A proposal from Tiberius Brastaviceanu: “While the higher administrative layers of Universities are still pushing for commercializing intellectual property, we (SENSORICA) find through our practice that scientists are more and more inclined to open their innovation, and to integrate “value networks” that bridge the academia with the local economy. SENSORICA value network already includes 2… Continue reading
The Transparency Delusion endangers really existing democracy
Is the citizen with the smartphone the one who can restore our trust in democracy and democratic institutions? I am sceptical. Smartphones may make it easier for us to control our politicians, but trust refers to the confidence in the operation of institutions that people cannot directly monitor and control. We don’t trust our families… Continue reading
P2P Debates: Arguments for and against central planning
(please note that my own approach, called P2P Theory, accepts both elements of markets and planning, but advocates massive mutual coordination through stigmergy as the new core of economics; and that this can be achieved through open book accounting and open supply chains as practiced by commons-friendly, commons-dependent, and commons-creating enterpreneurial coalitions that are owned… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Stafford Beer’s Designing Freedom
* A classic text, well worth rereading: Designing Freedom. Stafford Beer. Stafford Beer wrote: “all these institutions we have been contemplating — the homes, the of?ces, the schools, the cities, the ?rms, the states, the countries—are not just things, entities we recognize and label. Theyare instead dynamic and surviving systems. Well, I did say it… Continue reading
A critique of the Rolling Jubilee strategy
The 99% cannot bail out the 99%, as both ‘bailouts’ and ‘the 99%’ are questionable strategic notions. For this reason, I am skeptical of the Rolling Jubilee. Excerpted from Matthijs Krul: “A quick comment may be appropriate on the subject of the so-called ‘rolling Jubilee’, a programme initiated by an organization calling itself Strike Debt…. Continue reading
What Contribution Do Foxconn Workers Make to Apple’s and Dell’s Profits?
The “GDP Illusion” is a fault in perception caused by defects in the construction and interpretation of standard economic data. Its main symptom is a systematic underestimation of the real contribution of low-wage workers in the global South to global wealth, and a corresponding exaggerated measure of the domestic product of the United States and… Continue reading
No real commons economics at the Mercator Research Institute for Global Commons
A critique excerpted from David Bollier: “After listening to the four speakers at the MCC’s inaugural one-day conference on November 15, “The Green Growth Dilemma,” the institute seems poised to explore modest, socially minded twists to the standard economic narrative. In other words, a fairly tame, meliorist agenda within the crumbling edifice of neoclassical economic… Continue reading
An Interview with Lewis Hyde on the Commons and Art
Excerpted from an interview conducted by Sarah Schultz and Sarah Parker at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Reprinted from the new book Open Field, and based on the findings of Lewis Hyde book, Common as Air. “Why do you think the idea of the commons has so much resonance now? All cultures must feel… Continue reading
P2P Debates: Arguments for and against “market socialism”
(please note that my own approach, called P2P Theory, accepts both elements of markets and planning, but advocates massive mutual coordination through stigmergy as the new core of economics; and that this can be achieved through open book accounting and open supply chains as practiced by commons-friendly, commons-dependent, and commons-creating enterpreneurial coalitions that are owned… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: The Future of the Commons Beyond Market Failure and Government Regulation
* Publication: The Future of the Commons – Beyond Market Failure and Government Regulation. By Elinor Ostrom et al. , Institute for Economic Affairs, 2012 Here is the Executive summary: Traditional economic models of how to manage environmental problems relating to renewable natural resources, such as fisheries, have tended to recommend either government regulation or… Continue reading
LabourStart’s Online Campaigning Story
LabourStart has 15 years of experience running online campaigns in partnership with trade unions around the world. This new book serves as an introduction to LabourStart’s campaigning work, and brings together some of our success stories. Campaigning Online and Winning: How LabourtStart’s ActNOW Campaigns Are Making Unions Stronger Authored by Eric Lee, Edd Mustill
Selected Citations on P2P and Ecology
We’ve been accumulating a few choice citations in our wiki section on Ecology. Go there to find the sources. * Charles Eisenstein on the Illusion of Separateness “Technology is both a cause and a result of our separation from and objectification of nature. It distances us from nature, as today’s artificial environments, reliance on machinery,… Continue reading
Four Arguments on Sacred Economics
A summary of the main proposals in Charles Eistenstein’s book, Sacred Economics. Excerpted from Devin Martin: ” I would like to offer a brief summary and commentary on four key ideas contained in his work. I highly recommend you investigate further. Whether or not one agrees with Eisenstein’s ideas is second to the fact that… Continue reading
Trend of the Day: Open Modular Hardware
“While eBay provides a circulation of objects, and cradle-to-cradle provides a circulation of materials, modular construction systems provide a circulation of parts and components. Our ambition is to create puzzles instead of static objects. The system should generate objects of which it is not entirely clear anymore who designed them. An object evolves as it… Continue reading
David Graeber on Giving It Away, an introduction to the gift economy
Kevin Flanagan: The following article entitled “Give it Away” is by Anthropoligist David Graeber. It was originally published on August 21, 2000 by ‘In These Times’. The article includes an introduction to the French Anthropologist and Sociologist Marcel Mauss as well as the French group MAUSS (Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les Sciences Sociales) who were inspired… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The New Networked Social Operating System
People “have become increasingly networked as individuals, rather than being embedded in groups. In the world of networked individuals, it is the person who is the focus: not the family, not the work unit, not the neighborhood, and not the social group”. Several people recommended this book as a thorough scientific explorations of p2p relational… Continue reading