“…you have to find a job at IBM to live from Linux code” Why building a new kind of economy requires cooperative accumulation.
Most content creators (don’t believe me? here’s David Byrne from the Talking Heads, on Spotify) are fighting a losing battle in an effort to make a decent living from their work. But somehow, books carry on. Why is the publishing industry still thriving?
Worker-owned co-ops have a different approach to employee engagement than corporations. Here are some looks at how they do it. Co-op developers use a kind of franchising that looks much more friendly than the model used in the fast food industry.
Headed Down Under? Want to rent a caravan? The sharing economy’s got you covered. In the UK? Got a broken iPhone screen? The Restart Project wants to teach you how to fix your phone, instead of replacing it.
French filmmaker Maxime Leroy spent years interviewing people building sharing networks in cities around the world for his documentary, Collaborative Cities. Here’s an interview where he talks about the process of making the film, and how he got involved.
Margination just put out this youth-produced video about the building of a community farm in Chester, PA. Hey folks, I also love pesto–can I get a hook up?
Britain’s FabLab is a new kind of makerspace–one that aims to connect regular people to engineering experimentation.
Organizing Theory
Organizing within the global supply chain has the potential to truly link workers at every point of the transaction to build real solidarity. This new tech (developed by an NGO who wanted to give fashion companies a way to talk to “their” workers) might give us a breakthrough in how to organize inside chains.
From Partners
Harvard Law professor Benjamin Sachs has a new paper out, advancing a theory that US labor law be amended to allow unions to separate out their collective bargaining from their political organizing. His blog post on the subject is here, full paper is online here. I’ve had some thoughts about it–interested to hear from others as well.
Sarah Jaffe has a new piece out, detailing efforts by workers at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York to organize a union. H/T to them for enlisting digital organizing in the efforts–but why not use coworker.org for their petition?
Are you in the Bay Area, and interested in the collaborative economy? You might want to attend this event.
Organizing against austerity, in the EU or beyond? Head to this conference in Frankfurt in late November. I bet these Greeks who are fighting water privatization will be there.
The Singularity Approaches
Self-printing prosthetics churned out by 3D printer. Sarah Connors of the world, you might want to read this one.
What’s Going On in the Workforce?
The move to computer software that is based on recognition natural language is coming–Siri’s made all of us more comfortable with talking to our machines. This raises the question for educators–will teachers of writing need to start incorporating dictation?
What if you had to play a video game well, to secure your next job? Can you say ‘gaming the system?’
Your next international flight may feature an automated passport control system. And your next package (if you’re an Australian college student) may be delivered by drone.
Checking passports is one thing or delivering text books is one thing. Killer drones, with no humans at the wheel? This seems wrong.
Reputation, reputation, reputation
Are you paying for Facebook likes & Twitter followers? Did you know that there are people, not bots, behind some of those services? Here’s a shocker–the pay for that work sucks.
Thought DRM went away with Napster? A Microsoft leader is resurrecting it, in trying to protect your data.
Geeking Out
Want to find out if people think capitalism is working for them? Watch this video by an artist who installed a scoreboard in Times Square (“the heart of capitalism,” according to one participant) and asked people to vote.
You may remember that Elon Musk announced a theory of Hyperloop back in August–but didn’t have a plan to start building it. This new team does.
Final Thoughts
“…a robust critique of technology should, first of all, be a critique of neoliberalism itself.” Evgeny Morozov