On March 22-23, Michel Bauwens was invited to a lecture co-organized by the German section of the SMart cooperative, which organizes freelance workers for mutual solidarity, and by Supermarkt, one of the more dynamic ‘third places’ in Berlin. This interview that took place on March 23 is a very relaxed conversation with Ela Kagel and… Continue reading
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‘The Third Industrial Revolution’ explores how sharing creates a sustainable world
Cross-posted from Shareable. Ruby Irene Pratka: Call it “An Inconvenient Truth” for the market economy. In “The Third Industrial Revolution,” American economic and social theorist, business school professor, and policy adviser Jeremy Rifkin lays out a bleak vision of a near-future world devastated by climate change, mass extinctions, slow economic growth, and rising levels of extremism and inequality…. Continue reading
Can We Trust ‘Green Growth’? DIY Fact Check
Here’s the magic number: 50 billion tons. That’s how much of the Earth’s materials and life forms we can safely use each year, without destroying the web of life. That includes everything from wood to plastic, fish to livestock, minerals to metals: all the physical stuff that we consume. Right now, we’re using about 80 billion tons… Continue reading
Announcing OPEN 2018 – The Platform Co-op Conference
After an extremely successful event in February 2017 at Goldsmiths University The Open Co-op conference is back with a new line up and a new venue for 2018. This year, OPEN 2018, will be held at Conway Hall in Holborn, London, on the 26th and 27th of July. Conway Hall is owned and operated by Conway Hall Ethical Society, a… Continue reading
Tractor Hacking: The Farmers Breaking Big Tech’s Repair Monopoly
Inspiring video, originally published in Motherboard, about the right to repair – in this case farm equipment. It would be exciting if these communities were more aware of projects like Phygital or initiatives such as Farm Hack and L’Atelier Paysan to decrease their dependence on corporate giants. From the shownotes to the video: When it… Continue reading
Goteo – crowdsourcing for open communities
Levente Polyák: Goteo is a platform for civic crowdfunding founded by Platoniq, a Catalan association of culture producers and software developers. Goteo helps citizen initiatives as well as social, cultural and technological projects that produce open source results and community benefits, with crowdfunding and crowdsourcing resources. Since its launch in 2011, Goteo’s crowdfunding campaigns have mobilised more than… Continue reading
Seeds: commons or corporate property?
This is one of the most dynamic and illuminating films (39 min.) I have seen for quite a while. It follows the lives and struggles to save seeds – families, small farmers, communities, nations. It brilliantly facilitates deepening our understanding on several fronts – the predatory core and corruption of global capitalism in the seed… Continue reading
Universal basic services could work better than basic income to combat ‘rise of the robots’
Continuing the conversation on Basic Income, which has been widely covered in this blog, we now turn to something more akin to Dmytri Kleiner’s concept of Basic Outcome, where essential services (and rights) are provided outside of the market sphere. It would, however, be wise to combine Universal Basic Services described by ULC/IGP with our proposals for… Continue reading
What is Holochain and why does it matter?
In this video, Holo/Holochain co-founders Eric Harris-Braun and Arthur Brock and ICO Project Lead Jean Russell explain what Holo and Holochain are and why it matters. Additionally Jamie Klinger explains the finer dimensions of Holochain in the post below: Holochain : The Blockchain picks up a Dimension Jamie Klinger: Bitcoin’s central mechanism — the Blockchain — is a monumental achievement in… Continue reading
Open source appliances for sustainable development
Open source products are essential to build a more sustainable, fair and circular economy Take a look at this project by some of the people in our network. If you’d like to support it, please click on this page to contribute. How does open source creates social and sustainable impact? If we make products open… Continue reading
European Commons Assembly Madrid: The Workshops
The European Commons Assembly (ECA) is a network of grassroots initiatives promoting commons management practices at the European level. The last stop for the network was at Medialab Prado, Madrid. These activities were part of the Festival Transeuropa program, a large meeting of political, social and environmental alternatives. Overview of Thematic Working Groups Participatory Tools… Continue reading
Breaking the web and killing innovation: Now even lobbyists admit that’s the plan behind the extra EU copyright for news
Julia Reda, writing in her own blog, warns of the dangers of the new EU copyright law. Please share this video and text widely. Julia Reda: For months now I’ve been raising the alarm about the plan to limit the freedom to link that has been slowly but surely making its way through the EU legislative process. The… Continue reading
Gabor Mate on How Materialistic Society Creates a Toxic Culture
Strongly recommended video about how we are bio-physical-social beings and how relationships directly affect health. “Gabor Maté is a Hungarian-born Canadian physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry, and psychology, as well as the study and treatment of addiction.” Photo by dno1967b
Frank Pasquale on the Shift from Territorial to Functional Sovereignty
It is very clear that power in our societies is changing. After the financialization of our economies under neoliberal globalization, we have a new layer of corporate power emerging from the platform economy. This process is very well described by Frank Pascuale in the recommended text we excerpt below, under the concept of Functional Governance…. Continue reading
To Catch the Rain
To Catch the Rain is a book of inspiring stories of communities coming together to harvest the rain, and how you can do it too. Go to the project’s Kickstarter page to support the publication of this exciting book. What’s To Catch the Rain all about? To Catch the Rain is a book of inspiring stories of communities… Continue reading
Cathy O’Neil on Algorithms as Harmful Weapons of Math Destruction
Secretly held and designed algorithms have a large power over our lives and work opportunities and are becoming a form of nefarious power that big corporations hold over us. Moreover, as Cathy O’Neil shows in this presentation, they often incorporate human biases. What can we do to resist ? Find out here. From the shownotes… Continue reading