Watch the video here: “What does it mean to build a new production process that is decentralized, local and open for everyone? How will this new form of production (from supply chain to workers, from facilities to infrastructures) emerge? What are the major signs that this will be possible? And the major constraints? “ Jacopo… Continue reading
When software eats the world, do we need post-capitalist solutions?
I’m a huge fan of capitalism. But I can’t shake the thought that in a decade or two we may need to move to what I call post-capitalism. Whether that means a basic income (endorsed by Milton Friedman!) or something else — and whether it has to happen the hard way, via some kind of… Continue reading
Open Hardware Startup Survey, 2013
Excerpted from Mathilde Berchon: “Open Hardware startups are primarily based in the United States: 68% of them have their headquarters in the US. Europe comes as secondary hub with 19%, followed by Asia with 7%. If you get a closer look at the United States, you’ll notice that startups are mostly based on the coasts:… Continue reading
Judaism and the Commons
Four circles in Judaism, anchored in time and place, repeatedly seek to remind us that life is rightly lived as a commons. Excerpted from Rev. Tracey Lind: “Judaism puzzles over this dilemma of the commons, how to balance sharing and ownership, progress and stability, and answers the question in four ever-expanding concentric circles. They are… Continue reading
The cooperative revolution in Edinburgh, Scotland
Excerpted from a lecture by councillor Andrew Burns: “The way different services in Edinburgh work, will – and does – vary, but the objective of finding new ways of working in partnership with local people will remain constant. And over recent months, we have certainly not considered turning absolutely all services into co-operatives, and we… Continue reading
Podcast of the Day: Merce Crosas on Open Big Data
Mercè Crosas interviewed by Celya Gruson-Daniel – The Next Challenge: Open Big Data We chose three of the podcast interviews by Celya Gruson-Daniel to present to you. Celya has just finished a tour of the United States interviewing more than 60 people on their views about science, open source and reproducibility. Essentially this is a user’s guide on how… Continue reading
Connecticut Passes Commons-Based Land Value Taxation
Republished from Joshua Vincent in On The Commons: “On June 20, 2013, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law an act permitting – as a pilot program – a tax reform that turns traditional taxation on its head, as it also embraces the idea of the commons as a resource for the community to provide… Continue reading
Project of the Day: the Un-Convention global music community
Excerpted from Ruth Daniel: “Un-Convention is a grassroots, DIY and independent global music community and a series of events and initiatives crowd sourced from its community. It is based inside The University of Manchester. It is un-conventional in its approach, locally driven and globally connected. It seeks to inform, empower and reach those with the… Continue reading
Technofixes Will not Work Without Absolute Scale Limits to Commons Resource Use
A contribution by Brian Davey: ‘A commons regime takes steps to protect the “resource” that the commons jointly manages/owns/cares for. More specifically the words “protecting the resource” means setting an absolute scale limit on its use. The commoners will set a scale of use for grazing a commons, or fishing a river, or taking water… Continue reading
Interview of Arun Sundararajan on the sharing economy: could it actually enhance income equality?
I think there’s a very good chance that if sharing economy activity becomes sufficiently widespread, it could very well reduce income inequality. It takes flows of commerce that used to be between individuals and companies and shifts them to being between individuals and other individuals. If you think about a thousand dollars flowing from you… Continue reading