How #OccupyWallStreet’s MayDay radicalized the U.S. unions
Excerpted from David Graeber: “The US press seems to have decided that the Occupy movement is no longer a story. Pretty much no matter what we do. In New York, on May Day, something between 50,000 and 100,000 people marched through the streets – we don’t know the exact numbers because most papers didn’t report [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 21, 11:11pm
Project of the Day: My Arms Wide Open Community Business Model
By Warren Te Brugge: “My Arms Wide Open® is a Canadian Federally registered foundation that I established to work with mothers, children and youth to crate change in the communities by creating sustainable community based businesses, education systems and infrastructure built entirely around the needs of their communities. We start within each community by facilitating [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 21, 11:00pm
Introducing GitHub For Windows
For the past several months I’ve been working on a project with my amazing cohorts, Paul, Tim, and Adam, and Cameron at GitHub. I’ve had the joy of learning new technologies and digging deep into the inner workings of Git while lovingly crafting code. Read more...
you've been HAACKED, May 21, 12:16pm
Making a living through Open Source Fashion: an interview with Zoe Romano of OpenWear
Zoe Romano is one of the founders of the OpenWear project. She is interviewed here by Costa Rican design and fashion researcher Oscar Ruiz Schmidt: ORS: Do you think that designers resign to authorship by making their work methodology open? ZR – That’s one of the main thing we need to clarify: open-source doesn’t mean [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 21, 10:58am
Book of the Day: The Neighborhood in the Internet
Book: The Neighborhood in the Internet: Design Research Projects in Community Informatics. John M. Carroll. Routledge. 2012. Overview Today, “community” seems to be everywhere. At home, at work, and online, the vague but comforting idea of the community pervades every area of life. But have we lost the ability truly to understand what it means? [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 21, 5:00am
Essay of the Day: The Massive Open Online Professor
Source: Stephen Carson and Jan Philipp Schmidt The challenges faced by higher education around the world are daunting and cannot be met by the traditional institution-based education system. For the current model to meet the needs of future generations, we would need to build and fund thousands of new universities. And yet the past ten [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 20, 5:57pm
Neoliberalism as a failed response to the declining advantages of scale
With the perspective of the current crisis, we can understand the set of neoliberal policies that have left their mark on the world since the Eighties as a Big Capital’s conscious reaction to, and an involuntary accelerator of, the reduction of the optimum scale of production, and therefore, to the transition towards a P2P production [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 20, 10:36am
Graphic of the Day: Media concentration infographic
By Frugal Dad: I’m concerned with the integrity of the news and entertainment my family and I consume every day. Who really produces, owns and airs the shows my kids are glued to every evening and which companies select the stories I read with such loyalty each morning? I’ve always advocated for critical consumption, and [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 20, 3:38am
Global May Manifesto of the #OccupyWallStreet Movement
Publication was delayed because of my travels, but this text is still significant: Excerpt: We do not make demands from governments, corporations or parliament members, which some of us see as illegitimate, unaccountable or corrupt. We speak to the people of the world, both inside and outside our movements. We want another world, and such [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 20, 2:13am
Civic membership, the Commons and Justice
From Marvin Brown’s Blog: As members of the civic we have much in common. We live in the same time. We live on the same planet. All our grandchildren will inherit the future we leave them. Still, if we switch our view from the civic to the social, we see great differences. Some have much [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 19, 7:48am
Community sufficiency technologies – the example of beekeeping
This is based on David Braden’s organiclandscapedesign site, which is a documentation of efforts to learn how to build self sufficient communities. Community sufficiency technologies are described as methods of achieving self-sufficiency, but rather than practicing this as a family, it is the community that works to achieve greater independence from the production of others. [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 19, 7:08am
What the German Pirate Party wins mean for copyright in Germany
An analysis of voter choices correlated to social position suggested that the Pirates strongest constituencies are amongst workers and the unemployed, where they took 14% and 15% of the vote respectively. Interestingly the two parties most likely to lose votes to the PP were the Greens and the FDP (liberals), but the basic lesson of [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 19, 1:37am
Project of the Day: Self Organised Learning Environment
