In a recent post Gail Tverberg lists three kinds of entropy that might have fatal consequences for our economy. This entropy might be compared with the high levels of sulfur in the steel that was used in the construction of Titanic. But further analysis has revealed this isn’t the only reason Titanic sank. It turned out the ship’s… Continue reading
Today, the new ethic says that ‘to resist is in the first place to create’. The world we want is the world we are creating through our cooperative P2P ethos, it is visible in what we do today, not an utopian creation for the future. Building the commons has a crucial ingredient: the building of a dense alternative media… Continue reading
“At a time when commercial software and IT net-works gained momentum and complexity, a more or less independently instituted division of labour emerged among specialised pirates who belonged to what is termed The Scene. The Scene is the source of most pirated content that is made publicly available and then disseminated via IRC, P2P, and… Continue reading
European coalition of civil society organisations, citizens and journalists ask Members of the European Parliament to reject the Trade Secrets Directive The proposed EU legislation on “Trade Secrets Protection”, which the European Parliament will vote next April 14, creates excessive rights to secrecy for businesses: it is a direct threat to the work of journalists… Continue reading
Full title: Analyzing the Role of Citizen Science in Modern Research. “A book edited by Luigi Ceccaroni (1000001 Labs) and Jaume Piera (ICM-CSIC) Structure 1. Ontology (definition of concepts and formal relations between citizen science and other sciences, including taxonomy of different dimensions of citizens’ observatories): 1000001 Labs, Commons Lab | Wilson Center, Atlas of Living… Continue reading
The responses to my article The Death of Capitalism made something clear: Most people don’t know what Capitalism is. We’ll need two definitions. Market: An economic arrangement in which price signals direct people’s actions. Markets are old. There were markets in Sumeria thousands of years ago. Nonetheless, Sumerian society was not Capitalist. Most people were… Continue reading
“You may personally be able to escape capitalism by moving off the grid and minimizing your involvement with the money economy and the market, but this is hardly an attractive option for most people, especially those with children, and certainly has little potential to foster a broader process of social emancipation. If you are concerned… Continue reading
“Humans are social creatures. We live in groups. We use our social abilities to increase our overall capacity, to improve our potential, while being part of families, clans, tribes, communities, states, or economic continental regions. The potential of a group of three individuals can be greater than the sum of the potentials of the same… Continue reading
Holloway sees socialist models based on taking state power as reproducing rather than abolishing the capital-labor relationship in many ways. It takes for granted the existence of alienated wage labor under capitalism, set over against institutional structures like corporate management and the state which are separate from and above labor. The traditional Left aims at capturing these structures and using… Continue reading
In the desert to the west of my city is Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest power plant in the United States. It is run by Arizona Public Service (which is a very altruistic name). Just south of me is an Intel fab plant; their second largest site in the United States. As far… Continue reading
For the autonomists and like-minded thinkers, the goal is Exodus rather than taking power. Since the means of production are increasingly coextensive with our relationships in civil society, we no longer need the obsolescent institutions of state and capital. We just need to tear down their enclosures of the social economy we’ve already built — and that can be done,… Continue reading
“The common vision of Fairmondo is to create a true alternative to the big online marketplaces and thereby provide a model for others who want to set up democratic and fair business at a larger scale. My personal long term vision is to create a multinational cooperative that is strong enough to outcompete the very… Continue reading
Riane Eisler distinguishes partnership and dominator societies and sees both positive and negative trends towards a possible evolution to more egalitarian partnership societies. The following is excerpted from an interview that was conducted by Cecilia Gingerich for The Next System Project: “CG: In your work you describe moving to a “partnership system.” Can you briefly… Continue reading
“We might even regard professions as types of commons. What does a profession do and how does it function? It consists of a variety of interlinked supports and guarantees: it ensures trust both internally and externally by providing the certification of the group and adherence to a robust code of ethics; it provides support for… Continue reading
Have you ever googled yourself to see where your identity lives online? Unless you are a celebrity, or a spammer, your results may seem sparse, at best. So, how do big data companies make money tracking the online behavior of ordinary people? One organization, Trackography, has created tools to expose the big data operations tracking… Continue reading
David Brussat comments on a micro-interview with Nikos A. Salingaros in ArchiImpact. Architecture causes changes in the emotions and feelings of those who see it, use it, live it. Powerfully felt or hidden in the subconscious, our reaction to our environment pleases or displeases, attracts or repulses, according to rules that are becoming less obscure with each passing… Continue reading