“Sharing is not an opposite of ownership nor a panacea. But we can make use of existing resources rather than create everything we need, sharing our knowledge and skills and getting inspiration. And through the dialogues inevitably occurred during the process, we can restore community spirits that have been forgotten for a while.” * eBook:… Continue reading
I am a pretty assiduous digital commoner, for what it’s worth. I almost exclusively use free/libre/open-source software (hereafter FLOSS), evangelistically so. I try to practice open journalism. I’ve run and developed business models for organizations devoted to producing Creative Commons content. I believe that property is theft, ultimately, and I hold the ancient doctrine of… Continue reading
The problem with blockchain is in its design: dependence on mining, an industrial activity based on the availability of infrastructure, puts any blockchain product in the custody of whoever manages to attract large-scale capital. A year ago, when we proposed an ideological map of the movements emerging on the Internet, we laid out two axes:… Continue reading
It … proceeds from a perspective that already presumes a neoliberal subject and an economic mode of governance in the face of social and/or political problems. ‘How do we manage and incentivise individual competitive economic agents?’ In doing so, it not only codes for that subject, we might argue that it also reproduces that subject…. Continue reading
Video exploring the current situation at the level of the City Councils, Generalitat, Central Administration and European Commission. What are the different roles of the administrations? A debate about the most appropriate models of collaborative economy to be promoted from the administrations, with Mara Ballestrini, Carolyn Hassan, David Hammerstein, Adrián Todolí and Ivana Pais. Note:… Continue reading
When I lived in Kenya, my friend, Kamau, needed to raise funds to purchase the storefront where he operated his grocery business. Even with a distant relative in the local bank, he could only borrow half the funds he needed. I offered to help some, but my contribution wouldn’t come close to covering the other half…. Continue reading
“The rule of law maximizes injustice. The rule of law is the darling of the leaders and the plague of the people. We ought to begin to recognize this. What we are trying to do is to get back to the principles, the aims and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. This spirit is resistance to… Continue reading
The infrastructure of the FairCoop is now sufficiently in place for it to be useful, the next step is getting more participation from the public and creating a ‘network effect’ which will multiply its usefulness. A contribution by Guy James: “The Fairmarket is up and running in beta version at https://market.fair.coop, you can see the… Continue reading
This is one of the must-see, must-listen-to videos to watch this year! Brilliant explanation by Dmytri Kleiner on the ‘transvestment‘ approach, i.e. how to transfer value from the system of capital to the system of peer production. Kleiner explains for example why federated systems, depending on servers and investments, can’t compete with centralized technologies, because… Continue reading
“The object of P2P Theory is to investigate the specific phase transition from social forms based on the domination of the market form (aka capitalism), to social forms based on the peer to peer network form.” Different historians and anthropologists have posited the existence of dominant social forms, which evolve over time, though should not… Continue reading
You may be familiar with the role of proprietary automobile diagnostic software in enforcing a repair cartel of the Big Auto manufacturers, dealership mechanics, and auto repair chains and big garages that can afford to license the software. By using closed software that makes it impossible for an independent party to access it, or open… Continue reading
As part of STWR’s ‘global call for sharing’ campaign, we are periodically highlighting the growing public debate on the need for wealth, power and resources to be shared more equitably both within countries and internationally. This debate is becoming more prominent by the day, although it is often framed in an implicit context without directly acknowledging… Continue reading
Every so often I am invited to write a piece that in effect answers the question, “Why the commons?” I invariably find new answers to that question each time that I re-engage with it. My latest attempt is an essay, “Commoning as a Transformative Social Paradigm,” which I wrote for the Next System Project as… Continue reading
The blockchain will be very useful for registering large corporate capital markets and making cross-border banking transactions, but The concrete use of the blockchain to register all the movements of a market—rather than each company doing their own, independently—and having a sort of autonomous notary is a easy game for big banks and centralizers. An… Continue reading
The Renewable Energy sector is growing strongly as fossil fuel becomes less appealing in light of cost parity of renewables, limiting carbon emissions and driving evolution to sustainable societies. In Energy Efficiency, widespread ripple effects positively impact jobs creation, manufacturing and other metrics tracked by traditional GDP and integral to transition management. The following text… Continue reading
We can all feel it — the mental disease of late-stage capitalism is causing widespread depression, an epidemic of suicides, chronic feelings of guilt and shame, and a general malaise of powerlessness. The lack of economic opportunities is palpable. Major media outlets are owned and controlled by powerful financial interests. Elections in many parts of… Continue reading