Excerpted from George Por: (the original version with links here) “A group of Commons scholars inspired by Elinor Ostrom’s work, at Indiana University, conducted a fascinating research in a Working Group on Managing the Health Commons. It provides a key conceptual building block for the transition to a Commons-based society, although that’s probably not how… Continue reading
Rick Falkvinge: Filesharing is not Copying/Downloading but Making/Manufacturing
It’s not “getting” or “downloading” a copy. It’s making or manufacturing one. Excerpted from Rick Falkvinge: “Using precise language is paramount for our own future liberties. When people are saying “I downloaded a copy of Avengers“, that use of language erodes their liberties just a little bit further. It is wrong, as in technically and… Continue reading
The Xmas lecture of Julian Assange
Let’s not forget all those who suffer consequences and are persecuted for exercising their freedom of speech and defending ours:
Bernard Stiegler on the Immaturity of the Internet Enlightenment (so far)
Bernard Stiegler is the only philosopher I know who deals directly with the emergence of the new generative logic of the internet and the shock it creates with the prevailing system, and how it is therefore, derailed. Watch the video here:
What’s Wrong with the Current Monetary System?
“How is the present monetary system affecting the economy and thereby society and nature, and why is it failing? I will outline the interconnected malfunctions of the globally prevailing monetary system in ten points.” This first part of a recommended essay by Mark Joob, is one of the best summaries outlining what’s wrong with the… Continue reading
The Commons as a Model for Art
The following is from an interview of the filmmaker Rick Prelinger, conducted by Sarah Schultz & Sarah Peters. Rick Prelinger has conducted the Open Field experiment in creative co-creation in a public space. He has published a book with the same title: Open Field: Conversations on the Commons, an absorbing collection from many authors exploring… Continue reading
The Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam Interview series on P2P
I’m reproducing an interview done by Dr. Amit Nagpal, on my P2P views. Dr Amit Nagpal- What have been the recent achievements of P2P Foundation? Michel Bauwens-That’s a tricky question, as we are an advocacy organization that wants to promote a new paradigm. Essentially we are an observatory of open, participatory, and commons-oriented practices in… Continue reading
The copyright monopoly stands in direct opposition to property rights
Excerpted/republished from Rick Falkvinge: “The idea that the copyright monopoly would be a property right doesn’t just lack factual basis, but it is 180 degrees and one hundred per cent wrong, factually wrong. The copyright monopoly stands in direct opposition to property rights. The copyright monopoly is a governmentally-sanctioned private monopoly. No liberal, socialist, green,… Continue reading
Interview with Michael Hardt on the Common
Excerpted from an interview conducted by Taavi Sundell & Tero Toivanen of Michael Hardt, the co-author with Italian philosopher Antonio Negri of Declaration (2012), as well as the widely debated Empire trilogy (Empire, Multitude and Commonwealth 2000–2009). For Commons.fi in October 2012. Interview Could you first say a few words about the intellectual and political… Continue reading
Can we liberate the market through commons governance?
“In the Barcelona-based Escola dels Commons we study the commons and right now we are discussing about the market, how current markets work and how they could work, if redefined under commons logic. Monday 17th December we hold a public debate about this in the offices of the Xarxa d’Economia Solidaria (XES) a Barcelona.” By… Continue reading
Why is there no support for sharing licenses in Facebook and Instagram?
Excerpted from RYAN SINGEL: “Say you have a gallery of photos of human rights abuses that you uploaded to Facebook – and that you want the world to see, and newspapers to print. Well, there’s no option for that on Facebook. Try to license an Instagram photo via Creative Commons. It’s not that CC isn’t… Continue reading
Marjorie Kelly on the Emergent Ownership Revolution
Can we sustain a low-growth or no-growth economy indefinitely without changing dominant ownership designs? That seems unlikely. Probably impossible. How, then, do we make the turn? How can we design economic architectures that are self-organized not around profit maximization, but around serving the needs of life? * Marjorie Kelly presents her important new book, The… Continue reading
Double Book Review: the Great Unrest of 2011-2014
The following is excerpted from a double book review by Chris Carlsson. It discusses: * Paul Mason’s The New Global Revolutions * Franco Bifo Berardi’s Global Uprising Chris Carlsson: “The Marxian concept of General Intellect has been inspiring to me for a while already. I wrote about it at length in Nowtopia, using the concept… Continue reading
The Occupy Homes Movement One Year After
Excerpted from Laura Gottesdiener: “On December 6, the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Homes movement, Meusa and Wheeler were only two among thousands of people who gathered for coordinated direct actions focused on the human right to housing. Building on a year filled with eviction blockades, house takeovers, bank protest and singing auction blockades, the… Continue reading
An assessment of the emerging global sharing movement
Excerpted from Cat Johnson: “As I spoke with sharing advocates and evangelists from Spain, Finland, the UK, France, New York, San Francisco and more, a picture started forming that these groups, while all working toward the same vision of a shareable life, are all very different. Share Tompkins in Ithaca, New York, among other things,… Continue reading
Why Market Prices Don’t Work in a Service Economy
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the book/manuscript, The End of the Market (Author unknown?), from which this text is excerpted. It’s at the heart of the post-market logic of the p2p economy as well. Value creation in a service transaction “Tangibles are invariably produced through a value chain. For example, iron ore is… Continue reading