Sarah van Gelder: An American friend living in Germany told me a story about when she first arrived. She and her German boyfriend were out walking when she heard a noise that got louder as they approached the town’s main square. Puzzled, she asked her partner about the unfamiliar sound. “That’s the sound of people talking… Continue reading
As more and more plant varieties have become privatized through patents, and as large corporations have bought up smaller seed breeders, a dangerous consolidation has occurred. The genetic diversity of agricultural crops has shrunk, making crops more vulnerable to disease and our food supply more insecure. Meanwhile, farmers and the public have become more dependent… Continue reading
How is it possible that so many people still die from severe malnutrition and lack of access to basic resources in the 21st century? The time has come for a huge resurgence of the spirit that animated Occupy protests from 2011, but now focused on the worsening reality of mass starvation in the midst of… Continue reading
photo by John Carnemolla This article was originally posted on our Dutch P2P Foundation blog On Thursday April 13, 2017, the second meeting was held on “De Meent” in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. The subtitle of the meeting was: “Designing and building the Dutch platform for commoners”. As a representative of the P2P Foundation… Continue reading
Written by Vasilis Kostakis, Primavera de Filippi and Wolfgang Drechsler: The headlong pace of technological change produces giant leaps forward in knowledge, innovation, new possibilities and, almost inevitably, legal problems. That’s now the case with blockchain, today’s buzziest new tech tool. Introduced in 2008 as the technology underpinning Bitcoin, a digital currency that is created… Continue reading
David Ronfeldt has written a thoughtful reaction to one of last year’s most popular blogposts, “Neotribal Emergence“. Read the original if you haven’t already and come back for David’s reactions below. David Ronfeldt: While most readings in this series are about the malignant forms of tribalism polarizing America, this one is about an attempt to… Continue reading
We’re currently touring through the US, meeting with activists: from urban neighbourhood organisers, to black bloc anarchists, back-to-the-land communalists, and progressive mega-campaigners. So much of the lefty US political discourse is focused on a huge scale. Environmentalists want to save the planet. Progressives want to mobilise millions of people on the #OneTrueHashtag. In preparation for… Continue reading
Monika Ermert, writing for Intellectual Property Watch, details this important initiative: Monika Ermert: The Germany-based OpenSourceSeeds initiative this month started to offer open source-licensed seeds in an effort to strengthen a form of “copyleft” for new plant varieties. The goal, according to the organisation established by academics, activists and breeders and establish a non-private seed… Continue reading
A call for Open Patents from the crew at Commons Lab Greece. Patents destroy innovation We hear about patents everywhere. They are commonly included in indexes of progress and innovation, used for the purpose of rating research institutions, universities and companies. The proponents of the patent system believe that patents are helping to stimulate innovation,… Continue reading
Big Tech understands the power of data to advance its interests. It’s time for commoners to do the same, especially in urban settings. A pioneer in this style of high-tech activism is the Brooklyn-based group 596 Acres, whose name comes from apparent number of acres of vacant public land in Brooklyn in 2011 as determined… Continue reading