Five Commons Overview

Food Commons

Teaser Author Tags Year Being used?

Post announcing the report is here.

"We need to be thinking about our food in broader terms and with an eye to the future. Which is why IFTF's Global Food Outlook Program is proud to make our most recent report, FoodWeb 2020: Forces Shaping the Future of Food, available to the public (download above). This report, and the FoodWeb 2020 Map, explain what forces are changing the food web. It contains forecasts about directions of change and examples of disruptions in the web, as well as innovative responses to them. "

 Foodweb 2020, a report from the IFTF richardcadler demographics-statistics 2011 No

A video of Ari's recent talk at UM. He goes over ideas from his recent book, A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business, while also looking back on how the writings of noted anarchists influenced that approach over the years.

Some of what he has to say relates very much to the Five Commons.

 Anarchist on Rye: Ari Weinzweig of Zingermans richardcadler ann-arbor, business 2011 No

Stowe Boyd notes a hopeful trend:

 Increasing sales for organic food richardcadler demographics-statistics, local food, organic food No

Andrew Sullivan notes two water-related developments: Las Vegas starts showing some sanity about their use of water (mixed in with a lot of continuing insanity), and

Vegas getting more realistic about water richardcadler american west, water No

A new book on the future of water use in the 21st century. The interview here covers the basics (water really isn't free, etc). I suspect he's more optimistic about market solutions than reality warrants, but his examples are worth following up on:

 Charles Fishman's 'The Big Thirst' (water in the 21st century) richardcadler No

The article offers thirty-six ways life is getting harder for the Middle Class. This is the sort of thing I think we can start checking on via the 5CR (are these numbers really legit?) while also giving us more on which to base our own insights.

 Statistics re: the state of the middle class richardcadler 21st century economy, futurism No

The NY Times asked for six opinions on the future of the planet and population growth.

Jamais Cascio is the main point of interest here, but the other five are worth discussing.

 Can the planet support ten billion people? (1 of 2) richardcadler 21st century economy, climate-change, environmentalism, population, sustainability No

The other three contributions to the NY Times article about the planet and population: David Bloom, Jason Clay, and

Can the planet support ten billion people? (2 of 2) richardcadler 21st century economy, environmentalism, futurism, population, sustainability No

Unhappy news, from Oxfam:

"The world's poorest people, who spend up to 80% of their income of food, will be hit hardest according to the charity. It said the world is entering an era of permanent food crisis, which is likely to be accompanied by political unrest and will require radical reform of the international food system."

 Food prices to double by 2030, says Oxfam richardcadler 21st century economy, global food production No

An article about Wisconsin passing legislation affecting microbreweries by making them half to go through distributors. The government says this is to protect them, while the brewers say it's nothing but that. Interesting example of how complicated this sort of thing can get.

 Wisconsin legislation and microbreweries richardcadler government regulation No

Energy Commons

Teaser Title Author Tags Year Being used?

Paul B. Hartzog said:

The real story here is not advances in energy production, but the transformation of the entire energy landscape from large-scale centralized production to small-scale distributed networks of production. This is part of a general shift towards what Yochai Benkler called "commons-based peer-production."

It is interesting to note that Scientific American repeatedly investigates the important change: "How home solar arrays can help to stabilize the grid" and "Joining the Energy Underground: Residential Geothermal Power Systems."

 NewsTrust.net - Blog: The Future of Energy: News Hunt Results paulbhartzog future of energy, NewsTrust 2011 No

Worth at least a passing mention in the larger discussion of energy options for the future (Japan, obviously, is the real story there), but the readings in this Forbes article (interesting to see this turn up in that magazine) does mention Detroit among other cities.

Also note the article's comments, which have some valuable follow-up.

 Radiation readings in US drinking water/air richardcadler future of energy 2011 No

The official answer to that question is 'Yes,' but some researchers are not convinced.

 Has BP really cleaned up the Gulf? richardcadler BP Gulf spill, environment 2011

While on the national level, America looks unwilling to come to terms either with its addiction to oil or with the need to address global warming, locally, towns are taking on sustainability issues whether through programs such as New York City's PlaNYC, signing on to the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, or by tapping the know-how of their citizens in other ways. One such grassroots movement that travels under the "Transition Town" banner is spreading fast across the U.S., UK, and elsewhere with a strikingly practical and optimistic approach to sustainability.