Website: repository.alt.ac.uk/2208/ New (media) tools for self organized learning environment (SOLE) and for progressive inquiry. Description From FLOSSE: “The self organized learning environment (SOLE) is a model to adapt school space to facilitate inquiry based learning. The idea is simple and powerful: “A teacher encourages their class to work as a community to answer questions [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 18, 9:00pm
Spanish Cooperative ‘Grupo de las Indias’ promotes p2p re-industrialization swarm
via David de Ugarte On May 7, 2012 Grupo de las Indias started a campaign calling for a P2P directed local re-industrialization swarming action. They sent personal emails to more than 300 local and social leaders, including a mini-dossier in Spanish that shows how P2P industrialization could help stop the growth of unemployment in those [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 18, 11:11am
German Ministry Advises Developing Countries Not To Sign ACTA
Source: Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) advises developing countries against signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, BMZ official Frank Schmiedchen said during a meeting of the Committee of Petitions of the German Parliament yesterday. The committee discussed a petition signed by over 60,000 German citizens calling [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 18, 7:14am
Book of the Day: Open Source Intelligence in a Networked World
Book: Open Source Intelligence in a Networked World. by Anthony Olcott. Continuum, 2012 Description The amount of publicly and often freely available information is staggering. Yet, the intelligence community still continues to collect and use information in the same manner as during WWII, when the OSS set out to learn as much as possible about [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 9:00pm
Desktop Regulatory State: Chapter Two (First Excerpt)
[This is the third installment in my serialization of the first three chapters of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] I. The Systematic Stupidity of Hierarchies The intrusion of power into human relationships creates irrationality and systematic stupidity. As Robert Anton Wilson argued in “Thirteen Choruses for the Divine Marquis,” A civilization based on [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 8:09pm
The civilizational victory of Syriza is rooted in the Syntagma Square occupations
The electoral victory of the anti-austerity coalition of Syriza is extremely important for the future of Europe’s peoples. Here is a rundown of commentary. Please see the last contribution linking the electoral victory to the strategies adopted during the Syntagma occupations last year. 1. The Impact of the Greek Elections of May 6, 2012 Costas [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 7:21pm
Can renewable energy sustain consumer societies?
Excerpted from Samuel Alexander of the Simplicity Institute, who discusses a new report by Ted Trainer. “A new report has just been published which ought to provoke a Copernican revolution in dominant conceptions of renewable energy and of sustainability more generally. The message may not be one that environmentalists want to hear, but it is [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 10:03am
The Civic, the Commons and the Social
From Martin Brown’s blog: Say I am walking down a street in a large city and come across a homeless person on the sidewalk, and I ask myself if that could have been my fate. If I think that I could have been that person—except for different circumstances—then we share a common humanity. Our differences [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 9:44am
Europe Must Follow Netherlands in Adopting Net Neutrality Law
Source: La Quadrature Du Net The Netherlands became the first EU country to adopt a law protecting Net neutrality. This initiative must set the example for the rest of Europe and France. After the the vote in the lower chamber last year, the Dutch Senate definitively adopted the Net neutrality law1, which bans operators from [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 6:17am
An appeal to join our P2P Group on Facebook
Poor Richard writes: P2P (peer-to-peer) is the post-capitalist socio-economic framework that makes the most sense to me. It transcends but includes capitalism; and encompasses many hybrids of open and closed, public and private, hierarchical and egalitarian associations. P2P emphasizes cooperation, openness, fairness, transparency, information symmetry, sustainability, accountability, and innovation motivated by the full range of human [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 5:57am
Your thoughts: Helping sustainable currencies to scale
For the forthcoming International Social Transformation Conference on energy currencies, Community Forge is preparing a paper on grass roots strategies for sustainable currency implementation. We wish to solicit opinions from readers of this blog on this draft version (9 pages). It explains the why and the how of Community Forge’s striving for impact by offering free accounting software to [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 17, 5:43am
Project of the Day: OSE@Home
Website: opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE@Home Integrated resilient energy/food/water system for the home. Description Nathan Cravens: “OSE@Home is a package delivered to your door assembled at home with easy to follow video instructions to maintain the home self-sufficiently. No more utility bills and fuel costs! The package includes an aquaponic farm to grow fish, beans, and vegetables. Water comes [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 16, 9:00pm
