Telepresence is being present and interacting with people – through some remotely controlled apparatus – even if we are not personally in the same space with others. Video conferencing was a first step in that direction, but it requires all participants to be connected through a terminal that has internet access. This kind of remote… Continue reading
The role of entrepreneurship in a more equitable profit chain
Simone Cicero asks: What will be the role of entrepreneurship be in a system with less available profit and a more equitable profit chain? Who will be the leaders of this revolution? What will their goals be if not money, careers and an abundance of benefits? Here are his proposals: (excerpts!) “It was a direct… Continue reading
Money is not a commodity (4): a report from Spain
Excerpted from MATT MOFFETT and ILAN BRAT: “Ms. Martín, who doesn’t own a car and can’t afford taxis, has relied on other time-bank members to give her lifts around town for her odd jobs and errands, as well as to help with house repairs. In return, she has cared for members’ elderly relatives, organized children’s… Continue reading
Person over Peer
Much of current “P2P” theory and practice centers around groups, cooperative and collaborative tools, platforms, and alternative economic mechanisms on the group scale. These perspectives are valuable and fruitful, for sure. However, what is sometimes becoming lost in this perspective is the value and importance of the individual. There is very little work or thinking… Continue reading
After the successful French Citizen uprising to frack down the fracking method: September 22 is Global Frackdown Day
Via Maxime Combes: As you may know, September 22 is a Global Frackdown day to challenge all the fracking, shale gas & shale oil projects all over the world. Global website : http://www.globalfrackdown.org/ All the 100 events : http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/salsa/event/common/public/search.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=682 Please find below an article telling the incredible mobilization that we have in France and made… Continue reading
Money is not a commodity (3): Debt and empowerment, a 18th century debate
Excerpted from Julia Elyachar: “What does debt have to do with empowerment? At first glance, the answer would seem to be nothing. Debt, in the western tradition at least, is commonly associated with the loss of power. In early Greece, debt could lead to enslavement. One of the great radical slogans of 4th century Greece… Continue reading
Collaboration and the Coming of the Commons – A Conversation With Michel Bauwens
Source: South Melbourne Commons “Michel will share co-production and post-ownership trends and report on on-line and in-place innovations. Michel will discuss the political-economy implications of peer-to-peer. He will highlight the opportunity to reverse the economic perversity that currently considers ‘ideas as scarce’ and ‘nature as abundant.’”
In dialogue with Hazel Henderson on Steve Pinker’s thesis of the decline of violence
A contribution by Rich Carlson, in response to an earlier article by Hazel Henderson, quoting Steve Pinker’s work on the decline in violence: “Using Steven Pinkers “Better Angels” is a precarious support for a view of “progressive human evolution” or of the species advance in mass learning capabilities that Hazel Henderson seems to champion in… Continue reading
A critique of the Thrive conspiracy documentary
If the ills of the world are the deliberate intentions of malevolent beings, then we don’t have to take responsibility for our problems because they are being done to us. Thinking this way may provide the momentary comfort of feeling exonerated, but it is ultimately disempowering because it undermines our ability to be accountable for… Continue reading
Money is not a commodity (2): Why Keynes favoured Clearing Unions
Excerpted from Luigi Doria and Luca Fantacci: “To overcome the “fetish of liquidity”, Keynes advocates a monetary reform, based on a radically different conception of money, understood as a mere intermediary, which passes from hand to hand, is received and dispensed, and disappears, when its work is done, from the sum of a nation’s wealth…. Continue reading