Via Frédéric Sultan: A proposal for a World Day of Commons October 15, 2010! Following the Manifesto Reclam the Commons, we suggest organizing the first World Day of Commons on October 15,2010 This would be a day of public actions, presentations, debates, workshops, shows, meetings,…around the world to share the visions and the practices of… Continue reading
A relational critique of behavioral economics
Mark Earls, author of Herd: “Behavioural Economics is a response – a step on – from the old rational agent model of human behaviour. It conceptualises humans not as rational agents who accurately perceive the world around them and act appropriately but as faulty agents, with lazy minds (as Kahnemann puts it) – with built-in… Continue reading
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
Digital Economy Bill: UK preparing to censor internet
In a rather worrying turn of events, the UK parliament is preparing to pass a bill heavily lobbied for by the music and film industry, to protect those companies from “pirates” violating their copyright by sharing music, videos and other content over the internet. Critics say that the bill is not just about illegal file… 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
Towards a new social contract for filesharing and artists’ incomes
If cultural reality can not be made to conform to copyright law, then copyright law has to be adapted to reality: by legalizing what can not be prevented anyway and at the same time ensuring an equitable remuneration to authors. Very cogent proposal by Volker Grassmuck. Please note the original has some updated sections compared… 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
Game Modding – Indoctrinating the Next Generation of Content Creators?
by Edward Miller The only closed-source and proprietary software that I have a guilty pleasure for is the Elder Scrolls video game series. From a very young age, before I was aware of Open Source and P2P philosophy, I just loved to tinker with computers. In high school I came across the game Morrowind, which… Continue reading
Peer-to-Peer Collaboration and Networked Learning (CFP)
In this special issue of the journal E-Learning and Digital Media, we will examine the multiple ways in which P2P collaboration now undergirds changes in learning and education. CALL FOR PAPERS: Peer-to-Peer Collaboration and Networked Learning; Editors of a Special Issue: Michael A. Peters, University of Illinois and Daniel Araya, University of Illinois Developments in… 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
Is “de-institutionalization” a condition for open education?
We are witnessing a move towards de-institutionalization, from an education that works for the institution towards institutions that work for education, or from a democracy that works for parties and governments or parties and governments that work for democracy. We’re republishing an important contribution from Ismael Peña-López : “In October 2009 I had the chance… Continue reading
Alain Badiou’s political theory and its implications to the p2p approach
An introduction by Andy Robinson: (for background on Badiou, see his book on Metapolitics here) “The first thing to note about Badiou is that he is heavily influenced by Lacan. He is one of a group of French post-Althusserians (among them Ranciere and Balibar) who found refuge in Lacan and poststructuralism after Althusser’s sudden transition… Continue reading