One year ago, John Heron wrote an important, but self-published book, on Participatory Spirituality, which was subtitled, a Farewell to Authoritarian Religion. This important book is now also available through Amazon and I would therefore like to bring it once more under your attention. Below is the short review that I added to it. Review:… Continue reading
A handbook for the global cooperation of corporate teams: Global Project Management
Jean Binder is a former Brazilian student of mine, back in the days when I was teaching The Anthropology of Digital Society. He sent me the following news, which is appropriate for the subject matter of our blog. Jean Binder: “Let me take the opportunity as well to share with your peers my new website… Continue reading
How the Dutch are pioneering open payment and self-determined revenue sharing practices for creative services
I’m very, very excited about the following developments reported in the dutch media and blogosphere, and have asked our Dutch sympathizers to report on this in English. Because of time constraints, I can at present only provide the Dutch-language links. This is truly the peer to peer future in the making, so I’m hoping for… Continue reading
Dutch P2P Foundation offline dinner in Amsterdam
The P2P Foundation is growing. Not only do more people believe in the theory of Michel Bauwens, but more people involve actively in the foundation. Last Monday we had a dinner with a group of the Dutch believers. We had a great dinner in the old center of Amsterdam. It was the first time meeting… Continue reading
Current internet will reach capacity by 2010
Gorden Cook writes in the Arch-econ mailing list, a hang out for emancipatory telecom strategists, that the next The COOK Report will feature an intensive interview with John Curran predicting that the current IPv4 address blocks will run out, and that convergence to IPv6, however imperfect, is a necessity, yet no one is really preparing… Continue reading
A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain
When it first came into usage, “the global brain” seemed like only a metaphor. But the more we learn about how the human brain functions, the more convincing the parallels are in real life. In many ways each of us is participating in a brain without borders, one that encompasses humankind. I’d like to focus… Continue reading
How should the open community relate to business?
I’m reproducing as a piece in this debate, a contribution by Johannes Ernst. He writes that: “You and I and everybody depend on others to get technology into our hands, and those others are, for the most part, “enterprises”. I depend on Apple for the laptop I’m writing this on. A big CableCo for the… Continue reading
A New Social Contract?
Friday, November 2, at the University of Michigan, game-theorist Brian Skyrms gave the Tanner Lecture on Human Values, and his topic was “The Evolution of the Social Contract.” Saturday, November 3, there was a symposium to respond to and discuss his lecture. Invited speakers were Elinor Ostrom, Michael Smith, and Peyton Young. Elinor Ostrom discussed… Continue reading
An update on Digital Fabrication: introductory concepts
The following are excerpts from a primer by Smari McCarthy of FabLabs, on making things controlled by a computer, and how this can be used in the whole world, to leapfrog development. Introduction: “Digital fabrication technologies are rapidly coming into existence. With projects such as MIT’s Fab Labs and RepRap and Flex Fab Multimachine, the… Continue reading
An update on Digital Fabrication: resource overview
Smári McCarthy, one of the pioneers of the personal fabrication movement, has given us an update on the state of the project. Here it is: “The idea is to make almost everything. In the short term that means taking existing technology for personal fabrication and rapid prototyping and deploying it as far and wide as… Continue reading
Investigating participatory epistemologies: towards inclusional research
Alan Rayner, along with an impressive crew of participants, has launched a website devoted to an in-depth investigation of participatory forms of knowing, which he calls inclusionality, and is opposted to the isolationist effect of pure objectivist views, which sees objects as separate from their invisible environments: “A new public forum and website was launched… Continue reading
Is peer governance a feudal system?
Metaphors and analogies are always somewhat dangerous: can the governance of a distributed system be compared to a system based on the hierarchical allocation of resources? Here is an old item from Joi Ito’s blog , by Vinay Gupta, one of the pioneers of the open design movement. I’m reposting it because it is an… Continue reading
Is actics the new facebook?
My friend Adam Arviddson is very happy about the increasing uptake of the ethical tool Actics, which a Digg item says “will be as big as Facebook! A social network for individuals and companies to demonstrate and live up to their ethical values.” The original article by Peter Scholtus at Treehugger gives a good explanation… Continue reading
The “In Control” Open Healthcare experiment
Charles Leadbeater, the author of We Think, and Hilary Cottam, have written an essay, which is also the start of a research project on open healthcare by Demos, on a significant social care experiment in the UK, which puts patients in charge of their care, according to what we would call a Partner State model…. Continue reading
Political introduction to peer to peer
Robin Good has published an excellent, illustrated, version of an essay on the political implications of peer to peer theory. Part One is here. Part Two is here.
Are bloggers changing politics?
In These Times reviews a significant book by Matt Bai, The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, the author being the New York Times Magazine’s leading political journalist, ITT writes that Bai “has written an entertaining narrative that combines serious analysis with an often rollicking mix of humor and political gossip…. Continue reading