Posted on January 14 by Josef
Tags: Co-operation, Media, Open Source, Openess, Sharing Economy, Video | 1 comment
I just came across this video after reading this interview
Google Tech Talks July 31, 2007
ABSTRACT
Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party and the international politicized pirate movement, talks about the rise and success of pirates, and why pirates are necessary in today’s politics. He’ll also outline the next steps in the pirates’ strategy to change global copyright laws.
The fight against copyright aggression tends to focus on economic aspects of the shift to a networked economy. Rick explains how this conflict is much more important than that: the fight against the copyright regime is about the right to fundamental civil liberties - down to the postal secret, whistleblower protection, freedom of the press, and the very right to an identity. Rick Falkvinge is the founder and leader of the Swedish Pirate Party, as well as the founder of the international politicized pirate movement. His leadership and vision took the Pirate Party from nothing into the top ten parties in the last Swedish general election, without a dime in the campaign chest. His personal candidacy came in at rank #15 out of over 5,000 candidates for the 349 parliamentary seats.
While he didn’t win one of those seats due to threshold rules, the Swedish Pirate Party has inspired similar parties to form in over 20 other countries, and the fight for civil liberties against copyright and patent aggression continues.
The primary focus of Rick and of the Pirate Party is to fight back against the current copyright aggression and surveillance populism using the one thing lobbyists can never buy - votes in a democratic election. Rick demonstrates how much more than business models are at stake in the copyright debate: today’s copyright and essential civil liberties have become mutually exclusive, and society must choose.
Rick Falkvinge lives in Stockholm, Sweden. When not engaged in the fight for privacy and citizens’ rights, he can usually be found cooking, reading, or riding a motorcycle.
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Posted on October 30 by Josef
Tags: Activism, Co-operation, Co-ops, Economics, Inspiring Projects, Mobile, Projects, Sharing Economy | 3 comments
Ever wondered what the best way to make international calls from your mobile is?
Well, the answer is Dialstation.
There are lots of ways to an initiate a call (including a facebook app) but the one I’ve personally found most convenient is to simply text a contact from my address book to Dialstation.
Say, for example, I want to call my Dad in Spain. Both he and I only have mobile phones and he has never even used a computer so voip is out of the question for now.
Normally, (unless I buy international calling card, dial and massive long number, enter and code and then enter my dad’s number, the call from a UK mobile to a Spanish mobile costs me a bomb. This has led to me not speaking to my dad much.
Now, with Dialstation, calling my Dad on the cheap is as simple as texting one contact from my address (my Dad’s) to another (Dialstation).
After texting my Dad’s number to Dialstation I almost immediately get a call (from Dialstation) that appears to be from my Dad (his name comes up on my screen as if it were him calling).
Moments later, my Dad receives a call that appears to be from me (my name comes up on his screen).
In effect Dialstation is simply making two local calls and connecting them up over the internet.
Dialstation is simple, cheap, effective, AND founded on principles of economic democracy.
I love it!
Dialstation was built using free software by our friends at Telekommunisten, a company wholly owned and controlled by the workers and organised as a “Venture Commune“.
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Posted on January 27 by Josef
Tags: Commons, Economics, Housing, Land, Money, Organisation, Permaculture, Projects, Sharing Economy, Update | 1 comment
Yesterday I had the most amazing and inspiring phone call ever.
A man called Ray called me from Cornwall, 2km from where Oli was already but totally randomly literally on his way to (thanks to Katharine), and basically said that he wants to entrust his land to a community very much like the commons creation collective - i.e. one with shared values (create a whole new economic system based on new land ownership and monetary systems etc.) he can grow to trust and love.
He’s got an 1.5 acre and is about to buy another acre. He wants to build sustainable housing and stuff. His partner runs a theatre company and they are both really into open space technology (self-organised meeting/conferences) and new forms of organisation.
I’ve just had another long conversation with him (we spoke for 2 hours before, and about another hour or so just now) and its seems that we may well try to have a what I call a “Building Man” festival on the land this summer (open space, build, celebrate)
Oli is going to make contact and hopefully go visit the land. It sounds very beautiful, near the sea and relatively high up with sea views and access to a lake (that they share with the quarry on the other side).
They’ve already got a load of waste materials from the quarry, enough to build a few cob/straw type structures.
Looks very like we could be off to a flying start!
To the Commons!
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