If you want a clear-eyed, well researched explanation of how monetary creation really works, and without conspiracy-theorizing, then this is really worth watching, though geared towards the situation in the UK. This is the ‘Director’s Cut’ version, watch it here:
Social Media’s Positive Influence on Human Sociality
There is no evidence that social media undermines human sociality, on the contrary. Excerpted from the voice of reason, Zeynep Tufekci: “If anything, social media is a counterweight to the ongoing devaluation of human lives. Social media’s rapid rise is a loud, desperate, emerging attempt by people everywhere to connect with *each other* in the… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: On the importance of ‘P2P Plumbing’
A recommended article from the first issue of the Journal of Peer Production: * Article: Caring About the Plumbing: On the Importance of Architectures in Social Studies of (Peer-to-Peer) Technology. Francesca Musiani. Journal of Peer Production, Issue 1, 2012. Francesco Musiani writes in the abstract: “This article discusses the relevance, for scholars working on social… Continue reading
Does the concept of the commons ignore ‘community’?
A voice from the South, critical of the ‘Northern’ concepts of the commons, by Radha D’Souza: “Historically, the idea of commons is closely bound together with the idea of a community : people bound together by time and place, a common history and geography. Capitalism destroyed communities bound to time and place, tied to history… Continue reading
The dynamics of attention in a p2p world
The following is excerpted from a conversation/interview with San Kinsley, conducted in the aftermath of the Paying Attention conference, for which an excellent reader has been published, focused on the attention economy. * Interview: Towards Peer-to-Peer Alternatives: An Interview with Michel Bauwens. Conducted by Sam Kinsley. * from the special Issue: PAYING ATTENTION: Towards a… Continue reading
Book of the Week: The Open-Source Everything Manifesto
“In the twenty-first century, intelligence, design, and integrity comprise the triad that matters most. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is the non-negotiable starting position for getting it right, and this is crucially important with respect to the sustainability of the Earth as a home for humanity. Integrity at the top… Continue reading
Linking Labour and the Commons Internationally
Excerpted from Peter Waterman: “I suggest re-interpreting equality in terms of the old/new principle of the commons. This is an old space of sharing, subsistence and rights, a new space for popular encroachment on 1) a capitalism gone cancerous and of 2) inter/state regimes that are complicit with this and/or ineffective (Branford and Rocha 2002)…. Continue reading
The Sharing Economy community takes off in Italy
Here is the atmospheric video of the first Ouishare Europe event in Rome. Ouishare, started in France, is becoming the leading force for sharing enterpreneurs throughout the continent. For a review and description of the event, read here. Watch the video:
Catarina Mota on the Open Materials Movement
Excerpted from an excellent long interview conducted by Simone Cicero, which also contain details of of how Catarina Mota moved into the world of open hardware and materials: “[Simone Cicero] What will be the implications of bringing the study of new materials out of the research centers: how much is the DIY world ready to… Continue reading
UAM in Mexico starts ambitious peer production research program
Unfortunately, because of a competing and prior engagement, I will not be able to attend this launch of a Transition Science research program, which takes peer production very seriously. It’s an example of a South-South research partnership, between Mexico and China:
Isabelle Stengers on on user movements and systems of horizontal apprenticeship
Andre Ling introduces the importance of the the Belgian philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers: “She is a truly remarkable philosopher and currently one of my favourites. While she has written some very solid books on the philosophy of science (such as The Power of Invention, Cosmopolitics, and others), her more recent books are shorter, highly… Continue reading
Towards a Critique of the Attention Economy: a special issue of ‘Culture Machine’
In september 2010, I attented an interesting conference organized by the Digital Cultures Research Centre at the University of the West of England, which was held in Linkoping, Sweden. Co-organizers Patrick Crogan and Samuel Kinsley have also edited the proceedings, with interesting contributions from people like Bernard Stiegler, Tiziana Terranova, Ruth Catlow and many others…. Continue reading
Hackerspaces are not hacklabs, the forgotten history
In the special issue of the Journal of Peer Production on the DIYBio/hardware movement and on the origins of the Hackerspaces, “Maxigas” recalls the suppressed hstory of their Hacklab forerunners. On the difference between hackabs and Hackerspaces Maxigas: “Hacklabs manifest some of the same traits as hackerspaces, and, indeed, many communities who are registered on… Continue reading
Animated video of the results of the first 3D printing survey
This survey was co-sponsered by the P2P Foundation: Source: Ponoko “Awhile back we posted the results of the first-ever survey of the 3D printing community. Stephen Murphey took it upon himself to put together an animated video presenting those statistics in a more acessible way. It turned out so well that I think it’s worth… Continue reading
Do we need Border Knowledges?
authors such as Glissant, Mignolo and Khatibi argue for the formation of ‘border knowledges’ which form horizontal connections between different local spaces, reconstructing the global, or ‘planetary’, as a network of perspectives rather than something viewed from the top-down. This kind of horizontal connection can help avoid the problems arising from connection by the intermediary… Continue reading
Trade-Off Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion: a study in global systemic collapse.
This study by David Korowicz of FEASTA (The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability) has been recommended to us by many different people. You will find it here: “This study considers the relationship between a global systemic banking, monetary and solvency crisis and its implications for the real-time flow of goods and services in the… Continue reading