From an interview with René Ramírez, Ecuador’s National Secretary of Planning and Development, by the New Left Project: “The concept of ‘Good Living’ is one of the central pillars of President Correa’s ‘Citizens’ Revolution’. What is meant by the concept? The first thing to say is that the concept of ‘Good Living’ or Sumak Kawsay… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: the new cybernetic left
This movement, at present mostly intellectual, is mentioned by Nick Dyer-Whiteford in his essay, Red Plenty Platforms: “Despite the fall of actually-existing socialism, the idea of computerized economic planning continued to be developed by small groups of theorists, who have advanced its conceptual scope further than anything attempted by Soviet cyberneticians. Two schools have been… Continue reading
On the Historical and Future Connection between Peer Production and an Ethical Economy
“The word ‘commune’ arose in the tenth century from the activities of artisans in Italy that created enclosed spaces to defend themselves and their vernacular peer to peer production from the pillaging of the time by overlords. Commune in the middle ages meant ‘to wall together’ or in other words to create defensive enclosures to… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Soulardarity, on keeping the lights on through crowdfunded renewable energy
Excerpted from Cory Conolly: “In Highland Park, Michigan (a city within the city of Detroit), having already cut funding for the fire department and other public services, tough economic times have caused even more severe cuts to public services. One of the most recent, and potentially the most public, occurred in the winter of 2011…. Continue reading
Utilities lobby governments to quash energy innovation
Sunrun is an innovative company that allows house owners to install solar panels to produce electric energy, without having to front up the costs of installation or even understand the technology in detail. Edward Fenster, co-CEO of Sunrun, describes how government intervention is solicited by the incumbents to keep any emerging competition at bay. Here… Continue reading
Managing Open Innovation in Large Firms
* Report: Henry Chesbrough and Sabine Brunswicker. Managing Open Innovation in Large Firms. A Summary excerpted from Stefan Lindegaard: “Henry Chesbrough and Sabine Brunswicker have released a great report on “Managing Open Innovation in Large Firms” in which they give us the answers to the above questions. And yes, the conclusion is that open innovation… Continue reading
Open Science Tour Diary (1): Celya Gruson-Daniel
Introduction During the Summer of 2013, Celya Gruson-Daniel, Founder of Hack Your PhD (HYPhD) went on a tour of Eastern Canada and the United States seeking open science advocates from Montreal to Boston to San Francisco to Seattle. She has kindly provided us with excerpts from her diary, complete with links to various interviews and sources. P2P… Continue reading
Discussion: Permaculture and Capitalism
This is only the introduction to the dialogue, see the original article for the full version. See also the earlier treatment of the same issue here. Rafter writes: “I’ve written before about the challenges faced by permaculture enterprises. Farms, like other land-based permaculture projects, are faced with the formidable task of regenerating ecosystems and communities,… Continue reading
A Currency Proposal for Liquid Ownership
A proposal by Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis: A currency proposal This is a currency proposal that tries to block the accumulation of money to a few people. During the last years, people all over the world have witnessed the destruction of their livelihoods while at the same time a few people became richer and richer. That had… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Is the X Party the ‘Party of the Future’?
X Party: The only party that does not want to represent you. There is a whole wave of Internet-Based Political Parties, especially in “Latin” countries, on which our friend Bernardo Gutierrez devoted an article, “How Net Parties Are Changing the Rules of the Political Game“. The essence is that this parties are non-representational and choose… Continue reading