An article by Massimo Menichinelli, Massimo Bianchini, Alessandra Carosi and Stefano Maffei, published at the Journal of Peer Production: Abstract “Peer production has emerged as a new and relevant way of organising the work of distributed and autonomous individuals in the production and distribution of digital content. Increasingly, the adoption of peer production is taking… Continue reading
Continuing our series covering the #FearlessCities event, this post by Plan C and Bertie Russell was originally published on opendemocracy.net. ‘Municipal politics’ may raise new types of demands crucial in organising powerful social movements and improving material conditions, while orienting us towards new understandings of what is possible. The last decade has been a miserable… Continue reading
In an era in which the digital technologies are redefining how people produce, distribute and consume information, the book industry could not remain unaffected. Much has been said about the business models of new-age corporate giants, like Amazon, which utilize digital technologies to maximize profits. Are there alternatives to the profit-driven models of translating, publishing… Continue reading
Reclaiming Public Services is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of local, democratic services like energy, water and health care. This is an in-depth world tour of new initiatives in public ownership and the variety of approaches to deprivatisation. Reposted from our friends at the Transnational Institute, a new report authored by Satoko Kishimoto,… Continue reading
Tristan Copley-Smith: It’s difficult not to appreciate the unfolding potential of the open source movement. The concept is beautifully simple: “When we share together, we are stronger.” It taps into a broad range of human sensibilities, from the practical, to the creative, abstract and even spiritual. This is a relatively young and apolitical movement, whose… Continue reading
This is the year of the passing away of the elder statesmen of the Commons Movement. Last September, the P2P Foundation lost Jean Lievens, who co-wrote the first book about the commons transition approach; this year, we lost Robin Murray, a life-long activist for the ‘cooperative commonwealth’ in the UK, and one of the co-founders… Continue reading
Join our friends for this year’s edition of Procomuns in Barcelona. We extensively covered last year’s edition, including an in-depth article (The Commons Collaborative Economy Explodes in Barcelona); this year they are inviting all commoners to help co-create the program. The following text is extracted from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s website. Procomuns 2017 The collaborative economy… Continue reading
Neal Gorenflo: This week, news broke that Uber’s investors demanded and got CEO Travis Kalanick’s resignation. The company has been embroiled in controversy from the get-go, and Kalanick should have been let go much sooner. The fact that the company’s investors backed Uber with astounding $15 billion and tolerated its behavior for so long speaks volumes… Continue reading
Arthur de Grave: For its 5th edition, OuiShare Fest Paris, 5-7 July, places cities at the center of attention. Can cities be the basis of democratic renewal? Will they find ways to conquer a political weight proportional to their demographic and economic power? Can global networks of cities take over from an exhausted international system?… Continue reading
Building on Vlad Zamfir and Vitalik Buterins’ work around consensus-by-bet, I had an idea I wanted to share, on what could be called “representative consensus-by-bet”. Instead of staking Ether, the consensus system PANARCHY “stakes people”, and uses “betting pools” which are “powered” by people, using pseudo-anonymous Proofs-of-Personhood (PoPs) from the Virtual Pseudonym Parties system. Betting… Continue reading
Cross-posted from Shareable. Nithin Coca: With all the controversy engulfing the global ride-hailing giant Uber, there is more attention on alternative platforms that meet people’s transportation needs and don’t have the company’s ethical baggage. One of the newest and most promising alternatives is LibreTaxi, founded by Roman Pushkin, a San Francisco-based developer and architect with a decade of… Continue reading
Playing for Team Human today, master of human connection and consensus, Loomio co-founder Richard Bartlett. Bartett coming all the way from New Zealand, stopped by Douglas’s home studio while on a community organizing workshop tour of the US. On today’s show, Bartlett and Rushkoff discuss the challenges of building consensus in an all too often… Continue reading
It was a treat to be interviewed by Laura Flanders, a smart, solution-minded progressive who recently explored “new economy models” on her eponymous TV show. She asked me some great questions, and put together a tight 18-minute video segment that aired on May 23. Thanks, Laura. Over the past several months, I’ve done a number… Continue reading
Anyone interested in survival in today’s Europe, should read this book.” Srecko Horvat, Philosopher, DiEM25 This is the press release for European Alternative’s recently published Shifting Baselines of Europe. It’s a very readable tome which includes, among many outstanding contributions, an edited version of my interview with Ahora Madrid’s heads of Citizen Participation and Transparency…. Continue reading
Nature Play is seeking to become Europe’s first Agile Learning Community on Evia Island, Greece, and across Europe. The campaign concerns the hosting of the first ever Agile Learning Facilitators (ALF) training in Europe: ALF Summer Europe. A project coordinated by Marcus Letts from One Planet Productions, a project development agency working in North Evia (Origin Club,… Continue reading
The following article by Karin Bradley and Daniel Pargman published recently at Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, is of particular interest because it concludes, after reviewing 3 case studies in Sweden, that the new urban and digital commons DO NOT seem to follow the eight governance rules outlines after decades of research into… Continue reading