[p2p-research] Open Source Ecology

Mon Jun 15 03:46:14 CEST 2009

After years of living on the edge I have seen that not everything  
moves as fast or willingly as me.

I am so appreciative of the fact that the group here is, as a group,  
investing in infrastructure than can carry any currency, that it's  
difficult to put into words.  I mean, for all the talk going on, thos  
thing is ONLINE NOW! W00t!

As a group they are aware that we must prove profress and a useful  
solution and tgat there are mire and better steps after we hit the  
first goals.

I'll stay in touch about Iceland Smari.  I checked flights after  
returning from Oekonux and I will again very soon.  Bet on it ;)

Alex

On Jun 14, 2009, at 18:27, Smári McCarthy <smari at anarchism.is> wrote:

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> Awesome. Although I like the idea of "alternative currencies", I think
> there is more inherent value in "currencies"* and we should be  
> focusing
> on non-scarce replacements for current monetary systems. That said, I
> haven't been doing a lot of work on this recently, mostly due to  
> lack of
> stimulus and too many other things going on.
>
> This week I'm meeting with Icelandic government officials on switching
> over to free software. This has an estimated government spending
> reduction of about 3.1-3.7 billion kronas annually just on licensing
> costs, not to mention the increased sustainability and trade benefits.
>
> Apart from that there are motions in action to start a cooperative ISP
> in Iceland which aims, broadly, to decommoditise uplink, putting it  
> back
> into the infrastructure realm. This is important, because you don't
> build systems upon commodities, you build it on infrastructure.
> Regardless of your active value statement** you have to admit that  
> value
> grows faster when the underlying elements are givens.
>
> Alex: You should drop by Iceland on your way back if you have the
> option. The level of madness that could ensue from this would be
> spectacular. If not, fair enough, we've got plenty of time.
>
>
> - Smári
>
>
>
> * "Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been  
> proven to
> work? Medicine." - Tim Minchin
>
> ** Mine is formulating to be: Every increase in redundancy results  
> in a
> decrease in requisite effort. More on this later.
>
>
> Alex Rollin wrote:
>> Nice!
>>
>> I am in Santa Rosa at the moment working on a prototype alternate
>> currency system with a coop that is working towards the ability to
>> purchase and manage 'rival goods' for the common good.  I flew here  
>> from
>> Amsterdam to work on the project.  Very fun!
>>
>> Alex
>>
>> 2009/6/14 Smári McCarthy <smari at anarchism.is <mailto:smari at anarchism.i 
>> s>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have to agree with Franz here. I thank him for the kind words  
>> about my
>> most recent rant, but the rant itself highlights a certain problem: I
>> am, much like many people here, much better at ranting on endlessly
>> about the theoretical points than making good of them on a practical
>> level. Whilst the theoretical musings are very very important, if  
>> they
>> aren't backed up with proof of concept and running code (to borrow a
>> phrase) it isn't worth a lot.
>>
>> Open Source Ecology and Global Villages and so on are really doing  
>> the
>> gruntwork here. There's lots and lots of running code. What we need  
>> to
>> do collectively is map out that code, see what's working and why, and
>> start mapping our theoretical insights onto proofs of concept.  
>> There's
>> plenty of things that are working that we don't understand, and  
>> there's
>> plenty of things that aren't working for reasons that we do  
>> understand.
>>
>> Bridge the gap, people!
>>
>> - Smári
>>
>>
>> Franz Nahrada wrote:
>>> Sorry Michel I cant do anything but fly over the messages in P2P
>> research
>>> from time to time; the discussion is really interesting  
>>> (especially I
>>> liked Smaris rant about anarchism with many good insights). but
>> for me at
>>> least part of the discussion is less important than the practical
>>> experiment. I think it is utterly important to rally around common
>>> activities or ongoing projects and describe them better. Let us
>> demand to
>>> test what really works. It could as belief-blowing as a succesful
>> test of
>>> nuclear fusion, and similarily uncomfortable and disturbing even
>> for the
>>> enlightened mind. For example, I think we will not have a  
>>> satisfactory
>>> answer to the money problem unless we really put different
>> proposals to
>>> work out in regional scale (including what I still would prefer to
>>> describe as non-reciprocal gift economies, commons-based  
>>> contribution
>>> economies and other schemes, keeping in mind that really the  
>>> property
>>> question remains n fact central). And we all as different as we
>> are have a
>>> clearly defined common interest to let such things like  
>>> experiments in
>>> social innovation happen, and at a higher level, we should be able  
>>> to
>>> formulate such an interest and give it political form - and also
>> give some
>>> part of our energy to the promotion of such experiments. Never
>> before the
>>> public ear has been more receptive to such proposals, but I see
>> more than
>>> ever before nothing but idiots dominating the political scene who  
>>> just
>>> claim to have a clue to everything.
>>
>>> This has to change radically. There is incredible thirst for another
>>> anwer. And I hope that we will be able to discuss that soon when
>> we meet.
>>
>>> Furthermore and regarding the currently most promising social
>> experiment
>>> and its implications, I issued a post on the globalvillages list
>> and added
>>> a second one to stimulate our communities to take part in the  
>>> critical
>>> phase of transformation of Open Source Ecology into a virtual global
>>> endavour. Its simply not true that developments like these could
>> happen
>>> spontaneusly, it needs a lot of help and participation and critical
>>> cooperation of intellectuals and bright minds. I see my function  
>>> as a
>>> door-opener who facilitates mental and communicational bridges  
>>> between
>>> people and the many meaningful movements that construct the
>> patterns of
>>> tomorrow.
>>
>>> In this sense, I would just like to draw your attention and the
>> attention
>>> of all readers of the p2presearch list to the following two posts:
>>
>>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/message/4004
>>
>>> where I describe the current phase of the project and ask for
>>> participation in a particular project
>>
>>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/message/4016
>>
>>> where I seek to make a point against underestimation of this
>> movement also
>>> within our own circles.
>>
>>> both posts are meant for broader distribution.
>>
>>> Thank you
>>
>>> Franz
>>
>>
>>
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>
>> -- 
>> Alex
>> I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.-  
>> Socrates
>
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