What’s often missed in open source discussions is how open source licenses tell only half the story. The governance model, the implicit rules defining transparency and influence into an open source project, is the small print that determines the power dynamics around that project. The March Issue of OSBR, the excellent Canadian “Open Source Business… Continue reading
Langdon Winner: from cyber-libertarianism to cyber-communautarianism?
Paul Fernhout unearthed this older piece from Langdon Winner: “One especially foggy area in cyberlibertarian rhetoric is its depiction of matters of power and distribution. Who stands to gain and who will lose in the transformations now underway? Will existing sources of injustice be reduced or amplified? Will the promised democratization benefit the populace as… Continue reading
Mobile vs. Internet for the Global South: continuing the debate
The Community Informatics mailing list has a continuing debate on whether the diffusion of mobile broadband is sufficient to replace the internet in developing countries. One of the best contributions is from Parminder Jeet Singh of IT for Change: “PC/Internet versus mobiles is one of the most important policy issues in ICTD today. It is… Continue reading
When is a commons not a true commons: boundary conditions
Ryan Lanham proposes a set of P2P Commons Boundary Conditions to delineate real commons from weaker versions and even counterfeits: “I think the key boundaries are as follows: Primary Boundaries: 1. A P2P Commons attempt to maximize free, voluntary and open sharing of assets that are engaged in the commons. 2. Assets placed in the… Continue reading
A Flickr commons of shareable p2p graphics
Via Neal Gorenflo of Shareable Magazine: “I’ve started a Flickr group call Sharing Illustrated to create a pool of Creative Commons images, photos, and videos that anyone can use to talk about sharing, peer-to-peer production, alternative economy, and the commons. The idea is to empower communicators of all stripes with high quality images about sharing…. Continue reading
“Intellect” as a Component of Price
In The Tom Peters Seminar, the business guru who goes by that name celebrated the fact that only some 10% of the price of his new Minolta camera resulted from materials and labor. The rest was “ephemera” and “intellect.” That means, translated from Peters-speak into English, that only a tenth of the hours we work… Continue reading
Is Our Monetary Structure a Systemic Cause for Financial Instability?
Here is a paper by Bernard Lietaer and others which points to some important parallels between the (monetary) economy and natural eco-systems. The authors come to a rather surprising conclusion: Increased efficiency is not in the interests of a well working economic system. There rather should be a balance between efficiency and resiliency, and one… Continue reading
Innovating through commons use: community-based enterprise
Via Frank van Laerhoven: Editors-in-Chief Frank van Laerhoven and Erling Berge are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 4, Issue 1 (2010) of the International Journal of the Commons. Our newest issue contains a special feature called “Innovating through commons use: community-based enterprises” that was prepared by Iain J. Davidson Hunt and Fikret Berkes…. Continue reading
From the Regulatory State to Voluntary Certification Networks
I believe that the growing fiscal crisis of the state, and the growing tendency toward high unemployment and underemployment becoming a norm, will have two long-term results: first, the production of a growing share of value in the informal economy in place of its purchase with wages; and second, the decoupling of the social safety… Continue reading
Are digital books as good or better than physical books at protecting you and your rights as a reader?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has produced a very handy checklist to ask yourself how much reading rights you are giving away when accepting DRM restrictions on the new generation of eBooks. Here’s the intro: “After several years of false starts, the universe of digital books seems at last poised to expand dramatically. Readers should view… Continue reading
The Beta Generation: defaulting to the open design option
Via: Well done (8 min.) video with statements about why open design is such a natural option for young designers and creatives. It was created during the Open Design Workshop at the Betahaus as part of Social Media Week Berlin 2010. Watch “Delivered in Beta”: Delivered in Beta from KS12 on Vimeo.
Financial Crisis—Environmental Crisis: the link with ‘green money’
The Ecopolitics Online Journal 3, Spring/Summer 2009: Green Economics, is dedicated to the following important topic: * Financial Crisis—Environmental Crisis: What is the Link? Co-editor Molly Cato writes: All economists are looking on in horror as they see the slow motion car crash that is befalling the global economy. But green economists have a particularly… Continue reading
The emergence of the radical homemakers movement
Another sign of the strong cultural shift that is taking place. Below is an excerpt from Shannon Hayes’ newest book, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture, Left to Write Press, 2010, which was previously published in Yes magazine (CC license) Shannon Hayes: “Many of us born in the mid-seventies learned from our parents… Continue reading
Netsukuku: Fractal address system for a p2p cloud
The February 2010 issue of Wired Magazine in Italian runs a cover story on Netsukuku, a fractal address system for a cloud of user maintained, linked computers forming a p2p network. The Netsukuku project is based on the idea of exploiting the potential of WiFi connectivity, linking the PCs of wireless communities to act as… Continue reading
Free Culture X Conference Workshops notes
An update by Israel Saeta Pérez: (the original has links, and there are more extensive notes in this wiki) “The second day of the Conference was named the “Unconference” and consisted on a series of open workshops proposed by the Conference attendees. The list is quite long and impressive, but at each time there were… Continue reading
Debate on the for-free economy
The “for-free economy” was the subject of one of the four daily debates held Jan. 26-28 at the seminar to assess the WSF’s first 10 years in Porto Alegre. Maria Osava reports: “The field of “the gratis economy” or “freeconomics” is “expanding dramatically” with the rising importance of knowledge as a major component in goods… Continue reading