The Joe Justice Interview: the state of p2p production methods
A very interesting interview on the state of the p2p production method, conducted by the ever excellent interviewer from Rome, Simone Cicero. The original interview is also available in Italian here. A must read: “Simone Cicero: First of all, we would like to know from you directly what’s the status of Wikispeed, and get some [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 16, 9:59am
Video of the Day: Max Keiser talks with David Graeber
Max Keiser talks with David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5000 Years, about weaponized debt and the origins of May Day: Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 16, 7:36am
New books advocate ‘open source’ model for nanotechnology
Source: UTS Nanotechnology and Global Equality, by Dr Donald Maclurcan, and Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability, edited by Dr Maclurcan and Dr Natalia Radywyl, build the case that global prosperity now demands innovation without economic growth, and nanotechnology shows such innovation is possible. “Practices like ‘open source nano-innovation’ offer game-changing avenues for bypassing inhibitive start-up costs [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 15, 9:00pm
Wikipedia founder to help in government’s research scheme
Source: The Guardian The government has drafted in the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to help make all taxpayer-funded academic research in Britain available online to anyone who wants to read or use it. The initiative, which has the backing of No 10 and should be up and running in two years, will be announced by [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 15, 7:50pm
CfP: “Platform Politics” in Culture Machine
Special issue of Culture Machineabout Platform Politics; vol. 14; edited by Joss Hands (Anglia Ruskin University) Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) Ganaele Langlois (University of Ontario Institute of Technology) This special issue of the peer-reviewed, open access journal Culture Machine on the concept of ‘Platform Politics’ will explore how digital platforms can be understood, leveraged and [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 15, 7:29am
Project of the Day: Common Welfare Balance
Website: www.common-welfare-economy.org Description “The pursuit of common welfare will not only become the new legal goal of all (private) business, but also the new meaning of entrepreneurial success. The CWE places the human being and all living entities as well as fulfilling interpersonal relationships at the center of economic activity. It transposes standards that bolster [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 14, 9:00pm
Why conservatism is bad for the commons
Excerpted from Jay Walljasper, who warns that slashing government budgets and making people precarious, is NOT good for encouraging the commons and volunteering: The Tea Party, libertarians and other so-called conservatives devoted to slashing all government spending not related to the military, prisons and highways have an easy answer when asked what happens to people [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 14, 11:56am
Chapter One. The Stigmergic Revolution (Second Excerpt)
[This is the second of a series of excerpts from my book-in-progress, Desktop Regulatory State (free online version of manuscript to date at the link)] V. Stigmergy Networked organization is based on a principle known as stigmergy. “Stigmergy” is a term coined by biologist Pierre-Paul Grasse in the 1950s to describe the process by which [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 14, 6:45am
Towards a European Charter of the Commons
Responding to the current wave of privatisations, European Alternatives together with the International University College and its Institute for the Study of Political Economy and Law together with the Municipality of Naples, and the Institut international D’etudes et recherches sur les biens communsare launching a process of forums and metings throughout Europe to draft a European [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 14, 6:41am
Book of the Day: Misunderstanding the Internet
Misunderstanding the Internet. James Curran, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman. Routledge. 2012 Overview The growth of the internet has been spectacular. There are now more 1.5 billion internet users across the globe, about one quarter of the world’s population. This is certainly a new phenomenon that is of enormous significance for the economic, political and social [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 13, 11:00pm
Megaupload Prosecution Is Lawless and Unconstitutional, Law Professor Says
Source: TorrentFreak Yet another law expert has slammed the US Government’s decision to launch a criminal case against Megaupload. Law Professor Eric Goldman argues that the Megaupload prosecution is a “depressing display of abuse of government authority” that ignores basic constitutional rights in order to protect private commercial interests. In recent months many people have [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 13, 7:00am
Project of the Day: Mapping for Change
Website: www.mappingforchange.org.uk/ London-based social enterprise which uses online maps as tools for communication and action on sustainable development. Description From the London Citizen Cyberscience Summit, held at the Royal Geographical Society and University College London. By Sam Geall: “Mapping for Change, a London-based social enterprise founded by Muki Haklay, a professor of geographic information science, [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 12, 9:00pm
