Commonspoly is a hack and a critique of the game Monopoly. Players aim first to re-municipalize private goods and then turn them into a Commons – you’ll learn why this is the best strategy while playing the game. Rather than compete against each other, players must overcome their conditioning and ‘rational, self-interest’ to instead maximize… Continue reading
Republished from Econtalk Matt Stoller of the Open Market Institute talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the growing influence of Google, Facebook, and Amazon on commercial and political life. Stoller argues that these large firms have too much power over our options as consumers and creators as well as having a large impact on… Continue reading
Xarxa per la sobirania energètica (Xse) Catalonia brings like-minded groups together to fight for change in the energy sector locally, and collaborates with similar initiatives elsewhere in Spain, Europe and Latin America. Xse emerged when different organisations and individuals identified energy-related problems affecting local populations, including fracking, the managing of hydroelectric dams by private corporations… Continue reading
Written by Matt Stannard and cross-posted from Shareable Analysis: Many Americans are turning to sustainable farming operations to enrich their communities and personal lives. While these enterprises can be economically precarious, small-scale food production helps foster many cooperative and sustainability-oriented values. Having committed to such sustainable practices, some would see worker cooperatives as a natural… Continue reading
from Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Economic Man vs Humanity: a Puppet Rap Battle An economist, a songwriter and a puppet designer walked into a recording studio. What came out? An economics puppet rap battle, of course. In a one-of-a-kind collaboration, puppet designer Emma Powell, musician Simon Panrucker, and renegade economist Kate Raworth have created a… Continue reading
Established in 2015, dna merch is an unconventional eco-fair clothing brand specialized in custom printed t-shirts and other promotional garments for b2b customers. We also offer a collection of classic blank and various slogan shirts via our b2c online shop and selected retailers. At the heart of our supply partner chain is a sewers cooperative… Continue reading
Artificial intelligence is one of those things: overhyped and yet mystical, the realm of experts and yet something everyone is inclined to have an opinion on. Harry Collins is no AI expert, and yet he seems to get it in a way we could only wish more experts did. Collins is a sociologist. In his… Continue reading
Our colleague Torange Khonsari forwarded us this through the European Commons Assembly mailing list. Scroll down for details on how to apply. LAUNCHING FOR ADMISSION SEPTEMBER 2018 MA: Design for Cultural Commons – The Cass (London Metropolitan University) Although a movement and a model of practice there are few courses dedicated to the Commons and… Continue reading
Stacco Troncoso from the P2P Foundation; Mònica Garriga Miret from the Free Knowledge Institute; Guillaume Compain from Plateformes en communs and Tiberius Brastaviceanu, Co-Founder of Sensorica discussing strategies for Growing the Commons. Stacco has worked alongside Michel Bauwens for many years and has an excellent grasp on the concepts of the commons, whilst Monica is… Continue reading
John Harris: Around the world, a handful of visionaries are plotting an alternative online future. Is it really possible to remake the internet in a way that’s egalitarian, decentralised and free of snooping? Republished from The Guardian The office planner on the wall features two reminders: “Technosocialism” and “Indienet institute”. A huge husky named Oskar… Continue reading
Rich Decibels on Teal, Scuttlebutt and Solarpunk. An episode of Stephen Reid In Dialogue. Excerpt: “I’ve always had an ideological critique about Facebook; the privatization of profit, and the socialization of all the effort, the value exchange there is really off, and I think that there’s major abuses of power. I think there’s lots of… Continue reading
Notes for a quadriformist manifesto — #3: TIMN’s advantages over three parallel theories (Raworth, Bauwens, Karatani) David Ronfeldt: How and why four cardinal forms of organization — tribes, hierarchical institutions, markets, and networks (TIMN) — explain social evolution. How and why space-time-action cognitions (STA:C) explain people’s mindsets. For a theoretical framework to be worthy of… Continue reading
Siôn Whellens, Co-Founder of the Worker Co-op Solidarity Fund provides a brilliant explanation of cooperatives (from Youtube). Siôn Whellens, Co-Founder of the Worker Co-op Solidarity Fund, Dave Boyle, Founder of The Community Shares Company, and Alex Bird, Chair of Co-operatives and Mutuals Wales, leading a practical session on How to start a co-op, covering legal entities,… Continue reading
This is a short but very valuable interview about how the freedom-equality tension, has changed in the 21st century, and now integrated solutions need also to accept diversity and autonomy. Republished from Remix the Commons AA: In your recent article in La Vanguardia(2), you set out a framework for a cultural policy, you refer to… Continue reading
After the Chernobyl disaster, a citizen’s initiative in the small town of Schönau, Germany set out to produce clean electricity. When the grid operator obstructed them, the citizens decided to acquire the power grid for themselves. Today they sell clean electricity to over 170,000 German households. When the German electricity market was deregulated in 1998,… Continue reading
The following text was written by Duncan McCann and originally published in the New Economics Foundation’s Website. Duncan McCann: Platforms – like Uber, Deliveroo, or TaskRabbit – connect services and products with consumers. With both sides theoretically having control over the interaction, and investing in the platform to reap the rewards, the rapid spread of platforms… Continue reading