Excerpt from an editorial in Publishing Perspectives, by Richard Eoin Nash: “The question increasingly arises in today’s media: can publishing be saved? No. It cannot and should not. There are plenty of non-profit publishers that exist to create and distribute the un-economic content. For-profit publishing should not be saved — it should figure out new… Continue reading
Herman Daly on the darkness of growth
At the occasion of the reception of an award for life-time achievement by the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics, Herman Daly recaps the arguments against perpetual growth: “We have many problems (poverty, unemployment, environmental destruction, budget deficit, trade deficit, bailouts, bankruptcy, foreclosures, etc.), but apparently only one solution: economic growth, or as the pundits now… Continue reading
Chrome OS not positive for user freedoms
With every shift from a piece of free software to a web-based network service, we have moved from a situation where a user had control over his or her software — users’ of “traditional” free software have access to source and have control over the system on which the computer runs — to a situation… Continue reading
As we are shaping media, the media are shaping us
Via Micah Sifry from the Personal Democracy Forum conference: “Here’s the video of Michael Wesch’s keynote talk from the second day of Personal Democracy Forum 2009. Wesch, a professor of anthropology at Kansas State University, first gained acclaim as the author of ” The Machine is Us(ing) Us,” a video about how the internet is… Continue reading
GreenXchange: creation of an open design/patent commons
Reuters reports on an important development. Joel Makower: “GreenXchange, aims to allow companies to share intellectual property for green product design, packaging, manufacturing, and other uses. If it succeeds, this budding coalition could accelerate innovation across companies and sectors. At minimum, it stands to rewrite the rules about how companies share. The project was incubated… Continue reading
Call for papers – P2P energy production and distribution
Call for papers on P2P energy production and distribution via our Greek friend Vasilis Kostakis. Re-Public is bilingual and welcomes english-language articles. More information here at http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=1399. Vasilis writes: “We invite contributions for our upcoming special issue entitled “A critical view on Peer-to-Peer energy production and distribution”. It can be argued that a shift to… Continue reading
Will the Chinese ‘Communing’ trend go global?
Worldchanging reports on the launch, by architect Stephanie Smith, of the WeCommune software for managing communal living, inspired by the maker’s experience in China. Here’s the background: “Smith found herself in China in 1996, a turbulent time characterized by extreme real estate speculation and the burst of a housing bubble. She focused her research on… Continue reading
Participatory developments in South East Asia
Amongst all the bad news coming from this region of the world, some developments stand out as pointers of real hope and exemplars of new democratic practices that leverage the potential of the internet. 1. Malayasia In Malaysia, Jun-E Tan & Zawawi Ibrahim, have given a detailed account of the major effect of the blogosphere… Continue reading
A critique of the arcology model
Eric Hunting reacts to our earlier article by Doctress Neutopia, who called for a network of urban arcologies. Eric Hunting: “Generally, I’m in agreement with the ideals Doctress Neutopia presents in this article. Where I disagree with her is in her assumption of a society apparently far more rational, reasonable, and coherent than that which… Continue reading
To Whom Does the World Belong?
Book: Genes, Bytes and Emissions: To Whom Does the World Belong? Ed. by Silke Helfrich. Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2009 “The book was edited by Silke Helfrich and published by the Heinrich Boell Foundation; Helfrich is the former director of the Foundation’s Mexico City office, which hosted a major conference, Citizenship and Commons, in December 2006…. Continue reading
Regulatory capture by the Goldman Web
A rather incredible video by the right-wing Fox News commentator Glenn Beck (I did not further check his background), outlining the capture of the regulatory government apparatus by former Goldman Sachs employees. Quite unbelievable but unfortunately in this case, so true, and the left could probably not say it.
What exactly does the P2P Foundation do?
V. Sasi Kumar undertook a lengthy interview after my visit to Kerala in December 2008. It was just published in Malayalam with an English translation here. Here, we’re only reproducing the questions about the P2P Foundation project itself, since it provides some extra personal details which are not usually available. “You were an information scientist… Continue reading
Where does food come from? (Canada)
This video presentation about the (re)localization of food production is remarkable for its infographics: via @Edial and Bright
Why “intellectual property” is a misnomer
Copyright – with all its quirks, exceptions and carve outs – was, for centuries, a legal regime that attempted to address the unique characteristics of knowledge, rather than pretending to be just another set of rules for the governance of property. The legacy of 40 years of “property talk” is an endless war between intractable… Continue reading
Metrics for the Planetary Commons
The brutal reality is that failure is possible in human societies as well as in ecological systems. There are points beyond which societal problems start to become effectively impossible to solves. And when you combine the two — an on-going societal meltdown with massive ecological degradation — the result can be real, catastrophic failure that… Continue reading
Shared work policies against the meltdown
Proposals for anti-meltdown policies, partially inspired by the New Deal in the 1930’s Jan Hively: “To create a commons-based society, people need more than exposure to new ideas. They need tangible ways of practicing and living out these bright possibilities. Old habits about how we organize and pay for work maintain the sharp divisions between… Continue reading