Better late than ever, but the atmospherics of this video are an interesting reflection on peer production cultures amongst farmers. Watch the video here:
Date archives "January 2016"
Statistics about the economic and social importance of Community-Based Land Governance Systems
Liz Alden Wily explains what Community Lands are and then calculates their global weight: “These are lands which communities own in common and then allocate rights to members. Lands for homesteads are usually allocated to families. Off-farm lands are held by members collectively. Rules apply. Many are tried and tested ‘customs’. Others are new, introduced… Continue reading
True Accelerationism (3): Abundance is the basis of civilization, on the scale economics of renewable energy
A series on true accelerationist technologies that will be instrumental against biospheric destruction. “Although we might prize scarce items highly, civilizations are built on abundance. It is the abundance of biomass that fuelled our early use of fire. It is the abundance of fossil fuels that propelled the Industrial Revolution. It is the abundance of… Continue reading
The Thin Community We Get From Marketing
Community is a hot commodity. This creates an awkward situation for marketing. Tasked with growing revenue for apps and platforms, marketing adds a community layer without sharing ownership or control with users. But for co-ops — and really, any democratic endeavor — shared power is fundamental. How can co-ops engage users without losing their democratic… Continue reading
Can We Do It Ourselves? A swedish documentary on economic democracy
Excellent documentary, with english subtitles, about democracy in the workplace. Instead of the owners of capital renting worker’s time, the film proposes a reverse contract, i.e. the real producers rent capital, but run their own production processes. Watch the documentary here:
Corporate Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege
Excerpted from Kevin Carson who makes the left-libertarian case: (we recommend reading the whole article as a powerful reminder of the history of expropriation at the basis of our current system) “Manorialism, commonly, is recognized to have been founded by robbery and usurpation; a ruling class established itself by force, and then compelled the peasantry… Continue reading
MAZI Initiative to provide know-how for local networking
Centralisation and increasing control of traffic on the internet, including pervasive government surveillance of all that traffic has led to the emergence of a movement of do-it-yourself networking. Local connectivity is well within our technical means, says MAZI … but it needs to be organised, the know-how put together and made available. There… Continue reading
Video: Janelle Orsi on the Eight Principles for Commons Based Legal Structures
This is a 30-minute video where Janelle Orsi, of the Sustainable Economy Law Center, describes, in draft form, 8 proposed legal structural principles for commons-based organizations. Watch the video here:
True Accelerationism (2): How Soil-Based Carbon Capture Can Reverse Climate Change
A series on true accelerationist technologies that will be instrumental against biospheric destruction. Excerpted from Larry Kopald: “According to a steadily increasing number of studies, it turns out we can blow by the goal of slowing climate change and actually reverse it. While we’ve all been looking to the atmosphere and the amounts of CO2… Continue reading
Commons Transition Plan Discussion
A special event held by our friends at the Chicago Chamber of Commons. Click here to register for the event. Thursday, January 21, 2016 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM Sulzer Regional Library 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… Continue reading
How should we understand the new phase of capitalism that is now reaching critical mass?
Excerpted from Ursula Huws, who asks the question: “How should political economists understand the new phase of capitalism that is now reaching critical mass? It has several dimensions. First, it brings new areas of life within the orbit of capital, allowing profits to be made from activities that were previously freely shared. Companies like Airbnb,… Continue reading
The Top 50 P2P-Driven Trends to watch out for in 2016
Here is a potpourri of trends catalogued in our buffer for ‘P2P Trend of the Day’. They are all influenced by p2p and commons-driven forces. The links to the explanations can be found here. * A Agrihood * B Borrowing Shops * C Civic Crowdfunding Civil Aerial Mapping Collaborative Credit Collaborative Blocking? Connected Exploration Commons-Based… Continue reading
Techno-Optimism and the Way to the Age of Abundance (an accelerationist interview)
It is not often that one can encounter an author who is deeply read in both liberal, marxist and even libertarian literature, embracing Marx AND Ayn Rand, and claiming to show an underlyng unity. Please note that the underlying ideas for a technological utopia are not the ideas of the P2P Foundation, as we must… Continue reading
Michel Bauwens on P2P and Accelerationism (1)
Regarding the book: * Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. Verso, 2015 I must confess, I have not read the book yet, but I am familiar with the ‘accelerationist’ manifesto, with various reviews and discussions on the book, etc .. There is probably not a single… Continue reading
The World Post-COP — System Reboot, Not Plug-and-play — Part Two
This is part-two of a two-part blog – the first part examined the post-cop landscape. This second part links to the need for systemic change for a new economy The current landscape — shifting from ‘what’ to ‘how’ post SDGs Clarity on where we go with the SDGs is also lacking. As SDG advisor Alex… Continue reading
We Need A New Form of Association for the Internet Generation
In this two-part article on medium, Xavier Damman raises an important point. If we want to promote bottom-up grassroots type activities, it should be easy to raise money to fund a project, an action, a pre business activity, without having to first form a legal entity and open a bank account. That is too much… Continue reading