* Article: Knowledge and praxis of networks as a political project. By Yannick Rumpala. Twenty-First Century Society: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences. Volume 4, Issue 3, 2009 From the abstract: “Modern-day society is increasingly described as an extensive web of networks, but as such, it is often perceived and experienced as elusive. In… Continue reading
Whistleblowing Is the New Civil Disobedience
Excerpted from Danah Boyd in Kosmos Journal: “Computer scientist Nadia Heninger flipped my thinking upside down with a simple argument: Snowden is offering the public a template for how to whistleblow; leaking information is going to be the civil disobedience of our age. In recent years, increasing numbers of concerned citizens have been coming forward… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca
PAH is the platform for those affected by foreclosures in Spain. The Democratic Underground blog writes: “Grown out of the 15-M or Indignados movement, they have managed to halt 692 evictions up until now. When they and 15-M jointly call for street protest such as the “white sea” or the “sea of citizens”, hundreds of… Continue reading
Project of the Day: CoPass
CoPass ‘to enable mobile workers to work from any of the spaces in the network with one single account’ More details here: “The way we work, travel and meet people has been changing like never before these last few years. Coworking spaces, fablabs, hackerspaces and other like-minded collaborative spaces offer fantastic ecosystems and infrastructures for… Continue reading
Interruption of the Dominant Narrative
“The interruption of the dominant narrative to create our own is the sort of politics we’re interested in” Members and collaborators of Enmedio, taking part on the “Paro Monumental” (Monumental Unemployment” action. The text on the balloon reads: “Spain, champions in unemployment” Amador Fernández-Savater interviews Colectivo Enmedio Translated by Stacco Troncoso, edited by Jane Loes… Continue reading
The fate of the internet after Snowden: Balkanisation is a fact
Republished from John Naughton in The Observer (July 28 2013): “Repeat after me: Edward Snowden is not the story. The story is what he has revealed about the hidden wiring of our networked world. This insight seems to have escaped most of the world’s mainstream media, for reasons that escape me but would not have… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Open Food Facts
a free, open collaborative database of food facts from around the world, which aims to help consumers make better choices about what they put in their body, as well as motivating industry to take more care over the production of food. Interesting project: “Food is becoming an increasingly political issue. Food security has risen up… Continue reading
Report: Governance Structures for Social Movements
* Report: Governance Structures for Social Movements. A Strategy Brief for Harnessing Grassroots Capacity. Cognitive Policy Works, November 9, 2012 Excerpted from Joe Brewer: * Introduction to Organizational Frames “Social movements throughout history have achieved lasting success by altering institutional structures and cultural norms to reflect their core values and beliefs. Their achievements can be… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: International Movement for Monetary Reform
We are a coalition of organisations and people from across the world, campaigning to change the way money is created. “The IMMR is * IMMR is a collaboration of not-for-profit organisations set up to campaign to reform the money system, both nationally, and internationally. * IMMR believes that private banks should not be able to… Continue reading
Four Futures Scenarios for Power in the Network Era (3): p2p patriots or google republic?
with respect to the value of the fullest expression of human empowerment, scenario four is clearly the most desirable. In this fourth scenario, a federation of the commons, citizens and communities are actively engaged in shaping the fabric of their lives and societies through a process of ‘deep democracy’ We continue and conclude our serializing… Continue reading