Kind: Reads

Read How solid is Tim’s plan to redecentralize the web? by Irina Bolychevsky (Medium)

The internet and near-costless scaling of digital has allowed the concentration of too much power in too few hands. Our systems for…

I really like the Personal Data Store concept. You own your data, and you choose to let apps interact with it for your benefit. It’s pretty much what the #indieweb is doing (though perhaps for the more limited subset of things that don’t need verified claims).

I don’t like the commercial nature of most PDS offerings (including Solid now).

Either way, some good general food for thought in this article.

Read Fully Automated Green Communism | Novara Media (Novara Media)

How can we secure luxury for all without careering even faster towards climate catastrophe? Aaron Bastani discusses.

“It means saying ‘here is a path to limitless abundance’, rather than calling for civilisation to be placed in a straight jacket.”

Following on the previous ‘degrowth vs accelerationism’ article, a view from what the other article would call the left accelerationist approach.

I wouldn’t call it accelerationism though. Just a harnessing of technology for the aims of equality and abundance. But not blind techno-optimism.

Good article.

Read Repair Day: No One Should Be Punished for “Contempt of Business Model” (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Repair is one of the secret keys to a better life. Repairs keep our gadgets in use longer (saving our pocketbooks) and divert e-waste from landfills or toxic recycling processes (saving our planet). Repair is an engine of community prosperity: when you get your phone screen fixed at your corner…

Great piece by Cory Doctorow on the importance of repair.

“This is the golden age of repairs, a moment made for a renaissance of shade-tree mechanics, electronics tinkerers, jackleg fixit shops, and mom-and-pop service depots. It has to be: our planet, our pocketbooks, and our neighborhoods all benefit when our property lasts longer, works better and does more.”

Read Radical municipalism: demanding the future (openDemocracy)

‘Municipal politics’ may raise new types of demands crucial in organising powerful social movements and improving material conditions, while orienting us towards new understandings of what is possible. 


Some good musings on the relationship between post-nationalism and post-capitalism.

Hypothesis: “that the ‘municipal’ – whether we’re talking about towns, cities or city-regions – might be a fundamentally important scale at which, and through which, to generate progressive movements towards post-capitalism”

Some good thorny issues that need examining in the ‘Our questions’ section.

 

Read Everything for everyone: Michel Bauwens interviews Nathan Schneider – Commons Transition (Commons Transition)

An interview with Nathan Schneider by Michel Bauwens, on this very interesting book about the past, present and future of the cooperative movement and how it intersects with the revival of the commons.

“I regard cooperatives as a kind of commons, a mode of commoning that has made itself legible to the industrial-era state and market. […] But I wouldn’t claim cooperatives are sufficient. They’re a starting point, a gateway to more diverse and widespread commoning.”

Nathan Schneider interview by Michel Bauwens.

http://commonstransition.org/everything-for-everyone-michel-bauwens-interviews-nathan-schneider/

Read Mondragón and the System Problem by Gar Alperovitz (Truthout)

Politics & Elections Native Vote Could Determine Outcome of Senate Race in Montana Human Rights New Senate Bill Would Allow Indefinite Detention of Migrant Families Human Rights New Legislation Gives Access to Medication Abortion at Public Colleges War & Peace Bernie Sanders to Pompeo: Yemeni Lives …

Interesting read about some of the issues faced at the system level as cooperatives get large and embedded in global markets. As experienced by Mondragon.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19704-mondragon-and-the-system-problem

Mondragón and the System Problem

Read The making of the CommonsCloud – technical choices | Free Knowledge Institute (freeknowledge.eu)

Interesting article on the tech choices behind CommonsCloud.

freeknowledge.eu/article/makin

(CommonsCloud is a platform coop combining Discourse, NextCloud and Phabricator. They’re trying to build an online collaboration platform for the solidarity economy.)

en.goteo.org/project/commonscl

The making of the CommonsCloud – technical choices