Mosaic connects investors to solar projects in need of financing. Excerpted from John Robb: “Here’s an idea for a very simple community financing system from a company called Mosaic. Currently, they make it easy for people to find, invest, and earn interest on high quality solar projects. The same mechanism could work as a way… Continue reading
Publicly Supported vs Centrally Controlled Education
Excerpted from CAROL BLACK: “In “developed” societies, we are so accustomed to centralized control over learning that it has become functionally invisible to us, and most people accept it as natural, inevitable, and consistent with the principles of freedom and democracy. We assume that this central authority, because it is associated with something that seems… Continue reading
Podcast of the Day/XE: Gar Alperovitz on the next US revolution
From our friends at The Extraenviromentalist Podcast. Alperovitz talks about the US, but his analysis applies worldwide. The episode also features a presentation by Stefano and Vera Zamagni on the co-op movement in Italy. http://www.xepodcast.com/extraenvironmentalist/063-nextUSrevolution.mp3 From the episode notes: With a media ecosystem focused almost entirely the corporate system, burgeoning elements of a new economy revolution escape the mainstream eye. As… Continue reading
Challenges and Promises for an Open Science and Technology Movement
* Essay: Do-it-yourself biology: Challenges and Promises for an Open Science and Technology Movement. By Thomas Landrain, Remi Sussan et al. Systems and Synthetic Biology, Vol 7., No. 1-2 Abstract “The do-it-yourself biology (DIYbio) community is emerging as a movement that fosters open access to resources permitting modern molecular biology, and synthetic biology among others…. Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Autonomous Politics and its Problems
* Essay: Autonomous Politics and its Problems: Thinking the Passage from Social to Political. Ezequiel Adamovsky Ezequiel Adamovsky writes: “My aim in this article is to present some hypotheses on issues of strategy for anti-capitalist emancipatory movements. The idea is to rethink the conditions for an effective politics, with the capacity to radically change the… Continue reading
With Cellular Automata for a World of Self-Organization
This weeks post at the Archdruid Report by John Michael Greer, “An Old Kind of Science“, is actually about a new kind of science called cellular automata by Stephen Wolfram. Here’s an introduction from the essay: I’m not sure how many of my readers were paying attention when archetypal computer geek Stephen Wolfram published his… Continue reading
It’s Time For Crypto To Go Mainstream
In this era of mass surveillance more than ever it’s time for Crypto to go mainstream. This is one crowdfunding campaign that deserves all the support we can give. http://goteo.org/project/gnupg-new-website-and-infrastructure GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) is the free/open version of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the gold standard in secure email and other kinds of eavesdropping-proof, authenticated,… Continue reading
Reframing the Commonwealth: Commercial or Civic ?
* Article: Reframing the Commonwealth: Commercial or Civic. By Marvin T. Brown. (This essay is now available in Michael Boylan, editor, Business Ethics, 2nd Edition (Wiley/Blackwell, 2013) Part 1 of an important essay from Marvin Brown: “What do we really want from the businesses in our communities? Jobs? Affordable products? Safe workplaces? Good wages? Donations?… Continue reading
Project of the Day: the People’s Food Plan Process in Australia
An interesting Open-Sourced_Food_Policy_Initiative in Australia! Nick Rose explains: “Inspired by the example of the People’s Food Policy Project in Canada (2008-2011), last year we launched the People’s Food Plan process, Australia’s first grassroots and open-sourced food policy initiative. With the help of 600 people in 40 public forums around the country, we began to articulate… Continue reading
Alternativet, the new Danish open source party
Introduction by Sam Richardson based on an interview with founder Uffe Elbaek: (Uffe is the former Minister of Culture of Denmark and the founder of the Kaospiloten school) “Uffe Elbæk’s new party is a politician’s worst nightmare. Not only do Alternativet (The Alternative) have a radical green agenda, they’re proposing a complete rethink of how… Continue reading