The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives

All Blog Posts (768)

Ponoko launches Photomake: 3D printing of photos

Dear friends,

here's an announcement of the 3D printing pioneers Ponoko:

Text:

"You can now turn digital photos of your hand drawings into real life products simply by uploading them to the Ponoko website.

This means you do not need to use graphics software to make something. This significantly lowers the entry barrier for all creative people who can hand draw using pen and paper but do not know how to use design… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 25, 2008 at 4:57 — No Comments

European telecoms package not positive for internet users

Monica Horten says that the proposed rules that will be voted on by European Parliament on September 23, do not bode well.

She writes:

"The Telecoms Package (Paquet Telecom) is a review of European telecoms law. Ordinarily, it would deal with network infrastructure and universal service and other purely telecoms matters. However, buried within it, deep in the detail, are important legal changes that relate to enforcement of copyright. These changes are a threat to civil… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 22, 2008 at 11:17 — 1 Comment

A vision for 2012: Planning for extraordinary change

See http://www.visionfor2012.com/

“Priests, shamans, and holy men have been talking about the coming decade for hundreds of years, and many scholars, examining the recurring patterns of history, also foresee major upheaval on the horizon.

In this timely and insightful treatise, Petersen explains how the world and its leaders must prepare for an onslaught of potential crises, such as rapid climate change, a tipping point in the global financial system, a pandemic, or a new level… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 18, 2008 at 13:58 — No Comments

Invitation for the Open Sustainability Network event, October 18-19, 2008

Via Curt Beckmann

Your work indicates that, like me, you believe strongly that sustainable solutions should be shared whenever possible. We are gathering together a large community of like-minded groups and people, called the Open Sustainability Network (OSN), to work on overcoming barriers to openness and collaboration. Our first conference will be at San Francisco State University on October, 18th-19th and admission is free. Your support for OSN can range from simply joining and… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 15, 2008 at 5:32 — No Comments

An appeal to beautify our audiovisual guide

The adage "be your own media" has inspired Valentin Spirik to compile an extensive guide with annotated resources for anyone planning to make his/her own audio or video material, covering the various free software production and distribution tools available.

The guide is located here: http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Audiovisual

It is a labour of love of two years, but now Valentin is undertaking new projects.

Though the main page has been visited more than… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 12, 2008 at 10:40 — No Comments

The Willow Project: Open Source Robotics

Via Matt (Digiblade):

The Willow Project is a seriously cool effort to bring robotics to the

masses: think of it as Lego Mindstorms all grown up. The project

makes all their hardware and software designs open source, so anybody

with the capability can take part, downloading existing designs and

uploading their own. You don't have to be Dr Robotnik taking a break,

either - the project includes tutorials and instruction, so all you

need is the desire to… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 12, 2008 at 4:24 — 2 Comments

Discovering FLOSS Manuals

A message from Adam Hyde:

"FLOSS Manuals (http://en.flossmanuals.net) is a non-profit

foundation and community creating a collection of manuals that explain

how to install and use a range of free and open source software. The

manuals are friendly and simple, and they are intended to encourage

people to explore the wide range of free and open source software.

The manuals on FLOSS Manuals are written by a community of people, who

do a variety of… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 11, 2008 at 17:05 — No Comments

Testing out The Green Light TV

Peter Forrest reports:

"It's been a long time coming but http://www.tgl.tv is now ready for extensive testing and feedback.

I would be most grateful if you could try it out and let me have your overview, inc. any recommendations for improvements.

Please have a look at our visitors intro. film, produced by a local school, and sign up to help us extend the testing phase .

A few pointers:

* About tgl will give you useful information, inc. How… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 9, 2008 at 13:53 — 1 Comment

The Democratic Socioeconomic Platform (DSeP) proposal

From Rob George, http://www.CenterSDS.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fellow Passengers and Crew,

The purpose of this communication is to announce and present to you a Democratic Socioeconomic Platform, in search of a Democratic Political Party.

This Democratic Socioeconomic Platform (DSeP) is available on the website of the Center for the Study of Democratic Societies at:

http://www.CenterSDS.com/dsep.html

The purpose of this Democratic… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 9, 2008 at 6:51 — No Comments

Call for Contributions: Fourth Oekonux Conference 27-29 March 2009

Call for Contributions

to the

4th Oekonux Conference

in collaboration with

P2P Foundation

Please distribute this text as wide as possible.

