Twitter just started its own link-shortening service. Nancy Scola, in an article on The American Prospect explains how such subtle changes could be of great import to the future of the internet. We should pay attention, even to seemingly small changes in internet use… Excerpt: “Short-linking—that act of repackaging ungainly, often ugly strings of letters,… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Economic Democracy in Action
Book: After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action. Dada Maheshvarananda. Innerworld Publications, 2012 General descriptions A grassroots movement for economic democracy based on cooperatives and local economies is quickly growing throughout the planet. After Capitalism, inspired by P.R. Sarkar’s Progressive Utilization Theory, offers a compelling vision of an equitable, sustainable model which economically empowers individuals and… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Friendsurance
TrustCloud Community Manager Francesca Pick talked to Tim Kunde, the founder and Co-CEO: “Friendsurance has a very unique and revolutionary approach to insurance. By using the power of social networks, your service is able to offer liability, legal and household insurance at a very low rate. Tim, how would you describe your business model in… Continue reading
Occupied Greek Factory Begins Production Under Workers Control
From the Greek streets: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 is the official first day of production under workers control in the factory of Viomichaniki Metalleutiki (Vio.Me) in Thessaloniki, Greece. This means production organized without bosses and hierarchy, and instead planned with directly democratic assemblies of the workers. The workers assemblies have declared an end to unequal… Continue reading
From a Green New Deal to a Green Economy
Excerpted from Atlee McFellin : “Green New Deal policies are a massive shift from the neoliberal orthodoxy of the last few decades. Just like the Republican Party’s almost unanimous support for destructive trade agreements, most Republicans oppose Green New Deal types of policies as well. It doesn’t matter that their opposition is based on flawed… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Mechanical MOOC
Mechanical MOOC is an experiment to find out how to automatically support peer-learning in small groups for very large courses. P2PU explains: “The Mechanical MOOC is a perfect example for a P2PU Labs project. It offers users a way to learn Python, and it’s a great experiment to find out how to automatically support peer-learning… Continue reading
Trend of the Day: Open Source Military Hardware
Excerpted from Alex Howard: “What needs to change is the incentive structures for the people building and designing the “platforms of record” in the future, said Cartwright. That means designing programs and apps for problems we actually have, versus developing something that doesn’t get into the field for 10-15 years — and if you guess… Continue reading
A historical bifurcation: the two possible world systems
We shall settle down into our new historical system. Wallerstein foresees one of two possibilities: more hierarchy, exploitation and polarization; or a system that has never yet existed, based on relative democracy and relative equality. From a conversation between Almantas Samalavicius and Immanuel Wallerstein: “Immanuel Wallertstein: The key point is that all systems (from the… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Soil Trust
The Soil Trust is an initiative of Slow Money, making it possible for individuals to put their money to work in small food enterprises via small donations, active since October 2012. They explain: “Through Slow Money’s emerging network, including local chapters, investment clubs and regional and national gatherings, more than $20 million has flowed to… Continue reading
Ruth Potts on the New Materialism
““The New Materialism’: or, how falling in love with the world could help us all live more, with less. The world’s oldest continuously working mechanical timepiece, the clock at Wells Cathedral was wound by hand every week for 600 years until the last in a long line of ‘Keepers of the Great Clock’ retired in… Continue reading
Idlesourcing: Mapping the commercial sharing economy
A visualization by Rachel Botsman. This infographic highlights the many ways you can make use of underutilized assets. Essentially, “almost anything you can buy new, you can also rent from a stranger.”
The P2P movement is spreading throughout Greece
Greece. A country in deep crisis. And the promise of the Commons seems to embody the hopes and dreams of a multitude in search of an alternative, sustainable future. Although our efforts to promote the P2P theory, ideas and practices in Greece have been taking place since 2006, it is only this year that we… Continue reading
Should we go for “Metabolic Currencies” ?
Excerpted from a proposal by Brian McConnell, designer of the Joule Standard: “Metabolic currency, money denominated in or pegged to energy reserves, may make more sense in a highly mechanized economy because it’s rooted in the same physics that governs the machines. The inventor Buckminster Fuller first proposed the idea of a currency based on… Continue reading
Trend of the Day: Generative Ownership Design
Marjorie Kelly explains: “In Denmark, I visited the town of Kalundborg, where the major pharmaceutical Novo Nordisk produces 40 percent of the world’s insulin. The town is home to a famed example of “industrial symbiosis,” where this company’s waste becomes food for the ecosystem. Yeast from making insulin, for example, is treated and then passed… Continue reading
Massimo Menichinelli on the Ten Characteristics of FabLabs
Excerpted from Massimo Menichinelli: 01. A space about bits and atoms “Though it may be also a space for developing prototypes or building final working products, the main goal for a FabLab is to be a space for experimenting at the intersection of bits and atoms, information and matter. It is not by accident that… Continue reading
A commons-based map of economic realms
A mapping proposed by the Co-Intelligence Institute: “These diagrams present economic dynamics in a concentric circles model which frames human economics as functioning within – and dependent on – the larger economies of nature – what might be called the natural and spiritual commons. It also presents a layer of human commons within which the… Continue reading