Republished from LSE Review of Books The threat posed by global warming and environmental degradation are the most pressing examples of what has become known over the past several decades as the ‘tragedy of the commons’. In this book, Derek Wall explores the work of the late Nobel Laureate, Elinor Ostrom, on how humans can… Continue reading
When looking at contemporary cities around the world today, one could easily conclude that they seem increasingly designed to accommodate the requirements and interests of powerful financial actors, over those of the citizens who inhabit them. As these faceless players encroach ever further onto a range of spaces – both physical and intangible – in… Continue reading
Originally posted on thinkdif.co In this podcast, Michel Bauwens joins some dots together and explains why the open source movement, the growing prevalence of peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms and new technologies like blockchain create the potential to create a fundamentally different economic model that circulates vale between businesses, people and the environment, rather than extracts… Continue reading
After 20 years of privatized water supplies in Valladolid, Spain, residents led the way to remunicipalizing this key service by successfully taking on the existing private contract holder, and central government too. As a result, a 100% public entity has now very successfully taken on running the utility. For decades, citizens in the Spanish city… Continue reading
Vassilis Gkisakis: Will hi-tech save agriculture from its otherwise intractable problems? Certainly technological stakeholders want it to appear so, as digitisation increases both in the fields and in the policy documents and future plans for the sector. Hi-tech solutions are promoted as unavoidable and necessary and are broadly publicised as the ultimate innovative path for the modernization of farming…. Continue reading
Trebor Scholz, reposted from The News Coop: The Platform Cooperativism Consortium’s annual global conference was held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) – the first time the event has moved away from the New School in New York City. This two-day conference, and the 48-hour hackathon that preceded it, involved more than 250 participants from 18 countries, including 40… Continue reading
Guerrilla Translation (GT) began its life as an activist translation collective of politicised, conscious translators. Our motivation is to create a plurilingual knowledge commons, accessible through GT’s websites (English and Spanish so far). But GT is also a translation/language agency offering a variety of communication services and its governance model ties these two facets together. GT’s model is an extensive… Continue reading
Jem Bendell and Matthew Slater: The billions of dollars of venture capital pouring into blockchain start-ups over the past year reflect how people with a serious financial interest in technology see significant potential in distributed ledger technology (DLT). Yet the actual use of these technologies for everyday applications is still rare. Some say that it is… Continue reading
Shu Yang Lin from PDIS.tw; Francesca Pick, Co-Founder Greaterthan & OuiShare Fest; and Richard Bartlett Co-founder of Loomio sharing insights into online decision-making systems; how online voting tools enable stakeholders to have an active say in decisions that affect them… See the shared notes from this session too.
About Hilary Cottam, Kate Raworth writes, “her work is all about how the welfare state can become a partner state that empowers people by putting human relationships (and local commons) at the heart of their services. She is a designer focused on social change, and creates a series of locally based initiatives that are effectively… Continue reading
The most pressing challenges facing cities today, including wealth inequality, environmental pollution, climate resilience, and social isolation, have the potential to be mitigated by the efficient and equitable sharing of vital resources with each other. Wed 21 November 2018, 18:15 – 20:30 GMT Makespace Oxford: 1 Aristotle Lane, Oxford OX2 6TP, United Kingdom REGISTER HERE… Continue reading
Cross-posted from Shareable. Martijn Arets: As sharing economy companies come under fire for exploitative labor practices, data privacy issues, and more, there’s another movement that’s been brewing to counter some of the negative impacts of these platforms. Called “platform cooperatives,” these digital enterprises are built on foundations used by traditional cooperatives. In the U.S., Green Taxi, Stocksy United [a sponsor of… Continue reading
We citizens battling for civil rights on the Internet will meet our obligation and fight the good fight. We’ll stop this attack on the Internet and democracy sooner or later. Xnet (https://xnet-x.net/en/), an activist group working for civil rights in the Internet, is the founder member in Spain of the #SaveYourInternet coalition, which has among… Continue reading
A co-autored article by Karen Hansen-Kuhn and Oliver Moore: As the role of technology increases in farming and food, and corporate powers use this to extend their power, we need to strive for technological developments that are appropriate for farmers, for eaters and for the planet. Welcome to #AgTechTakeback. What is Agtech? Agtech describes “the increasing… Continue reading
The following texts are extracted from Southern Connected Communities Website. About SCC Our project is a model of what a community-controlled broadband ISP could be in rural Appalachia and the South. We have built a working line-of-sight broadband tower at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee, that will be able to deliver… Continue reading
Dominant platforms, like Uber and AirBnb were able to use millions of dollars to get to scale. But, without venture capital, what can platform co-ops do to match their growth? In this session, Vivian Woodell, ex CEO of The Phone Co-op and now head of The Foundation for Co-operative Innovation, leads an open discussion to… Continue reading