Andrew Zolli defines it: “An interconnected series of innovations in low-cost manufacturing, information technology, design, and distribution are making it possible to deliver goods and services that were scarcely imaginable a few years ago, at price points that were similarly inconceivable, to consumers who were previously excluded from accessing them. This micro-everything revolution is transforming… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Bruce Lipton on Why Natural and Human Evolution is Communal, not Individual
Fascinating conversation: “New Realities with Alan Steinfeld interviews evolutionary biologist Bruce Lipton about our biological destiny and how our future is not in individual evolution, but in coming together as One Voice to form a wholeness known as Humanity.” Watch the video here:
Video of the Day: Derek Lomas on Open Source Learning Games
Via: “2009 PopTech Fellow Derek Lomas is director of the Playpower Foundation, a global network of developers, designers, academics, NGOs and businesses. Playpower leverages the availability of ultra-low-cost computers to create and distribute affordable, effective, and fun learning games for under-privileged children worldwide.” Watch the video here:
On the Failure of the Environmental Movement
Excerpted from Rex Weyler: 1. The failures “Forty years have passed since the founding of Greenpeace and the first UN environment meeting in Stockholm, fifty years since the groundbreaking Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, and 115 years since Svante Arrhenius warned that burning hydrocarbons would heat Earth’s atmosphere. Today, we have more environmental groups and… Continue reading
Towards Cognitive Democracy: “democracy beats markets and hierarchies at complex problem solving”
* Essay: Cognitive Democracy. By Henry Farrell and Cosma Rohilla Shalizi. Crooked Timber, 2012. Summary by Henry Farrell and Cosma Rohilla Shalizi: “In this essay, we outline a cognitive approach to democracy. Specifically, we argue that democracy has unique benefits as a form of collective problem solving in that it potentially allows people with highly… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: The 15M Civic Taskforces in Spain
Excerpted from JONATHAN BLITZER: ‘On Monday, July 30, 40 Spaniards ranging in age from their mid-20’s to early 70’s congregated in a dilapidated plaza in central Madrid. Those wizened by past experience brought folding chairs; others tore off cardboard slabs from a nearby recycling heap to fashion makeshift cushions. Newcomers stood or crouched. All had… Continue reading
How Journalism is Changing through Open API’s and Crowdfunding
Two important research articles: 1. Open innovation in digital journalism: Examining the impact of Open APIs at four news organizations. By Tanja Aitamurto and Seth C Lewis. The article discusses the constant negotiation between openness and control, and open and closed paradigms in journalism. “This article examines the relative value of open innovation principles for… Continue reading
Book trailer for John Boik’s “Creating Sustainable Societies”
We discussed the book previously, see here. Watch the book trailer:
The production chain management for 3D Printing is born: Botqueue
Another seminal moment for distributed manufacturing, excerpted from Zach Hoeken: “I believe that low cost 3D printing has the potential to revolutionize not just prototyping, but small-scale manufacturing of parts: from 10 to 1000 units. With a small fleet of 3D printers it is possible to run them around the clock and produce enough parts… Continue reading
James Livingston on the “socialist” consequences of the internet-driven market revolution
“What happens to (capitalism) when the internet permits what I have elsewhere called “primitive disaccumulation,” the conversion of basic commodities like information and music into goods that we can appropriate or distribute without the mediation of money and markets? What do we call the results? The decommodification of communication, the demise of “reification,” the socialization… Continue reading