To Catch the Rain is a book of inspiring stories of communities coming together to harvest the rain, and how you can do it too. Go to the project’s Kickstarter page to support the publication of this exciting book. What’s To Catch the Rain all about? To Catch the Rain is a book of inspiring stories of communities… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2018"
Team Human: Stacco Troncoso “The Commons is the Glue”
Playing for Team Human today is Stacco Troncoso of the P2P Foundation. Stacco brings with him deep knowledge and enthusiasm for the power of the commons. Stacco and the Commons Transition team put their faith in people, believing in the potential of diverse, empowered communities to address complex problems. Far from a utopian fantasy, P2P offers a wealth of… Continue reading
Racial discrimination and the sharing economy — what does the research tell us?
Cross-posted from Shareable. Hugo Guyader and Julian Agyeman: Analysis: The sharing economy is often lauded with offering a number of opportunities, from access to cheaper and more convenient consumption alternatives to new revenue streams for on-demand services. Next to the economic benefits are promises of sustainability and social inclusion. Unfortunately, not everybody stands equal in… Continue reading
How the co-op movement made steps towards equality in 2017
An encouraging article which, among other things, mentions Platform Coops. Let’s hope that in 2018 we can speak about strides, rather than steps. The article was originally published in
The catastrophic consequences of the non-Neutral Net will be very hard to spot, until it’s too late
Writing for Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow summarizes the conclusions of a standout interview with Stanford Law expert Ryan Singel and International Studies expert Didi Kuo about the meaning of the post-neutrality web. Cory Doctorow: Stanford’s Futurity interviews Stanford Law expert Ryan Singel and International Studies expert Didi Kuo about the meaning of a non-Neutral internet,… Continue reading
Patterns of Commoning: Medialab-Prado: A Citizen Lab for Incubating Innovative Commons
Marcos García: Through its workshops, collaborative teams, classes and public events, Medialab has enabled the development of open design hives for urban beekeeping,1 sponsored collaborative translations of books,2 and assisted development of experimental video games.3 It has invited anyone who is interested to help develop a new data visualization for air quality in Madrid4 and a… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Hack-a-Home
Our colleague Sharon Ede hipped us to this beautiful project. The following is reposted from northcottinnovation.com.au: We’re working with AbilityMate, UTS and Northcott on a global first project to give people with disability the opportunity to learn about 3D printing and create their own assistive technology. We want people with disability to be active creators… Continue reading
Lessons from Finland: building a co-operative economy
Ed Mayo: In a sparsely populated country with a short summer and long, hard winter, the idea of people working together for a common interest comes naturally. As a result there are more member-owners of co-operative enterprises in Finland than there are people. The average adult is a member of two co-operatives; those in a… Continue reading
Is Peak Car Headed for Seneca’s Cliff?
This text follows my recent keynote at Seoul Smart Mobility International Conference. The author thanks Seoul Design Foundation and @Seoul_gov for their invitation. I also thank XuanZheng Wang, professor, China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), for alerting me to the @Mobike developments. Two hundred people per second now climb onto a dockless bike somewhere… Continue reading
Cathy O’Neil on Algorithms as Harmful Weapons of Math Destruction
Secretly held and designed algorithms have a large power over our lives and work opportunities and are becoming a form of nefarious power that big corporations hold over us. Moreover, as Cathy O’Neil shows in this presentation, they often incorporate human biases. What can we do to resist ? Find out here. From the shownotes… Continue reading
Unearthing the Capitalocene: Towards a Reparations Ecology
Jason W. Moore & Raj Patel: Settled agriculture, cities, nation-states, information technology and every other facet of the modern world have unfolded within a long era of climatic good fortune. Those days are gone. Sea levels are rising; climate is becoming less stable; average temperatures are increasing. Civilization emerged in a geological era known as the… Continue reading
Spacehive: Crowdfunding for local projects
Levente Polyak: Spacehive is a civic crowdfunding platform based in London. The platform, established in 2012, supports projects aimed at improving local civic and community spaces. Besides collecting donations from individuals, Spacehive also connects initiatives with funding sources including city councils, companies and grant-makers. Furthermore, the organisation and its partners help people with project ideas… Continue reading
Doughnut economics: an economic model for the future
The distributive concept of the 21st century is not about redistribution, but about sharing the sources of wealth from the start. An interview with Kate Raworth, by Triodos bank. Kate Raworth recognises that a dramatic new mindset is needed if we’re going to address the economic challenges of the 21st century. Her iconic book, Doughnut… Continue reading
Team Human: Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen “The Thrill of Democracy”
Playing for Team Human today are Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen from the Small Planet Institute. Lappé and Eichen are out on the road with a mission to reinvigorate “civic courage” and inclusive participation in democracy. Their latest book Daring Democracy Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want offers a diagnosis… Continue reading
A Toolkit for Establishing a Great Lakes Commons
Cross-posted from Shareable. Kevin Stark: The Great Lakes Commons is a regional grassroots initiative advocating for the freshwater chain of lakes in the upper Midwest and Mideast parts of the U.S. and Canada. As part of that mission, the group has released a new toolkit designed to help communities and residents protect the lakes, which its members… Continue reading
In Search of the Good Ordinary Wine and the Good Ordinary Household
The following article, written by Patrick Noble and published in Feasta’s website is a very good summary of the ecological indictment of our current societies, I highly recommend it. Patrick Noble: What spoils economies? Firstly, their size – do they exceed the limits of their ecological supply. That is – is the mass and diversity… Continue reading