Excerpted from a discussion by Giotitsas, Pazaitis and Vasilis Kostakis: “Energy flows define and determine life itself, so it makes sense that they also influence human societies greatly. For the largest part of the human species’ history, energy surpluses were minimal. According to Ref. [75] approximately 250,000 years ago began what could be described as… Continue reading
Date archives "December 2015"
After the Paris attacks: affirming our common humanity through a global call for sharing
The terrorist attacks in Paris compels us to acknowledge the deeper causes of the resentment that gave rise to ISIS, and to unite behind a far-reaching demand for sharing the world’s resources. A week after the brutal terrorist attacks in Paris, the Western world is still coming to terms with the horrific violence that was… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization
* Article: Zuboff, Shoshana, Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization (April 4, 2015). Journal of Information Technology (2015) 30, 75–89. doi:10.1057/jit.2015.5. From the abstract: “This article describes an emergent logic of accumulation in the networked sphere, ‘surveillance capitalism,’ and considers its implications for ‘information civilization.’ Google is to surveillance capitalism… Continue reading
Video: Ben Knight on Loomio as a Tool for Self-Organizing Community Democracy
A introduction as to why democratic tools like Loomio are so important for generative business communities that work around the commons: “”Emerging in response to the need for a scalable way to make inclusive group decisions during the Occupy movement in 2011, Loomio, an activist-driven tech co-op, developed an open-source tool for democratic organizing now… Continue reading
Two Proposals Regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s Stock
With Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that he will be giving away 99 percent of his Facebook stock, he is poised to join the legions of controversial moguls who have ensured that a legacy of generosity overshadows their earlier reputation for rapacity—Frick, Carnegie, Gates, Zuckerberg. It may be heartening to see, for instance, that he has joined… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Geology of Media
“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” * Book: The Geology of Media. Jussi Parikka. University of Minnesota Press, 2015 From the press release: “The geological history of media comes under close scrutiny in a new book… Continue reading
Rise of the Commons: Fundamentals of P2P Economies
A brilliantly succinct summary of Michel Bauwens recent talk in New Zealand written by Alina Siegfried. Last night I had the pleasure of seeing peer-to-peer and commons theorist Michel Bauwens present at the BizDojo on his speaking tour of New Zealand. Having followed his thought leadership for some time, seeing him speak in person provided… Continue reading
Who owns knowledge? In Solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-hub
Marguerite Mendell forwarded us this open letter defending Library Genesis and Sci-hub. Please read and share! “We demonstrate daily, and on a massive scale, that the system is broken. We share our writing secretly behind the backs of our publishers, circumvent paywalls to access articles and publications, digitize and upload books to libraries. This is… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Toward a Common Theory of Value
From a series in Kosmos Journal by James Quilligan: “This series of articles will attempt to reconceptualize the social and natural order of economics through an analysis of the commons—the natural, genetic, physical, social, cultural and intellectual resources which people manage by negotiating their own norms and rules. (For brevity’s sake, Part One uses the… Continue reading
P2P Lectures in Australia 2: Peer to Peer Design, Open Source Collaboration & the Sharing Economy
Are you going to be in Melbourne on Sunday, December 6th? Then don’t miss my colleague Michel Bauwens’ masterclass at the University of Melbourne’s Law school. See the posters below for other interesting Melbourne Uni events in the days following.
Commons Transition Plan Discussion
Join our friends from the Chicago Chamber of the Commons to discuss our Commons Transition plans. See below for event details or click here. Our commons are critical to our sustainability as a world and the basis for both existing and new economies. We want to educate ourselves and each other about them. Please… Continue reading
Book of the Day: An Ethnography of Wikipedia
* Book: Common Knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia, Dariusz Jemielniak. In a review David Auerbach writes: ” In his book Common Knowledge, Dariusz Jemielniak, a longtime Wikipedia editor and administrator, discusses one of the most epic edit wars of all time, a fierce and unyielding debate over how to refer to the Polish city of… Continue reading
Chris Hedges on the need for civil disobedience
Hard hitting commentary from Chris Hedges on the futility of appealing to corporate-bought regulatory agencies and bodies. You can read the full piece at Truthdig.com. But there are moral and religious laws—laws that call on us to protect our neighbor, fight for justice and maintain systems of life—that must supersede the laws of the state…. Continue reading
For a New Type of Accelerator Focusing on Real Sharing Economy Startups
Excerpted from Boyd Cohen: “The sharing economy is way beyond unicorns and death stars. There are millions of people around the world actively engaged in sharing activities whereby no money changes hands whatsoever (e.g. repair cafés, Peerby, tool libraries, Freecycle, Little Free Libraries, open source software, clothing swaps, timebanks, and more) or, at a minimum,… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Common Wealth Trusts as Structures of Transition
* Article: Common Wealth Trusts: Structures of Transition. Peter Barnes. August 2015. Here’s the summary thesis of the article, followed by an extensive excerpted discussion: “Common wealth, properly organized, provides a way to address the two greatest flaws in contemporary capitalism—its relentless destruction of nature and widening of inequality—while still keeping the benefits that markets… Continue reading