During the past decade the phenomenon of Free Software has become

successful and well-known. It is still amazing how in the realm of

software the creativity of so many volunteers leads to products which are

useful for the whole mankind. In 1999 the [1]Oekonux Project started… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 9, 2008 at 4:07 — No Comments

Ponoko ID makes custom designed goods accessible

The following is an announcement, but companies like Ponoko deserve our support as they are bringing distributed manufacturing closer to reality:

San Francisco, CA – Now shoppers can have their goods designed and made just for them at the lowest price possible. Ponoko ID is the world’s first shopping request and match making service for manufactured goods. It’s the latest offering from Ponoko, the unique online marketplace that brings… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on September 4, 2008 at 4:45 — No Comments

Superflex - Self Organisation / Counter Economic Strategies

Danish artists group Superflex have released a .pdf of their most recent book on-line, free to download and share.

Ive not had a thorough read of the book but it covers lots of interesting projects, some Superflex are directly involved in such as ‘Free Beer’, ‘Copy Shop’ but the book also covers things like the recovered factories movement in Argentina, the black spot sneaker, the barefoot college… Continue

Added by Kevin Flanagan on July 2, 2008 at 2:31 — 1 Comment

Can Consumers Collectively Own 'Producers'?

In today's world we have for the most part - a strict separation of production and consumption, which together constitute "the market". The incentive for a market economy is a division of labor. Some are good at organizing, others are good at doing various "jobs". The enterprising spirits who are good at organizing become producers or purveyors of commerce, meaning, distributors of things produced. The less enterprising who yet need some resources to survive contribute by selling their manual… Continue

Added by Sepp Hasslberger on May 13, 2008 at 14:01 — 22 Comments

The best software news I have seen in a while - Freenet Messaging System

http://locut.us/blog/2008/05/11/fms-spam-proof-anonymous-message-boards-on-freenet/

Added by Carl Ballard Swanson on May 12, 2008 at 4:41 — No Comments

Hub Breakfast | Charles Leadbeater on mass innovation & creativity for social innovation

Hi, for all of you who are in London we are hosting a Hub Breakfast with Charles Leadbeater on the 19th May at The Hub London (www.the-hub.net/where/london). You are all invited. Details below.

x

Maria

Hub Breakfast | Charles Leadbeater on mass innovation & creativity for social innovation

Monday 19th May @ 8.30 am, The Hub London

Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities… Continue

Added by Maria on May 11, 2008 at 21:30 — No Comments

Pursuing the Common Good, some personal reflections on attending the Vatican conference

I'll be reporting from the regular blog, but I tend to avoid personal recollections in the movement blog, and I think the community setting here is more appropriate for some of the more personal reactions. I'd like to take a jab at why I'm excited at attending this conference, which aims to update the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, 'in light of current social developments."

Report of the conference at the Vatican: Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on May 1, 2008 at 13:48 — No Comments

Quality of Experience

In the west (and particularly in Europe) we tend to settle for the less-than-inspiring experience: the experience with the product that we cannot configure and use;

the experience with the train service that sells us the long distance ticket on the sardine-packed train with no seat;

and the experience with the institution that takes no extra step to realize the goal in such a way as would benefit everyone: the applicant, the civil servant who's getting paid to perform the… Continue

Added by John Hammink on April 28, 2008 at 16:30 — 21 Comments

Graffiti Research Lab The Movie

I just finished watching the Graffiti Research Lab Movie which is available as a bittorent from http://graffitiresearchlab.com/

Its a testament to the cultural value of the free and open source approach.

The Graffiti Research Lab develops new often low tech approaches for… Continue

Added by Kevin Flanagan on April 27, 2008 at 10:00 — No Comments

Appeal for blog posts at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Dear friends,

A lot of people seem to be joining our Ning network here, and I'm sure each of you has interesting projects and ideas that others may be interested in.

Why not describe them at our blog?

I'm particularly keen on new content to keep our publishing schedule on track, as I will be travelling until May 20 at least!!

Michel

Added by Michel Bauwens on April 21, 2008 at 12:04 — No Comments