greater number of individual firms to enter the rent extraction business. The size of the rent extraction footprint doesn’t… Continue reading
Video: David Kim on Imagining Radical Love
In-depth conversation about the role of love in the engaged life, a conversation with David Kim for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Watch the video here:
Commons Strategies Group: The Website!
I’m thrilled to report that the Commons Strategies Group finally has its own handsome, up-to-date website! Whenever anyone asks me about the commons work that I’ve been doing over the past five or six years – and that of my dear colleagues Silke Helfrich and Michel Bauwens – I can now point them to this… Continue reading
Principles of Social Permaculture
Excerpted from LISA DEPIANO: “I came to permaculture via community organizing in the global justice movement and drew many connections between what I had learned about being a good organizer and the permaculture principles. The following is a list of 10 permaculture principles with an example of social permaculture in action. This was developed in… Continue reading
Video: Hazel Henderson on going towards a systems view of economics
Clear explanation of why we need to move beyond GDP-based economics. Watch the video here:
Scaling in the digital economy
Excerpted from Dizzynomics: “The digital economy, like the financial industry, has been profoundly useful in encouraging smarter distribution and matching of other people’s specialisations vis-a-vis their wants and needs. When done well, this becomes a service that allows society to organise itself more efficiently, growing the pie for everyone. It — the service — even… Continue reading
Book Review: Scaffolding For A Sustainable P2P Humanity
‘Scaffolding For A Sustainable P2P Humanity‘ by Nicolas Stampf is a work-in-progress collaborative book on gitbook dealing with the application of systems thinking (VSM etc) to P2P infrastructures. It is fairly general at this point, e.g.: ‘using systems thinking to architect a strength-based systemic global P2P organization aimed at identifying, interconnecting, amplifying and refracting successful… Continue reading
Video: Deconstructing the deceptions of the Singularity University
I will attempt to deconstruct Singularity University’s name, business model, strategic context, mission statement and accomplishments, organizational structure and their global plan. Singularity University’s Business Model in 5 words: Create scarcity to sell abundance. …And charge an arm and a leg for it… Nikolay Danaylov deconstructs the claim of SU. Worth watching and reading the… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Towards an Ontology of Networked Learning
* Paper: Walker, Steve and Creanor, Linda (2012). Towards an ontology of networked learning. In: 8th International Conference on Networked Learning 2012 , Edited by: Hodgson V, Jones C, de Laat M, McConnell D, Ryberg T & Sloep P, 02-04 April 2012, Maastricht, Netherlands. From the Abstract: “Networked learning, conceived of as networks of people,… Continue reading
Open Supply Blockchains
Open supply chains are a recurring theme here on the P2P Foundation blog, whether it’s a ‘FairMouse‘, the (very popular) Fairphone, or Sourcemap, (website here) there have been various efforts to make supply chains transparent, whether from the vendors themselves or from third parties. I am working with the (P2PF-endorsed) FairCoop project on a new… Continue reading
What is the just transition to solve the climate crisis ?
“Relying on green capitalism to implement a prevention program using the usual market-driven mechanisms is a recipe for disaster. Global carbon emissions continue to climb while market-led renewable energy growth is much too slow to replace fossil fuels in such a short window.” This is an excerpt from an interview of biochemist David Schwartzman by… Continue reading
A short video on the future of coordination
Peer production is based on ‘stigmergic’ coordination through signals, to massively bring together contributions and microtasking. This model is now moving mainstrain, with many technologies in the pipeline. What pricing is to the market and decision-making is to planning, coordination is to the commons economy. However, it is also being used by the extractive platforms… Continue reading
Against PDF
In his 1973 bestseller Small Is Beautiful, the British economist E.F. Schumacher outlined a concept that would come to be known as “appropriate technology.” This meant, in essence, adopting technologies that actually suit the needs they’re meant to address and the contexts in which they’re meant to operate. He was worried chiefly about technological overkill… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Geology of Media
* Book: The Geology of Media. Jussi Parikka. University of Minnesota Press, 2015 In this book, the author “argues that to adequately understand contemporary media culture we must set out from material realities that precede media themselves – Earth’s history, geological formations, minerals, and energy”. From the press release: “The geological history of media comes… Continue reading