You may have seen reported the ‘Sukey‘ app – an app that, with user support, collects information about potests and then channels it back ot the users. The idea is that they can then use this information to avoid being kettled by the police: The idea for a specialist piece of software was sparked by… Continue reading
On the necessity of ‘mediation’ for economic and social transitions
To act radically too early is often self-defeating. But to act non-radically in the short-term without a very clear view of the medium- and long-term radicalisms in whose name one might justify immediate compromises is just as bad. Like it or not — and there are days when I, too, don’t like it all that… Continue reading
Neural interview: from peer 2 peer to face to face
Neural magazine is an excellent ‘print’ magazine on digital art and culture, whose issue #38 was dedicated to the inter-relation between ‘digital peer to peer’ and ‘physical face to face’ dynamics, and carried, amongst many other interesting articles, interviews with Superflex, Platoniq and Dmytri Kleiner. It’s well worth purchasing a copy here. Here is the… Continue reading
The emerging ecology of Anonymarts
Anonymous markets came in the news related to the Silkroad market using Bitcoin. Kevin Kelly has some interesting comments: “The blogs Threat Level/Gawker recently reported the appearance of an entirely new genre of technology: an anonymous marketplace, or anonymarket. Out there on the internet is a place where you can buy and sell anything anonymously… Continue reading
The reign of the bondholders
Excerpted from Paul Krugman, explaining how the state and its policies have been captured by one particular group of people: “While the ostensible reasons for inflicting pain keep changing, however, the policy prescriptions of the Pain Caucus all have one thing in common: They protect the interests of creditors, no matter the cost. Deficit spending… Continue reading
Findings on the positive role of complementary currencies (thesis of the week, part 2)
Ivan Tsikota has produced an interesting Master’s Thesis confirming that complementary currency systems (broadly conceived) have positive economic effects, and under which conditions these effects can be stimulated. Also of interest is that Ivan proposes a new taxonomy of economic systems. * Master’s Thesis: Complements to Economic Systems: Increasing Local Economic Sustainability. Ivan Tsikota. 2011-05-14…. Continue reading
Bitcoin, a post-meltdown currency for the rich?
Though being one of the first socially sovereign currencies with a peer to peer protocol (but also with a design that replicates and reinforces the artificial scarcity mechanics of the existing currencies), it’s no secret that part of the enthusiasm from Bitcoin stems from the right wing of the libertarians, i.e. the social force that… Continue reading
Did the p2p movements originate in the South?
Interesting thesis, excerpted from Aaron Peters in OpenDemocracy: “I would add that the movement is not just born solely from an ethical concern with the current system but rather, after several decades of recognising neo-liberalism’s ability to commodify every day life and desecrate the environment, those in the developed world are now beginning to understand… Continue reading
John Perry Barlow on the necessity of defending free speech against intellectual property monopoly
Via: You cannot own free speech, argues John Perry Barlow, in this really great oration to the e-G8: (this is one of the must see videos of the year)
Peak Oil and the Future of Urbanism
I recommend reading the whole article from James Howard Kunstler, here an excerpt to give you the idea of possible challenges we are facing in rethinking and adapting our cities: “I think the general theme going forward, certainly in the U.S., will be the comprehensive contraction of just about everything. I see our cities getting… Continue reading
Debtocracy: the documentary that is moving Greece
Introduction via The New Significance: “For the first time in Greece a documentary produced by the audience. “Debtocracy” seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions, hidden by the government and the dominant media. The film is distributed freely and without usage rights. It will be broadcast and subtitled in at least three… Continue reading
On the history of #spanishrevolution: how the digital turned on the analog
Excerpted from an account by Bernardo Gutièrrez, in OpenDemocracy: “Despite a catastrophic job market, growing unemployment and record corporate profits, a different divide accounts for the #spanishrevolution: the digital one. 92% of Spain’s young people are Internet users (12 points above the European average). But only 10% of Spanish MPs use Twitter. This goes a… Continue reading
Exploring the relations between therapy and p2p: towards a psychological commons
Exploring the vast Peer to Peer (P2P) online community, discussions with a study group of colleagues, and reading widely across political and social history, returned my attention to a notion which I’d had many years earlier; that there was a much bigger context to these regulatory disputes than was being acknowledged. As I had seen… Continue reading
Thesis of the Week: Increasing Local Economic Sustainability through Complementary Economic Systems
Ivan Tsikota has produced an interesting Master’s Thesis confirming that complementary currency systems (broadly conceived) have positive economic effects, and under which conditions these effects can be stimulated. * Master’s Thesis: Complements to Economic Systems: Increasing Local Economic Sustainability. Ivan Tsikota. 2011-05-14. EC9901 Master’s Thesis, 30 hp . Department of Economics , Stockholm University The… Continue reading
The Syntagma movement as a new demand to the state?
Interesting analysis of the Greek movement by Paulina Tambakaki: “Within the past few days much debate has been stirred about the protests in Syntagma Square in Athens. Partly out of fear for their impact on the Eurozone, and partly out of interest in the peculiar figure of ‘the indignant’, who both challenges and practices politics,… Continue reading
Free Technology Community Portal
Maybe you’ve heard it already: we have been working to set up an online community about Free Technology. A community portal hosted by the Free Technology Academy, completely based on Free Software and integrated in its online campus. It’s an informal social networking space where people can participate in (and create) groups to learn, discuss… Continue reading