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Share to Transform Cities for the Common Good

Why Shareable? Economic inequality. Political instability. Environmental crisis. These are challenging, divisive times. But there’s a strong movement of people who are strengthening their communities by creating tangible, replicable solutions based on sharing and collaboration. All around the world, there are countless stories of people working together for the common good — stories of people… Continue reading

Pollinating Prosperity: Michael Shuman on how to incubate generative economies

Most local administrations are promoting start-up incubators whose very models of business development often create a huge leakage for the local economy. Michael Shuman calls for local incubators who have a generative effect on the local economy, which he explains very cogently in this video: ‘Pollinating Prosperity’, presentation by local economic development expert Michael Shuman… Continue reading

Patterns for Decentralised Governance and why Blockchain Doesn’t Decentralise Power… Unless You Design It To

I  recently gave a talk at the re:publica conference in Dublin. Every time I go to one of these internet-and-society conferences I get very grumpy about the blockchain hype, so today I used my stage time to spell out my grumpiness. Here’s what I said… Civilisation ❤️ trusted databases It might help to think of blockchain as… Continue reading

Autogestió: adventures into the new economies of Catalonia

In May 2015 we posted this crowdfund appeal from Enfable for a film including a discussion of the CIC (Cooperativa Integral Catalonia), and now here is the final film. Catalonia is at the forefront of new economic thinking. They are a region rich in social currencies and in projects and people creating functioning post-capitalist societies…. Continue reading

Why Use Creative Commons Licenses?

Even though Creative Commons licenses have been around for more than a decade, I am always surprised to learn that many progressive-minded activists, artists and academics – the people who should be most enthusiastic about the licenses – know nothing about them or at least don’t use them. A big welcome, then, to a new… Continue reading

The Origin of Spaces: Bordeaux

#OOS BORDEAUX: Ecological Transition “We wanted Darwin to be about inventing new ways of working, new ways of doing business, new ways of enjoying life. It was about reinventing the city. From the outset, our ambitions came up against the limits imposed by environmental concerns, at a time of major upheaval, resource shortages, and, whatever… Continue reading