Another Perfect World: A 30-minute trailer of what seems like a really well done documentary about the many aspects of the new generation of virtual worlds and how it reflects back on humanity: Details from the producer: “Another Perfect World is a documentary about digital utopias, about online worlds created as places for work, play,… Continue reading
P2P PIONEERS vs. PROTO-CAPITALISM: MAGHRIBIS & GENOESE TRADERS
A re-post from the blog Golpe de e-Estado: There is a tendency to believe peer production to be a better system. Fine with that, the point now is whether it is sustainable or not. As it was argued in the previous post there is at least ground for considering fundamental similarities between our understanding of… Continue reading
Money without banks: lessons from Ireland
Dave Birch reports on the Irish experience of a bank strike in the early nineties, after reading a earlier report by Michael Linton. Dave Birch: “Between 1966 and 1976 there were three major “all out” bank strikes in Ireland that shut the retail banks for (in total) a year. There is a super case study,… Continue reading
Sharing works best for corporate innovation
Thanks to Tomas Rawlings for pointing me to two interesting articles. 1. The first article, dating back to December 2007 but still of current interest, reports on a debate within venture capital circles, on the value of “Noncompete” agreements, enforced in Massachusetts but not in California, which restrict the mobility of employees, but also therefore… Continue reading
Economic Free Software Perspectives
This article by Carlo Daffara appeared in the August issue of the Open Source Business Resource, dedicated to free software-based “Tech Entrepreneurship”. It has a well-researched typology of the prevailing free software based business models. Abstract: “How do you make money with free software?” was a very common question just a few years ago. Today,… Continue reading
The devastating record of GMO foods
Vandana Shiva on the future of food: Part two:
The limits of Keynesianism
Absolutely clear thinking from Walden Bello. Excerpts: “For one thing, Keynesianism is mainly a tool for reviving national economies, and globalization has severely complicated this problem. In the 1930s and 1940s, reviving industrial capacity in relatively integrated capitalist economies revolved around the domestic market. Nowadays, with so many industries and services transferred or outsourced to… Continue reading
From Social Media To Social Business Design
(most of the material below is collated from the Putting People First blog) Some people are working to completely redesign business processes, using social media. Why is that important? In my essay last month on “Russia and the next long wave“, I started developing a scheme, applicable worldwide, contrasting the failed constituents of Kondratieff 6,… Continue reading
Open hardware for health: what’s needed?
David Van Sickle, who launched the open spirometer project for respitory diseases, reflects on what is needed for successfull open hardware projects in the healthcare field: David Van Sickle: “While working on this project, I’ve been keeping track of some ways in which we might better stimulate successful open source hardware projects in global health…. Continue reading
Distributed energy in Thailand and the Pacific Northwest
This is an excerpt from a profile on Thai energy activist Chuenchom Sangarasri, which appeared in the Bangkok Post. Apart from mentioning the success of renewable energy efforts in Thailand, the article also has an interesting passage about the catastrophic failure of nuclear energy programs in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. Vasana Chinvarakorn:… Continue reading
Dana Blankenhorn on Stephen Chu’s open source energy future
Dana Blankenhorn writes: open source is not enough, open standards are needed as well. Dana Blankenhorn (excerpt): “Energy Secretary Stephen Chu (right) has seen our energy future and says it’s open source. Specifically, he wants open source tools that might act as plug-ins to building design programs and act as guides to improving a project’s… Continue reading
Trusts, the Commons and Capitalism
The book is not new, but still a must-read classic. Great review below. Book: Peter Barnes. Capitalism 3.0: Enriching Ourselves By Enhancing Our Commons, Berrett-Koehler, 2006. Gus diZerega: “His basic argument is deceptively simple. Our private well being is rooted in a foundation of common values, our common-wealth. This takes on three dimensions: nature, community,… Continue reading
Natural vs. Artificial Profit
A contribution by Paul Fernhout, part of a rather perennial debate on the p2p research list about the place of markets in society. Paul Fernhout: “As things are now, I don’t have a problem with profit-seeking in our current system so much as rent-seeking. Profit-seeking may be an issue sometimes, even many times, but it… Continue reading
Mutual aid in Lopez Island, Washington State
This story appeared as part of a profile of Thai energy activist, Chuenchom Sangarasri, who spent some time in the island with her husband Chris Greacon, where they lived in a ‘net zero energy’ house on the island. Vasana Chinvarakorn reports: “Due to family reasons, last year the mother of two moved to the United… Continue reading
Proposal For A Universal Declaration On The Common Well-Being Of Humanity
Set of 4 principles proposed by Francois Houtart, to enhance the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (also a contribution to the Reimagining Society Project hosted by ZCommunications in July 2009) Text Intro “Confronted as we are by a financial crisis which is affecting the world economy and which combines with a food, energy and climate… Continue reading
The biggest pirates are the biggest spenders
In the more extensive original version of the article from which we are excerpting, science fiction author Cory Doctorow explains why it is a good idea for authors to share free e-books with their potential fans. He als makes the point that filesharing is mostly about discovering new cultural creations that one is not ready… Continue reading