Another way you can support the P2P Foundation, besides donating, is by purchasing a cool t-shirt from our store – we earn a small amount from every item you buy. So wear your shirt with pride, or if you are a coffee addict, slurp your fave beverage from a P2P Foundation mug! Visit the store… Continue reading
A precondition for a commons-based society: David Ronfeldt on the need for a ‘assurance commons’
“By “assurance commons” I mean to tap into a notion that, as societies progress, becoming more complex, the prospects for the commons become less about resources and more about practices — specifically, about the deeper purposes and functions that citizens want assured in, for, and by their society. Accordingly, the commons consists of resources and… Continue reading
Shareable’s crowdfunding campaign
Our friends of Shareable needs your help to continue their fantastic work. Please help them by donating now! More about their campaign: Shareable is a non-profit. We’re in the final year of a startup grant. But the SHIFT Foundation will only continue to support Shareable if we diversify our funding. So we’re turning to our readers… Continue reading
Call for Papers: Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy
The full Concept Note for the Call for Papers is available in English and Spanish. In a context of heightened human and environmental insecurity linked to multiple global crises and market pressures, and as the international development community considers a post-2015 development agenda, UNRISD research is focusing on “alternative” development policy and strategy. One strand… Continue reading
Citations on the Commons by Contemporary Commoners
Compiled by David Ronfeldt: Jay Walljasper: “The commons is more than just a nice idea; it encompasses a wide set of practical measures that offer fresh hope for a saner, safer, more enjoyable future. At the heart of the commons are four simple principles, which have been practiced by humans for millenia: 1) serving the… Continue reading
Open Source Ratings Are Needed To Break the Ratings Agency Oligopoly
The current credit rating system is fraught with problems: from lack of competition, accountability and transparency, to politicization, inconsistencies, and untimeliness. Private sector competition and transparency are needed to overcome these problems. The open-source approach, as implemented by the Public Sector Credit Framework, provides one possible solution to our current credit rating problems. Other solutions… Continue reading
Stefano Serafini on the Emergence of Biourbanism
Excerpted from an interview with Stefano Serafini, Director Gruppo Salingaros and Research Director of Biourbanism in Rome conducted by Nicola Linza and Cristoffer Neljesjö during August 2012. The occasion was the Summer School in Neuroergonomics and Urban Design at the International Society of Biourbanism in Rome. Interview As director of the Summer School in Neuroergonomics… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Slow Democracy
* Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home by Susan Clark and Woden Teachout (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012). A summary: “Just as slow food encourages chefs and eaters to become more intimately involved with the production of local food, and slow money helps us become more engaged with our local economy, slow democracy… Continue reading
Some citations on governance in the p2p age
For the sourcing of the quotes, see here. The trust is to the commons as the corporation is to the market – Peter Barnes Peter Suber: From Profit-Maximization and Market-Orientation to Mission-Focused Profit maximizing limits access to knowledge, by limiting it to paying customers. If anyone thinks this is just a side-effect of today’s market… Continue reading
Beyond separative modern urbanism: looking for the connective design that’s already ‘out there’
by Øyvind Holmstad: But there’s a problem. We have fractured these urban networks, and rebuilt much more dispersed, “dendritic” systems, connected not by pedestrians, but by automobiles, dispersed suburban campuses and parks, and single-family monocultures, supplemented by telephones and now, computers. The majority of us lives in encapsulated houses, in encapsulated neighborhoods, and travel in… Continue reading
Nathan Seidle of SparkFun: why patents are a terrible idea for hardware
Brilliant and funny presentation at TEDxBoulder:
Some observations on peer governance
This is excerpted from my 2006 manuscript when I first outlined ‘P2P Theory’, but I think still a valid framework to think about peer governance and how it applies to peer production communities vs. society as a whole. Michel Bauwens: “If there is to be a Peer to Peer Era, our hypothesis is that it… Continue reading
Donating to build a commons for the commons!!
Since our appeal for donations last week, we have recieved over $500 from supporters – thanks to everyone who has given so generously! Just 250 x $100 donations or 500 x $50, before the end of the year will make our work possible through 2013, so please read our appeal below and consider donating if… Continue reading
Looking at Makers with the Prism of Community
Excerpted from a review of the book “Makers”, of Chris Anderson, by Martin Pasquier: “Chris Anderson’s “Maker : the new industrial revolution” is a brilliant book, one of the kind you can’t close without DOING something. And it really matches with all my current thoughts on a community-based world (may sound familiar for US readers,… Continue reading
Franco Accordino on Policy Making 3.0 in the EU Futurium
Policy Making 3.0 is prototyped by a participatory foresight platform called Futurium. We are launching the Futurium, our online lab where stakeholders, experts and non-experts, can co-create ideas for future European policies by drawing inspiration not only from today’s trends, but especially from desirable futures. Franco Accordino: “Time to experiment with new policy making models?… Continue reading
CALL FOR PAPERS – Special Issue of the Journal of Peer Production: Value and Currency in Peer Production
Call for Papers Special issue of the The Journal of Peer Production: Value and Currency in Peer Production Edited by: Nathaniel Tkacz, Nicolás Mendoza and Francesca Musiani. The marriage of cryptography and the dynamics of open-source have now produced a working distributed currency system. Bitcoin, as the most notable example, can be understood as a… Continue reading