The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives

November 2008 Blog Posts (37)

Discount offer for book: Organising and Disorganising

I'm still waiting for my own review copy, but what from what I've seen from the draft chapters, this is a really important book regarding peer governance and an outline of the different forms of human solidarities and how they interact.

I.e. the author distinguishes: markets, hierarchies, egalitarianism and 'fatalism' and a fifth integrative form of relationship called "Autonomy"

The book is: Organising and Disorganising: A Dynamic and Non-Linear Theory of Institutional… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 14, 2008 at 13:34 — No Comments

Critiquing the Emilia-Romagna coops system

The network of cooperative businesses of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna is often hailed as an example of a decentralized business network based on ethical principles.

Our Italian correspondent Marco Fioretti says that there is a lot of critique though, but the links below are all in Italian, so we would appreciate any knowledgeable english commentary on the topic.

Marco Fioretti:

The problem is that most of this stuff is in Italian only.… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 14, 2008 at 9:19 — No Comments

Join the facebook group of the Network of Spiritual Progressives

Here at NSP, we want to help our members connect with friends and other members online and help us grow our membership. We have started several projects which can help us expand our presence on the internet and allow us to connect with each other more easily. We call this our "NetRoots" campaign, and it is part of our outreach that combines our new website, social groups like Facebook and online tools like forums.

To start this campaign, we need your help. When you sign up to a… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 14, 2008 at 5:14 — 1 Comment

Launch of open disruptors community site

from: Nick Jankel-Elliott, via Dante Monson:

More info via http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=175057500000 ; http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=48016830567&mbox_pos=0

Hi all

We have amazing news. Based upon the success of our open Disruptors community, the UK's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA.org.uk) is collaborating with us at Beyond Zero (www.beyondzero.cc), the people behind The Disruptors, on the first… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 12, 2008 at 3:09 — No Comments

Introduction to Free Software

Via Marvin T. Pascual:

A first book has been published by the SELF Project. "Introduction to

Free Software" has been produced together with the Universitat Oberta de

Catalunya (UOC) with a number of recognised authors on the subjects of

Free Software. The book provides an introduction to the inspiring world

of Free Software, covering its main concepts, some of the most

successful free software projects, the specifics of their development

and the legal… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 12, 2008 at 1:54 — 4 Comments

The possibilities of open spectrum

This interesting summary of the possibilities of open spectrum appeared in business week, here at

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc2008115_197440.htm?

It's an update to http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/open-spectrum-victory-in-the-us/2008/11/08 relating the victory for open spectrum usage in the US.

BW writes:

" The new airwaves, known as white spaces, could be used to create wireless hot spots akin to those created by Wi-Fi… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 11, 2008 at 12:17 — 4 Comments

New service innovation center in Amsterdam

Via Mark de Jong,

This press release is related to participation in business processes, co-creation and codesign.

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The University of Amsterdam and the VU University Amsterdam will launch one of the first European university centers for service innovation: the Amsterdam Academic Centre for Service Innovation (AMSI). Innovation is a major characteristic of the service economy. There is an increasing need for managers who possess expertise in both business… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 10, 2008 at 15:11 — No Comments

A very important essay on a policy for abundance and the commons in the physical world

Via Roberto Verzola:

URL = http://rverzola.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/verzola-on-abundance1.pdf

I have just finished a piece that puts under a single theoretical

frameworks disparate issues like software, books, music, video,

inventions, agriculture, natural resources, the Internet etc. The unifying

concept is abundance.

This new piece extends my earlier analysis of ICT and society contained in

my book Towards a Political Economy of… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 10, 2008 at 15:01 — 6 Comments

Kevin Carson: an industrial policy for Obama

From Kevin Carson, via email:

My response to the solicitation of ideas at change.gov:

INDUSTRIAL POLICY

As always, my recommendations center on a theme of pursuing green ends

with libertarian means.