 Shareable: International Energy Crises Make the Case for Change: Towns Lead Transition paulbhartzog energy commons 2011

Basic info for our work on Energy Commons.

 Smart grid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia paulbhartzog energy commons
All About the Smart Grid | distributedenergy.com paulbhartzog distributed energy, energy commons 2011

A 'sixth-generation' local resident speaks up

 A call for returning public transport to Grand Rapids richardcadler auto industry, michigan, public transportation No

This makes a lot of sense to me, at least for people living in urban areas. Not possible here in the Midwest outside of Chicago, but maybe we'll see some progress toward making it possible over the next couple of decades:

 Smartphone and bike beats car richardcadler No

A new book on the future of water use in the 21st century. The interview here covers the basics (water really isn't free, etc). I suspect he's more optimistic about market solutions than reality warrants, but his examples are worth following up on:

 Charles Fishman's 'The Big Thirst' (water in the 21st century) richardcadler No

The article offers thirty-six ways life is getting harder for the Middle Class. This is the sort of thing I think we can start checking on via the 5CR (are these numbers really legit?) while also giving us more on which to base our own insights.

 Statistics re: the state of the middle class richardcadler 21st century economy, futurism No

Access Commons

Teaser Author Tags Year Being used?

"When they make this know-how available publicly, Facebook can effectively crowdsource its expertise because it leverages a much larger community than they have available to them internally," said Stephen O'Grady, principal analyst at Redmonk. "As smart as the Facebook community is, they're not necessarily going to be as smart as the whole rest of the industry, which now has access to this technology."

 The Open Compute Project: Why Facebook Is Giving Away The Goods Sam Rose datacenter, facebook 2011 No

Well, it's not like Twitter ever claimed to be open source. But still, this article doesn't make for happy reading if you're a happy Tweetdeck user.

As always the reasons boil down to the same old story: "controlling the user experience."

 Why Twitter is gunning for Tweetdeck richardcadler twitter, walled gardens No

An unhappy lesson in the limits of Amazon's availability zone plan.

"

 The limits of Amazon's availability zones? richardcadler amazon, cloud computing, ec2 No

Throwing the whole article here because it hangs together well, and I couldn't decide on a quotable piece. Nothing incredibly new for us, but a useful perspective on this topic:

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Flowing Your Identity Through the Social Web
Jeff Sayre

Some social networking platforms are beginning to buy into data portability. Whereas any step toward opening up the closed data-silo islands is a positive step, the real question is what does data portability actually mean?

 Digital identity, data portability, and identity flowability richardcadler data-management, identity, walled gardens No

Not long after his interesting presentation, Libraries are Screwed, in Connecticut, Eli Neiburger weighs in again, this time about the future of library reference, which he feels belongs to the geeks:

"We need big servers and the geeks to take care of them," Neiburger said. "What are we going to cut to be able to hire a geek? We are going to cut reference staff. Reference is dead," he said."

 Eli Neiburger on the future of library reference richardcadler future of libraries No

Paul Davis at Shareable.net writes about the potential budget slashing of the transparency platform Data.gov :

 Concern about data.gov shutdown richardcadler government, open-access, transparency No

Your Twitter name could run afoul of a trademark dispute. And if it does, don't expect prior warning from Twitter.

Fortunately, this example had a happy ending, but it might not have.

Just another reminder of what we own and what we don't.

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 Internet companies and internet freedom richardcadler corporate, government, nextnet, twitter No

No comment about this article or the project it describes.

Will offer them at some other time.

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 Archiving the web, 500 sites at a time richardcadler archival standards, digital preservation, future of the internet, web-archiving No

Some numbers about online activity by generation, which finds, "blogs are not waning. All the major blogging platforms are growing. As noted in the article, Blogger’s visitors were up 9% last year, while WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg on his blog notes that WordPress is up 80 million views in the same period....

 Blogging NOT in decline richardcadler blogging, future of the internet, social media No

Links to Chronicle of Higher Ed articles about scholars fighting with academic publishers for better access to their own and others' scholarship.

 An academic copyright rebellion richardcadler academic, future of publishing, intellectual property, open access No

Thing Commons

Teaser Author Tags Year Being used?

