Marc Garrett of Furtherfield reports on a DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) study. “Furtherfield originally created the term DIWO in 2006, to represent and reflect its own involvement in a series of grass root explorations. These critical engagements shift curatorial and thematic power away from top-down initiations into co-produced, networked artistic activities; it is now an international movement… Continue reading
Police-Military Action After Boston Marathon Bombing Remains Very Troubling
Republished from Stanton McCandlish: “A clearer discussion needs to happen about the 15 April 2013 “martial law”-style Watertown search, warrantless and house-by-house, for the surviving suspect after the Boston Marathon bombing. Without any more “the authorities colluded with the terrorists!” conspiracy theories, please. At least one early source, the UK’s ‘Daily Mail’, was not reliable,… Continue reading
May 1, p2p-style, in Montreal, Canada
via Tiberius Brastaviceanu? IMPORTANT EVENT for the p2p economy: Tomorrow, Mai 1th, 8 teams of business students from 8 different Universities from around the world will present their reports on SENSORICA. They have been studied SENSORICA intensively since last Sunday, helped by their respective professors and by 4 coaches from HEC (Montreal business school). Their… Continue reading
Let us all support Open Tech Forever’s democratic Open Source Factory
“Open Tech Forever (OTF) is dedicated to developing new and improved, open source versions of modern and cutting-edge technologies. In the open source spirit, we create free, online, high quality educational resources demonstrating how to understand, redesign, and replicate our products. We cover not only the skills, designs and the train of thought behind the… Continue reading
Ouishare fest: the p2p revolution is not taking place where you think …
Meet radical enterpreneurs and their world-changing ways: Paris, May 2 to 4!
Open Source Solar Steam Engine
Zenman Energy is working on developing and prototyping an open source concentrated solar thermal/steam power generation application. Our first major project is to produce an affordable solar steam engine. On paper (well… on computer screen) our first design is a fraction of the cost of current photovoltaic solutions. It may even compete with the cost… Continue reading
Let’s remember…
…A video from 2008 dealing with P2P and Utopia: P2P and Utopia from P2P Lab on Vimeo.
Bitcoin as a non-legitimate investment vehicle
Excerpted from Kurt Eichenwald: “Bitcoins are not an investment. They are an investment fad that someday could be a real digital currency, but if they continue to behave as they have, they will instead be nothing. This is not hard to understand. The fact is that real investments—outside of manias—do not quadruple or sextuple, much… Continue reading
Eric Hunting on Scott Howe’s self-assembling space frame systems
Excerpted from a discussion by Eric Hunting: “I’ve long been interested in construction automation, both for use in space and for domestic uses. Unable to employ much sweat equity in building myself, I’ve long been interested in the idea of building the machines that might build for me. One concept that I’ve wanted to explore… Continue reading
I Have Seven Jobs and I Love It.
John Robb of Resilient Communities says the days of having one job all your life are over. Resiliency requires that we diversify. In “I Have Seven Jobs and I Love It. Here’s Why You Will Too.” John explains how, by networking and by also taking care of the local aspect of our lives, we can… Continue reading
The Greek re-localization story
Really good documentary about Greeks returning to their heartland’s to create new localized economies. Strongly recommended! Background at Al Jazeera.
The maturation of alternative currencies in Brazil
Republished travelogue from Shane Hughes of the REconomy project: When it comes to the great global transition to a better world some places are completely fascinating to observe. For example, Bhutan and its policies of Gross National Happiness or Germany and their spread of community renewables. Brazil’s story of community banks and currencies is also… Continue reading
Occupy Medical – Do it yourself basic medical care
The Oregon Weekly reports on an initiative in Eugene, OR that brings volunteers together to provide not only basic medical services but also a haircut some food and a friendly chat. Occupy Medical What do you do if you are homeless, uninsured or just plain broke and you’re sick? Where do you go if you… Continue reading
The revival of the forest commons in France
After three centuries of forest policy that put the interests of the state above locals, the French are realizing that a more inclusive policy is better for both people and forests. Excerpted from Kieko Matteson: (read the whole article here) “It is all the more ironic, then, in light of its long history of legislative… Continue reading
Key Theses on P2P Politics
Written in 2007 but still valid: “1. Our current world system is marked by a profoundly counterproductive logic of social organization: a) it is based on a false concept of abundance in the limited material world; it has created a system based on infinite growth, within the confines of finite resources b) it is based… Continue reading
Eric Hunting’s commentary on Skyler Tidbits 4D Printing
Excerpted from Eric Hunting, our p2p urbanistic correspondent, who monitors modular architecture: “Skyler Tibbits’ concepts are really intriguing. At first glance my feeling was that this was something with huge potential, but all very distant. But the more I saw the more it seemed like there were some possibilities for demonstrating experimental architectural-scale structure in… Continue reading