If we want to replace the present centralized economy of waste

production and planned obsolescence, it's an inescapable fact that a

great deal of excess manufacturing capacity cannot be saved. In my

opinion it's a mistake to try to prop… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 9, 2008 at 2:50 — 4 Comments

Open Digital Villages as Multi-purpose centers for p2p and sustainability convergence

Via Jeff Buderer:

"For me the key point I try to emphasize is this idea of developing nodes

of convergence - that is how can we come together in centers and or

ecovillages that can help us to better synergize. This does not have to

be a life long or long term commitment but rather a focus on how we can

pool our resources on making the urban systems more compact and

sustainable and community friendly/human scale (thus reducing the impact

on rural regions… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 7, 2008 at 9:23 — 1 Comment

The Art of Participation exhibition in San Francisco

Via Kevin Flanagan:

There is exhibition at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art called

'The Art of Participation' which looks at the history of participatory

practice in contemporary art. For a good 50 years now artists have

challenged the 'institution' of art, blurring the boundries between

art and life, artwork and audience. In a way as these artistic

practices which at one time (60's&70's) where 'radical' and

'antagonistic' have become… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 7, 2008 at 4:08 — No Comments

Launch of Resistance Studies Network

Via Geert Lovink,

More info at http://resistancestudies.org/

Announcement:

In an attempt to remedy the lack of academic study in the field of resistance to power and its social transformation the School of Global Studies at Göteborg University has launched this Resistance Studies Network.

With the help of networking, collaborative conferences, research and publication projects and thematic educational events, this network hopes to deepen the… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 6, 2008 at 3:28 — No Comments

Seminar on networked politics

Dear everybody!

During the last month a group of us have been trying to organise a working seminar on Networked Politics and Technology in the Bay Area. We are making the most of the fact that some of us are at present in the US. It has taken some time to get everything organised. Now we can confirm it. It will take place in Berkeley on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of December 2008. It will be hosted by the School of Information – UC Berkeley. We are also organising a public event… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 3, 2008 at 23:20 — No Comments

Discussing the ethical economy, chapter 1

Let's participate in discussing Adam Arvidsson's very important draft book, starting with chapter 1. One month is dedicated to discussing this chapter.

Here's the announcement:

“We’re proud to announce a new website for the Ethical Economy book project. At www.ethicaleconomy.com, you can download a final version of the first chapter that introduces and summarizes the argument (the second chapter, The Ethical Economy is Already Here, on how capitalism is no longer… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 3, 2008 at 23:02 — 10 Comments

Launch of Open Science Mailing List

(also check out: http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Science)

Via the Open Knowledge Foundation:

After discussions with Cameron Neylon of Open Wetware and Kaitlin Thaney

of Science Commons we set up an open science mailing list. As far as we

could tell, there wasn't a general mailing list for people interested

open science. Hence the new list aims cover this gap, and to strengthen

and consolidate the open science community.

We hope it… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 3, 2008 at 7:45 — No Comments

Announcing the Open Cafe

Via Nathan Cravens:

From http://opencafemain.wikispot.org/:

"The Open Cafe fuses the age old tradition of the potluck with the contemporary Open Source movement to share company, food, drink, and more in a community environment created anew with every day. A wiki page maintained by a community describes each day's menu and schedule of events for a physical location in your area. You, the participant, can establish a location, make the menu and event schedule as you please,… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 1, 2008 at 6:43 — No Comments

You Think For Yourself but You Act Like Your Friends

This was sent to us by Auren Hoffman of http://blog.summation.net

Text:

You Think For Yourself but You Act Like Your Friends

It is important to understand how homophily changes the way we think

Birds of a feather tend to shop together. That we know. They also tend to talk together and walk together; and who their friends are affects more than just what type of jeans they buy. Their friends have the capacity to affect their tastes, activities, and their… Continue

Added by Michel Bauwens on November 1, 2008 at 3:33 — No Comments