This is from an extensive conference report on a Politics 2.0 conference, by Roman Tol, at the Network Cultures blog, part of which covers this still under-reported topic, presented by Maura Conway and Lisa McInerney (Dublin City University, Ireland). Roman Tol: “An interesting approach of the history and categorization of terrorist video propaganda was set… Continue reading
Event announcement: Barcamp on government 2.0, Amsterdam, June 7th
The Barcamp idea is slowly maturing. I had the privilege to participate at one in London hosted at Google’s offices back in January 2008. The crowd was filled with government officials, freelancers, geeks and outside interest groups. This is a call to people in Europe or with easy access to NL to drop by and… Continue reading
Wikimedia Foundation board refuses community participation
Wikipedia is definitely showing itself to be a good example of what happens when peer governance goes wrong. To quickly recall my vision of peer governance: the commons-oriented peer production format combines the self-aggregation of effort by self-governing communities, and a for-benefit institution which should preserve and develop the infrastructure of cooperation. In the community,… Continue reading
The Tilaphos project
The public information belongs to the citizens. So do the forests. These are only some of the messages that the promising, ongoing Tilaphos project aims to spread over the Greek society (see the Tilaphos blog and the Tilaphos reforestation platform). Tilaphos experiments with the collective participation and social collaboration organized through the Web, trying to… Continue reading
Pursuing the Common Good (5): Stefano Zamagni on new directions for thinking about a civil economy
I’m continuing the reporting on the Vatican Conference on Pursuing the Common Good, still focusing on the representatives of Catholic social thinking, especially those with a detectable socially-progressive bent. After our discussions of the work of Pierpaolo Donati on the relational society and Luigino Bruno on the ecology of communion, here is a review, based… Continue reading
Book on the new agrarianism
An announcement from Steve Talbott, whose thoughtful approach I have always appreciated: “The University Press of Kentucky has this month released a new book that Nature Institute co-founder Craig Holdrege and I have co-authored: * Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren Promise of Genetic Engineering*. The book is part of the new “Culture of the Land” series… Continue reading
Pursuing the Common Good (4): Luigino Bruno on the Economy of Communion and Charism
I’m continuing to report on the Vatican conference of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, held May 2 to 6. Amongst the interesting social-Catholic topics presented there was Luigino Bruno, whose intervention I’m presenting by excerpting his paper, covering two topics. 1. The Economy of Communion Luigini Bruni: “The EoC is a project that currently… Continue reading
Achieving democratic digital power through design?
This is a crucially important essay by Harry Halpin, which stresses that behind the protocols that govern online social systems, there are people, and that therefore, purely technical strategies are bound to fail. Above all, Halpin warns us for strategies of retreat from the present internet. So, in a crucial way, this is a critique… Continue reading
Pursuing the Common Good (3): Pierpaolo Donati’s relational vision of the common good
Donati writes from within the tradition of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and aims to push it towards a more radical relational understanding of its concept of the common good. The following are excerpts from his written contribution: For the Proceedings of THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, XIV Plenary Session, 2-6 May… Continue reading
Pursuing the Common Good (2): the four elements of the social doctrine
Today, we give a brief overview of our impressions, and re-introduce the main theme of the conference: “It was an altogether strange but rich experience, to find myself for the first time inside the Vatican, for four full days. The event was organized by the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences, an august body that… Continue reading
Vinay Gupta announces launch of Global Swadeshi Network
Vinay Gupta, already active in the open design movement for appropriate technology, is collaborating with the creation of a global political initiative: Vinay Gupta: “The Global Swadeshi Network is a new community of people working together on various aspects of personal freedom and economic or technical self-reliance. Swadeshi is Gandhi’s term for economic self reliance…. Continue reading
Does internet distribution favour superficial culture production?
Jonas Andersson poses the serious problem that a demonitezing cultural production dissuades ambitious projects: – the problem: “The problem with distribution on the Internet is that it is granular, and dispersed in a way that is in fact antithetical to panopticon-like overview. Instead, it favours an accessibility that primarily operates through a search function. The… Continue reading
Video: WELL Party, 1989: Early virtual community meetup
“A slice of cyberculture history: Over twenty years ago, people who met online began to meet in person at the WELL office in Sausalito. These interviews are from a WELL party,” via Howard Rheingold
Fábricas Recuperadas: crowd-storming your own just and equitable economy in Argentina
“Factory workers in Argentina show us that just and equitable economies not only can, but do, exist. How have these workers struggled for ownership of their factories? And how does this struggle contribute to our collective vision for the future of our economy? “We used to work for money. Now we work for dignity.” I… Continue reading
Christian Siefkes on Hint-based Systems
From a discussion on the Oekonux mailing list (list-en), Christian Siefkes refers to an important aspect of peer production projects, i.e. their stigmergic aspects, which allow to coordinate work through impersonal messaging of what needs to be done. Christian Siefkes: “A hinting system also serves as an informal mechanism for prioritizing tasks: the more people… Continue reading
Pursuing the Common Good: 1) the aims of this Vatican Conference
Report of the conference at the Vatican: Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together. The above conference, which aims to update the social doctrine of the Catholic Church in light of current social developments, will take place May 2 to 6, 2008, and I will be presenting a case study on… Continue reading