In a distributed network, power lies hidden in the invisible design architectures that promote or discourage certain social relationships. This protocollary power can be resisted or transformed through value conscious design. This point of view is echoed in a post citing Henry Jenkins, focusing on YouTube’s lack of participatory processes: “One of the things that… Continue reading
Lawrence Wollersheim on Open Sourcing Spirituality (3): Values and Principles
Continuing our series on the foundations of a participatory spirituality practice and movement, by Larry Wollersheim. Below are the essential minimum values and principles of the open source integral spirituality collabotation process that will facilitate expanding the global spiritual commons. This list will be amended or upgraded as needed as would be expected in any… Continue reading
Peernet: Constructing the Open Mesh
A popular peer-to-peer based network would be best situated on a physical infrastructure built in accordance with P2P principles. While the original internet infrastructure was one of P2P connections between university mainframes, the emergence of the world wide web has led to a paradigm shift, as recently argued by Simon Edhouse in The Medium is… Continue reading
Market logics vs. Community Logics
Great post at the Brandthroposophy blog by Robert Kozinets, a very good explanation, and overview of the research, about the Crowding Out effect. Kovinets conclude that an insight into the difference between market and community logics, would point to the conclusion that branded communities using rewards are ultimately counter-productive. We recommend reading the whole post,… Continue reading
Lawrence Wollersheim on Open Sourcing Spirituality (2): Creating a Global Spiritual Commons
We continue the presentation of Larry’s proposals for a participatory integrative spiritual approach. Creating a Global Spiritual Commons and its Relationship to the Open Source Spirituality Process “A Global Spiritual Commons is defined as a common and free access spiritual wisdom resource, cyber hub and network created and expanded by any and all individuals or… Continue reading
Open-Mouth Sabotage, Networked Resistance, and Asymmetric Warfare on the Job
A recurring theme in ruling class circles over the past thirty years has been the “crisis of governability” (e.g. Samuel Huntington, et al., The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission, 1975). It increased by at least an order of magnitude with the new possibilities the Internet offered for… Continue reading
Lawrence Wollersheim on Open Sourcing Spirituality (1): Introduction
As I’m almost wrapping up my lecture tour on participatory spirituality (see here to see what a good time I’ve been having in the Bay Area which is an incomparable microcosm of creative people), I must mention the very important initiative of Lawrence Wollersheim. I stayed on his Sunset Boat at Marina Plaza Harbour, the… Continue reading
From Intermediaries to Apomediaries
Gunther Eysenbach has written a very interesting article introducing the five characteristics of Medecine 2.0, which is highly worthwhile read. One particular characteristic struck me, as I was unfamiliar with the term, but I believe it is very insightful, so here is an extract explaining the function of apomediaries. Dr. Gunther Eysenbach: “Apomediation is a… Continue reading
The Digital Tipping Point: an open source documentary
We met Christian Einfeldt during our visit in the Bay Area and asked him to describe his movie project, an open source documentary based on interviews with many digital and ‘free software’ pioneers. Christian: “I am producing a film called the Digital Tipping Point. The DTP is a film library project and a documentary film… Continue reading
Marcin Jakubowski comments on Stan Rhodes’ Peer Trust Network proposal
A comment by Marcin, added to the explanation by Stan Rhodes on the Peer Trust Network proposal’s origins. Marcin Jakubowski: “The Peer Trust Network System is an integrated approach- based on sound critique of the existing state of affairs – aimed at providing an integrated solution to contemporary ills related to resources and their distribution…. Continue reading
Explaining Oekonux’ Germ Form Theory
The two Stefan’s of Oekonux (Linux Economy) are writing an overview essay for Capital and Class, a draft version of which is already available here. It’s an excellent explanation of their germ form theory, to which I adhere as well. Here’s the abstract: “When looking at peer production with a historical perspective then it is… Continue reading
An overview of P2P Governance trends
Take a brief look at P2P Governance trends here. You can save the image and take your time to browse through its contents. Access the keywords via our wiki with each entry on the diagram with it’s own corresponding wiki entry, using its search box. There’s a great range of categories, from new forms of… Continue reading
Localism and the Information Society
A new report in the UK, available for download here. Via: “This new report discusses the relationship between the development of new communication technologies and the local political/social space.” It “argues that the information society and its tools need not be regarded as purely for global use. Considering, as it does, the newly developing trend… Continue reading
Mark Pesce on how the mob beats business
In a speech, Mark Pesce outlined five rules that show how self-organized mobs beat the efficiency of business in creating infrastructures. The Five Rules of Mobs: “ONE: The mob is everywhere. There are very few places left on Earth where you can’t receive a text. Ulaanbataar to Timbuktu, Tierra del Fuego to Vladivostok, the network… Continue reading
Finding the Forest in the Trees: How I Stumbled into a Socioeconomic Model, Pt 2.
Part 2 of my narrative on discovering a socioeconomic model, which I call “utilicontributism,” for the time being. In addition to the authors and books mentioned in part 1, I also want to mention the works of Patrick Anderson, Christian Siefkes, and Dmytri Kleiner, whose writings helped frame and test perspectives I had not encountered… Continue reading
Johan Soderbergh on the capture of the value created by user communities
The following is both an extract from Johan’s book Hacking Capitalism, which we excerpted as Book of the Week, and a partial response to Adam Arvidsson’s contribution on the third circuit of ethical value creation. Johan gives an interesting historical overview of how this issue has been thought through. Johan Soderbergh: “Our observations on this… Continue reading