Date archives "August 2017"

Averting Apocalypse

Daniel Pinchbeck writes about our current predicament – and his vision for emergent solutions. Originally published on Medium. Daniel Pinchbeck: A few weeks ago, New York Magazine published a devastatingly apocalyptic overview of climate predictions. We are on target for a 4 to 8 degrees Celsius warmer climate by 2100, at current rates of CO2 emissions. We know from… Continue reading

Patterns of Commoning: Open Access Pioneer: The Public Library of Science

Cameron Neylon: In the 1990s, Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus, a genetic researcher, and California scientists Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen were increasingly frustrated by the many constraints on sharing scientific research. Even though academic researchers were the ones performing difficult, costly scientific research and peer reviews of it – much of it financed by taxpayers –… Continue reading

Carrying Capacity and EDA: We No Longer Have the Luxury of Time

Our Planet is in Ecological Overshoot Earth is exceeding its ability to replenish its own resources. Each year, human beings consume our natural stocks at about 160% of their sustainable yield. Obviously, we cannot continue to use resources faster than the planet can replenish them without serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. Economic Democracy Advocates recognizes… Continue reading

Platform Coops: an infographic connecting cooperatives with the digital economy

The following infographic and texts are republished from Platform.coop’s “About” page. About Platform Coops The Internet is slipping out of ordinary users’ control. Internet technologies are transforming our workplaces, relationships, and societies. Companies like Uber, Amazon, and Facebook are capturing vital sectors of the economy such as transportation and phenomena like search and social networking…. Continue reading

Juliet Schor on the Striking Differences Between Nonprofit and For-profit Sharing Enterprises

Cross-posted from Shareable. Kevin Stark: It’s easy to group all enterprises that promote “sharing” into a single category. New technology has made it much easier for people to share almost everything — cars, houses, work spaces, just to name a few. There’s really no shortage of ways that people can pool resources. But there’s a huge difference in… Continue reading

Defend the Sacred: No to oil drilling in Portugal!

Reposted from Defend the Sacred. Não ao Furo! Sim ao Futuro – No to oil drilling in Portugal! Nearly 1000 people from 40 countries form a large-scale human message on Odeceixe beach to stop plans for off-shore oil drilling in Portugal. The event was part of “Defend the Sacred: Envision a Global Alternative” hosted by… Continue reading

Essay of the Day: Mutual Credit Cryptocurrencies – Beyond Blockchain Bottlenecks

There is no doubt that humanity could use universal ledgers like the blockchain, to manage more efficiently its agreements and transactions. But just as bitcoin is misconceived as a currency that is extractive to both humans and natural commons, so there are serious issues with how the blockchain is currently conceived. This very clearly explained,… Continue reading

Collecting Elements of a Minor Future: Commoning in Alphabet City­

Impressions from an imaginary walk across the streets of Alphabet City, resonant with the architectural echoes of an optimistic modernism, its socio-technological design rooted in a widely shared belief in the governability of urban ecologies. An essay by Soenke Zehle, originally published in Fibre Culture Journal 29: Computing the City. Much more than an exercise… Continue reading

Support Ignite TV! A Commons-oriented viewer-owned station

From wnd.com: Have you ever wondered what it’s like to own a TV Channel? Well, now you can be one of the owners of a new TV channel called Ignite TV. The media has long been controlled by a select few and they have often used this platform irresponsibly and arguably contributed significantly to shaping… Continue reading

Podcast: Universal Basic Income – An Idea Whose Time Has Come

What if you were paid just for being alive? Just imagine, you are given a check every month for the rest of your life, enough to cover all of your basic needs. You wouldn’t be driving around in a Ferrari or eating avocado toast every day, but you’d be receiving enough to live relatively comfortably…. Continue reading

James Ehrlich on the Self-Sustaining ReGen Villages

This is great presentation on integrated sustainable villages, which will be pioneered in the Netherlands. 70k houses are planned by 2024. From TedX: Smart house inside of the dumb neighborhood does not make sense! James explains in his talk how to build regenerative communities that produce more organic food, clean water, renewable energy and mitigate… Continue reading

There Are Plenty of Alternatives

Below is the opening paragraphs from an article of mine that originally appeared on TheNation.com on August 9, 2017. The full article can be found here: https://www.thenation.com/article/to-find-alternatives-to-capitalism-think-small. In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s shocking election victory, a shattered Democratic Party and dazed progressives agree on at least one thing: Democrats must replace Republicans in Congress as quickly as possible. As… Continue reading

Jose Ramos on Cosmo-Localization for the Anthropocene Transition

The following is a thoughtful and clear talk by our associate Jose Ramos about one of the central priorities of the P2P Foundation: the creation of a cosmo-local production system in which ‘what is light is shared globally’, in open design commons, and ‘what is heavy is produced locally’, by generative economic entities. Jose introduces… Continue reading

Money and Society MOOC – starts again August 20th 2017!

This is a trailer of the first minutes of lesson one of the Money and Society MOOC: a free online course at Masters-level will enable you to understand the past, present and future role of money in society. The MOOC runs for one month, with four lessons. Each lesson begins on a Monday, consisting of… Continue reading

Koppelting: the great gathering of the commons

De WAR invites you to visit Koppelting, an annual grassroots festival about peer production and free/libre alternatives for society. A week filled with workshops, lectures, demonstrations, and talks about grassroots organisations and peer production. Come and knit with algae. Get acquainted with blockchain. Take part and think about what a peer-to-peer justice system could look… Continue reading