Peer2Politics

Continuing our coverage of FLOK Society’s recent “Buen Conocer” summit, we’re glad to present this special long-form conversation between Open Access chronicler Richard Poynder and Michel Bauwens, held just before the summit took place. The interview is specially noteworthy for being a very honest across-the-board examination of FLOK as a process, including both its virtues and the unavoidable pitfalls it has faced. Read on for more.

Collaborative Economy Week is an event created by Minka: Bank of Networks to spread new models of economies based in collaboration, articulate actors and leaders of the economy in a global collaborative network and learn by sharing skills and tools. The main goal is to connect collaborative economy actors and experiences in a global network that links people, projects and organizations working in different contexts.

On March 28th , 2014 , FEBAB and the University of São Paulo (Information Science Department of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto and supported by the Integrated Library System) will be commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions – IFLA / LAC , with the seminar “Tradition and Innovation Cooperation : New Frontiers of access” which aims to discuss recent trends in management, availability, quality and use of information on investigations carried out in the area of Science, seeking to bring together researchers, managers of educational and research institutions, representatives of funding agencies, evaluators, librarians, ICT specialists and decision makers in different areas. Within this context, to recover the history of the development impact of projects in the region and still observe itself how IFLA/LAC has acted and encouraging the development of Latin American and Caribbean librarianship, offering a great opportunity and certainly awaken much interest.

Gordon Cook has been kind enough to transcript Michel Bauwens’ presentation at last year’s Border’s to Cross Conference in Amsterdam. We’ve also included the video at the end for good measure, (so you can see Michel being “invited” offstage for going over his allotted time).

It’s probably too late for most of us to attend, but this Friday through Sunday, June 6-8,Pixelache Helsinki 2014 will host an international two-day trans-disciplinary event on “The Commons.”

For a country suffering from economic devastation and political upheaval, Greece is not accustomed to bursts of optimism.  But last weekend provided a showcase of hopeful, practical solutiions at the second annual CommonsFest, held in Heraklion on the island of Crete.  The festival brought together a dazzling array of commons and peer production communities:  hackers, open knowledge advocates, practitioners of open design, hardware and manufacturing, open health innovators, sustainable farming experts, among many others. 

 hours but it’s already time to put down an initial assessment of the second OuiShare Fest, that closed doors in Paris on Thursday morning with an incredible #OuiShareLove Party.

Off Grid is an opportunity to breathe deeply and tread lightly. This summer, join our newly indigenous tribe of builders, growers, healers and storytellers as we celebrate the beginning of an Age of Reunion. Between August 14th – 17th our emerging community will open the doors of perception and glimpse Another World.

How does an organisation open-source their cultural festival? Can we share the process for organising a festival, so that other groups can use it themselves? How do organisations support activities and events throughout the year? Can we share the process for sustaining ongoing programs, so that other groups can do this too?

The austerity policies put in place by European governments through the Troika have turned a financial crisis into a project bent on the destruction of social and workers’ rights, and they have established a regime of infinite debt on individuals and institutions. But new political and institutional creations are demonstrating that debt and democracy based on citizen participation and on social rights are incompatible. In these creations we get a glimpse of prototypes of a Europe made from the bottom up, out of the sense of brotherhood of the social struggles and self-organisation by citizens.

When I received an invitation to attend the Economics and the Commons conference (Berlin, 2013), I was delighted. The commons is alive in me. It is a new/old paradigm that reconnects with, and brings innovative thinking to, the social and ecological issues important to our collective well-being. I was certain that if ever a conference exemplified cutting-edge group processes, this would be it.

Rome has possibly never looked as beautiful as it did last week when I landed, since the glorious days of the Roman Empire, thanks to all the work done in recent years. The size of the Colosseum, the Pantheon and  Vittoriano are intimidating — as were the numbers relating  to “Maker Faire – The European Edition”, which the mother of all cities hosted from the 3rd to the 6th of October at the “Palazzo dei Congressi”