Did you read Wyatt Closs’s “How Workers Could Get Hijacked on the Digital Highway” yet? You really ought to do that…
What’s Going on in the Workforce
“When one fishes, there’s an art to landing the fish…” This might be the best thing I’ve ever read about teaching, wrapped up in a post about how to engage students, through social media and in-person.
“For all of North Brooklyn’s book groups and websites and meet-ups dedicated to alternative monetary systems, the solidarity economy is, for the time being, at its best in the service sector.” Tip your barista, people.
“What if a company maximized jobs over profits?” Interesting question for the Harvard Business Review to be asking…
Running a unionized worker-owned co-op? Join 1 worker, 1 vote.
Uber has apparently bent to the popular sentiment that, if you are helping people hail & pay for car rides, you might actually have some responsibility if something bad happens—even if you aren’t employing the drivers. So they got insurance.
Organizing Theory
Serious trigger warning on this one—but kudos to this ad company, for figuring out how to incorporate google glass into this PSA.
Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability
Peers & the Freelancers’ Union are teaming up to host a Q & A on tax prep for folks who work in the sharing economy—Wed. March 19th at 3 pm Eastern/12 Pacific.
“(non-profit) professionals are taught to say, “how can I help you with the skills and the expertise that I have?” None of us are taught to say, “I need your help too.” Some interesting thinking about how time-banking works—and how it could work differently, if more of us did it.
“It’s tricky for us to focus on property tax in a vacuum. You almost have to look at the entire picture of what the contribution is from the business community—from the philanthropic standpoint as well as the tax base.” Um. Yeah. Right. Guess no one should be too surprised that Silicon Valley companies are just like old school corporations, when it comes to continuing policies that create inequality.
The YMCA in London is working on the problem of access to affordable housing, in that very expensive city, by building pre-fab one-bedroom apartments that can be moved by crane.
If the car is a symbol of individualism—is car-sharing a symbol of collective action? So argues this blog post by French/Belgian car-sharing service, Djump. Kudos to them for wanting to spark a dialogue about reforming (not rejecting) regulation.
Are you thinking about building a makerspace? Here are some tips on how to build community around hardware-sharing.
Geeking Out
Mmmm….robot-made Oreos…
Final Thoughts
“Life is going to be complicated no matter what, so you might as well open the door and invite it into your house, or your pickup, as the case may be. Besides, someday, when you have to carry your double bed on your back, someone you once helped might give you a lift. It’s the basic investment plan of the poor: save what you have by sharing it.”
Julia Alvarez, A Wedding in Haiti