New book: “Commons – Für eine neue Politik jenseits von Markt und Staat”
A new german book called “Commons – Für eine neue Politik jenseits von Markt und Staat” was published recently. It includes articles from members of the P2P Foundation. The index of the book is available and also the PDF version of it. An english version of this same book will appear later this year, in [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 12, 7:00am
The commons as an economics of replenishment
Political Economy and the Inclusive Commons House of Commons Portcullis House London, 8 May 2012 James B. Quilligan It is an honor to be a guest in this august body, the House of Commons. I’m sure that you don’t need a outsider to come in here and tell you about English history, but I would [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 12, 5:20am
Chapter One. The Stigmergic Revolution (First Excerpt)
[This is the first of a series of excerpts from my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State (click the link for a free online version of the latest manuscript] II. Distributed Infrastructure and Ephemeralization The larger and more hierarchical institutions become, and the more centralized the economic system, the larger the total share of production [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 11, 10:41pm
2012 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest
December 15-17, 2012 – FGV Law School – Rio De Janeiro, Brazil We are pleased to announce the Second Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. The theme for this year’s Congress will be “Setting the positive agenda in motion.” This note invites applications to attend the Congress, including proposals to chair workshops [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 11, 9:00pm
Book of the Day: Digital Vertigo
Digital Vertigo: How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us. Andrew Keen. 2012. Overview In Digital Vertigo, Andrew Keen presents today’s social media revolution as the most wrenching cultural transformation since the Industrial Revolution. Fusing a fast-paced historical narrative with front-line stories from today’s online networking revolution and critiques of “social” companies [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 11, 5:00am
Project of the Day: Patriots of the Digital Revolution
Invest in and acquire more torrent websites and cyberlockers from people who feel that they can no longer fight, and want out of the scene, but don’t want to abandon their website. Travis McCrea: “Patriots of the Digital Revolution (Digital Patriots) has been successful so far by saving two websites: TUEBL (The Ultimate Ebook Library) [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 10, 9:00pm
3D printers could create customised drugs on demand
Source: BBC Scientists are pioneering the use of 3D printers to create drugs and other chemicals at the University of Glasgow. Researchers have used a £1,250 system to create a range of organic compounds and inorganic clusters – some of which are used to create cancer treatments. Longer term, the scientists say the process could [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 10, 5:00am
10 Lessons from a Sharing Economy Organizer
Source: Mira Luna – Shareable I frequently talk with amazing social innovators that have great ideas, but don’t know how to implement them through community organizing. It’s something that you learn by doing and takes years of on the ground experience, self-reflection and feedback. I also studied community organizing in school and with groups who [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 9, 9:00pm
Brazil’s copyright societies indicted for fraud, new law demands efficient, transparent collecting societies
Source: BoingBoing Ronaldo sez, “I am writing because something relevant happened in Brazil two days ago regarding the local copyright collecting societies (analagous to Ascap and BMI in the US). After more than 6 months of investigation by a Senate special inquiry commission, 15 directors have been indicted for various types of fraud and crimes. [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 9, 5:00am
Dale Carrico responds to Cory Doctorow: “Technology” Is Not a Force for Either Liberation or Oppression
Reposted from 22nd July 2010 Futurists want you to think there is such a thing as “Technology in General” which is going somewhere in particular that only they know about because only they understand the language in which “Technology in General” declares what it wants. In short, they are just another cohort of bamboozling Priests [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 9, 4:20am
Project of the Day: OurGoods
Website: ourgoods.org/ OurGoods is a peer-to-peer online network that facilitates the barter of goods and services between artists. The site matches barter partners, provides accountability tools, and offers technical assistance resources to help artists complete their barters and their projects successfully. OurGoods emerges in response to the current economic crisis. To some extent, the arts [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 8, 9:00pm
Book of the Day: Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think. Peter H. Diamandis. Free Press. 2012. Overview We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term [...] Read more...
P2P Foundation, May 8, 5:00am