"When they make this know-how available publicly, Facebook can effectively crowdsource its expertise because it leverages a much larger community than they have available to them internally," said Stephen O'Grady, principal analyst at Redmonk. "As smart as the Facebook community is, they're not necessarily going to be as smart as the whole rest of the industry, which now has access to this technology."

 The Open Compute Project: Why Facebook Is Giving Away The Goods Sam Rose datacenter, facebook 2011 No

Compiled by Computerworld, the list includes many sources on the topic of America's slip in tech dominance.

 A reading list for America's tech decline richardcadler 21st century economy, tech industry 2011 No

Oh, lovely:

 How manufacturing might return to the US richardcadler 21st century economy, manufacturing No

3D printers are getting more and more affordable by the season, seems like.

 Self-reproducing 3D printer for $500 - Boing Boing richardcadler 3d printers No

Let’s explore what could be ahead for public libraries and how we could collectively transform them into “factories” — not factories that make things, but factories that help make people who want to learn and make things. Will libraries go away? Will they become hackerspaces, TechShops, tool-lending libraries, and Fab Labs, or have these new, almost-public spaces displaced a new role for libraries? For many of us, books themselves are tools. In the sense that books are tools of knowledge, the library is a repository for tools, so will we add “real tools” for the 21st century?

 Make: Online | Is It Time to Rebuild & Retool Public Libraries and Make “TechShops”? paulbhartzog fablab, thing comons 2011

Sweet! A great win for homegrown, Detroit know-how:

 Detroit DIY man invents a new kind of steel richardcadler detroit, makers No

Partly funded by the NSF, FabFi Network is "an open-source system that uses common building materials and off-the-shelf electronics to transmit wireless ethernet signals across distances of up to several miles."

 Afghanistan's FabFi Network richardcadler asia, nextnet No

[...]

More difficult to assess is the question of whether this microbusiness mindset will persist into the childbearing years. From Gary Becker onwards, economists have formulated the decisions about whether to form households, to have children, and how to raise them, in economic terms. Yet it was never clear that people actually made their family decisions that way.

 American's turning against stuff? Sam Rose 21st century literacies, millenials

Wow.

http://www.willowgarage.com/pages/software/overview

Things are getting interesting in the machine controlling world.

 Robot Operating System Sam Rose opencv, robotics, ros No

Culture Commons

Teaser Author Tags Year Being used?

In order to get their work seen and raise some revenue at the same time, The Yes Men turned to P2P distribution. Through a partnership with Vodo (http://vodo.net), a site that works with P2P clients to organize distribution of low-budget works, the movie has been downloaded many times and The Yes Men have raised more than $25,000 in donations.

 Yes Men Documentary Prospers with P2P Distribution Sam Rose cinema, distribution, p2p, vodo 2011 No

Ebook sales are growing. Here's another article about it.

 Ebook sales are growing richardcadler ebooks, future of the book 2011 No

Nothing really new here, but Kelly's notions should be good for a few quotes.

 Kevin Kelly on the future of ebooks richardcadler ebooks, future of the book 2011 No

Calling the author a skeptic of the Long Tail isn't the half of it. Stefan Goldmann sees the current environment as being a serious step down for both artists and their fans/listeners:

 Making electronic music in the Long Tail richardcadler future of music, long tail 2011 No

peer production becomes Social Production :: http://www.iftf.org/SocialProduction

by Marina Gorbis. a must read. "digital manor economy" and "digital peasants"

 Ain’t Gonna Work on Arianna’s Farm No More | Institute For The Future paulbhartzog culture commons

A point worth making at every opportunity:

 Piracy and the sales of ebooks richardcadler ebooks, future of publishing, intellectual property No

I could quibble about analogy between 'digital manorialism' and its supposed antecedent in the Middle Ages, but Gorbis' newly coined term is much too useful for me to object to it.

 Marina Gorbis and digital manorialism richardcadler No

The Book Industry Study Group has released new figures showing a shift to ebooks:

 Book industry trade numbers on a shift to ebooks richardcadler No

Read it and weep, New York Times editors:

 Poll shows Americans not willing to pay for news richardcadler demographics-statistics, future of journalism, walled gardens No

Could be significant, but the BBC have waffled on this sort of thing before, so it's best to wait and see what form this finally takes. But it could be tremendous, if done right:

"Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.

"The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added."

 BBC director plans to open its television archives richardcadler television, walled gardens No