European civil society organizes an unprecedented protest action at the Summit of the EU Ministers of Culture

Individuals, artists and NGO’s, including, among others, FCForum, eXgae, La Quadrature du Net, P2P Foundation, European Digital Rights, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Scambioetico, Open Standards Alliance, Red SOStenible, Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure Spain, Creative Commons Spain, have organized a coordinated protest campaign against the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Culture of the European Union that… Continue reading

A new social contract for open media

This longer piece looks at the history of social contracts and open content licenses as well, but here is an excerpt on how the debian social contract could inspire open media developments. The context is the Deptford TV project and the author is from the Department of Media and Communication, Goldsmiths, University of London. Adnan… Continue reading

Red Toryism as peer to peer conservatism

David Brooks explains the ideas of the Conservative British writer Phillip Blond: “Blond argues that over the past generation we have witnessed two revolutions, both of which liberated the individual and decimated local associations. First, there was a revolution from the left: a cultural revolution that displaced traditional manners and mores; a legal revolution that… Continue reading

Prototyping as social manipulation

there are technologies that seem to be introduced with the stated purpose of achieving one objective, yet have the larger objective of changing human populations. Take, for instance, the infamous case of Nestle’s infant formula strategy in Africa. Company reps masquerading as health workers introduce infant formula to a population that had not used it… Continue reading

DIY Bio FAQ

These excerpts from an interview with Mac Cowell, cofounder of DIYbio, give a good overview of the DIY Bio movement’s vision. Below details about a concrete initiative in that field, Gingko BioWorks (via Erin Kutz). 1. Mac Cowell interview “What exactly is DIYBio? DIYbio is a group of people who are interested in doing amateur… Continue reading

Thinking Network Politics Conference

Thinking Network Politics Conference Thinking Network Politics: Methods, Epistemology, Process St George House, Cambridge, 25 & 26 March 2010 Conference Schedule Conference Schedule PDF Version Conference Abstracts Conference Booking and Fee Payment Finding St George House and Local Hotels Original Call For Papers

Call for Papers for “Exploring Produsage”, A Special Issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia

Via Axel Bruns: “The concept of produsage points to the shift away from conventional producer/consumer relationships, and highlights the more fluid roles of users and contributors within social media environments. Participants in open source projects, in Wikipedia, in YouTube and Second Life are no longer merely consuming or using preproduced material, but neither are they… Continue reading

Water famine requires a return to water wisdom

This editorial by Vandana Shiva first appeared in Resurgence: “Since 1966 – and as a consequence of the introduction of the Green Revolution model of water-intensive, chemical farming – India has over-exploited her groundwater, creating a water famine. Intensification of drought, floods and cyclones is one of the predictable impacts of climate change and climate… Continue reading