Excerpted from Keith Hart: “Ronald Coase won a Nobel prize in economics for inventing the idea of transaction costs in his famous paper “The nature of the firm” (1937). He has just announced his desire, with Ning Wang, to found a new journal called “Man and the economy”. Their manifesto, “Saving economics from the economists”,… Continue reading
Support Parltrack, an open data tool for European citizens
Parltrack is free software that liberates a lot of hard to process data from the European Parliament (like PDFs, word docs, and HTML pages) as reusable open data and presents this as a kind of dashboard for activists, providing fresh and relevant data not only for the concerned but the curious citizen as well. Stefan… Continue reading
Answering both ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’ critiques to the p2p approach
I’m republishing this May 17, 2010 mini-essay entitled: “Is the p2p approach utopian?”. Text: ‘he critique that the P2P approach that we are defending in these pages is utopian can come from two different quarters. One is the obvious one, the conservative side. This approach suggests that humans are very flawed, and that our societies… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein – A Short Film
“Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme – but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to… Continue reading
Chris Cook on the gas currency as the money of the future: From the Bondapocalypse to energy diplomacy
Outlining the post-dollar world: This Max Keiser report, always informative AND entertaining, has two parts. In the first part, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the “bond bubble” (i.e. the problem); in the second part, an interview with ‘open capital’ expert Chris Cook, they discuss the solution, “energy diplomacy”. Watch the video here:
Mapping the emerging alternative finance system
This alternative finance system was designed with the purpose to engage a debate and give a head start in mapping the new financial system that is currently emerging. All Street, the portal for alternative finance and crowdfunding, introduces its graphical overview: “New forms of finance powered by technological changes and higher social and environmental awareness… Continue reading
P2P money transfer to occupy banks’ lucrative international transfer business
Could exorbitant fees and bad exchange rates for international bank transfers soon be a thing of the past? TransferWise (http://transferwise.com/) and CurrencyFair (http://CurrencyFair.com/) are two internet-based money transfer services which openly compete with banks for the lucrative business of transferring money from one country to another. The services are modeled on the technology that powers… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Code Forking and Governance in Open Source Software
the authors argue that forking need not be seen as negative behaviour; rather, it can be a way of building long-term sustainability * Essay: Code Forking, Governance, and Sustainability in Open Source Software. Technology Innovation Management Review, January 2013. Linus Nyman and Juho Lindman discuss Code Forking in the Context of the Three Levels of… Continue reading
Sadhana Forest Haiti : The “one day everything will be free” film project
By Joseph Redwood-Martinez: (see also the video below! ; more info here) “In the Fall of 2011, I was working in a curatorial capacity at a contemporary art institution in Istanbul, Turkey. Within the context of a long-term research and exhibition program I was developing at the time, I travelled to Auroville, India to write… Continue reading
The Economics of Monasticism
Kevin Flanagan writes: “I’ve been reading ‘The Economics of Monasticism by Nathan Smith’ over the past week. He makes some interesting points in comparing the sustainability of intentional communities with that of Christian monasteries. Citing a study by Rost et al (2008) that “An average longevity of 463 years makes monasteries more durable not only… Continue reading
The Commons as a New Paradigm for Governance, Economics and Policy (2)
The is the second part of a speech transcript from David Bollier: * The Commons as a New/Old Paradigm for Governance, Economics and Policy. Remarks by David Bollier, Commons Strategies Group for the American Academy in Berlin on December 4, 2012. David Bollier: 4. The Value Proposition of the Commons If the market/state is an… Continue reading
Project of the Day: ROG, the collaborative agency behind the world’s first Open Source Capital City
Taking the new state of South Sudan as prime example of the challenges faced by a radically new political, social, economic and societal order after decades of shattering, and indeed lingering conflict #OSJUBA proposes an Open Source Framework for Regional and National Development, which could lead to the establishment of the world’s first Open Source… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Donnie Maclurcan on Thriving Beyond Economic Growth
Donnie Maclurcan from the Post Growth Institute (http://postgrowth.org) outlines a macroeconomic framework based on not-for-profit enterprise at the Environmental Professionals Forum (Oct 2012) hosted by Net Balance.” Donnie starts talking at 3:30′. The lecture stresses the importance of not-for-profit, mission-oriented, purpose-driven enterprise models. Watch the video here:
Conflict and Cooperation at the P2P Foundation
Answers to five questions (of 6) for a ‘changemaker’ interview conducted by Sharon Ede: 1. Tell us about the work you are involved with: In 2006, I founded the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives. We are a knowledge commons and a global ‘collaboratory’ of researchers into peer production, peer governance, and peer property. I realize I… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Maia Maia
Maia Maia is a carbon-based currency used in Western Australia and elsewhere Some extra background: “We’ve invented a cool kind of money called the Boya A Boya is created by our schools and community groups whenever we work together to reduce greenhouse pollution in the atmosphere. The formula is simple: 1 Tonne of pollution subtracts… Continue reading
Project of the Day: One Click Orgs
The London Hackspace became the first virtualised non-profit corporation, using the legal format proposed by the One Click Orgs Association, a social enterprise that is developing software and legal frameworks for member democracy. “One Click Orgs is a social enterprise based in London UK that is developing software and legal frameworks for member democracy. We… Continue reading