http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog My attempt to overcome everyday information overload Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:16:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm working on a new project to document cooperatives (of all kinds) in Atlanta. Sadly, as far as I know there are very few coops in Atlanta. The major ones that I am aware of: Sevenanda Grocery MadRatz Infoshop SoPo Bike Cooperative In addition to those there are a number of credit unions and ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=12 Bush wants to send $83 million to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. These funds are intended to build up "responsible security forces" to support Abbas. Violence has broken out between Hamas and the PA after Abbas announced plans for early elections. The confrontation is quickly threatening to escalate ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=11 Although framed here as a popularity contest, some of the articles in the collaborative newspaper, BrooWaha (hate the name), are actually fairly decent: BrooWaha is a collaborative online newspaper that gives ordinary readers a chance to participate and share their knowledge! We publish your articles and give you feedback to let ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=10 P2P Foundation posted some thoughts similar to my earlier post. Michel Bauwens lays out three scenarios for social innovation: Allow some user innovation to externalize costs (Dell, Ikea) Profit off a platform for cooperation and user-created content (Amazon, Ebay) "Autonomous Product" minus the corporation (Wikipedia) The third group, the only one that means a significant ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=9 Howard Rheingold of Smart Mobs expresses his optimism over many-to-many communication: My optimism about the potential of the generation of digital natives is neither technological determinism nor naive utopianism. Many-to-many communication enables but does not compel or guarantee widespread civic engagement by populations who never before had a chance to express ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=8 Having access to the Internet is important. The war for the Internet is not over. It is not yet completely in the hands of corporations but there is no law of technology that says access and communication through this medium will always remain even as free and open ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=7 The Worker's Paradise reports that in 2006 at least two workers cooperatives converted to capitalist businesses Good Vibrations and Burley Bicycles. He implies that this conversion was due in part to the growth of these two companies. He quotes Melissa Hoover of the US Federation of Worker Co-operatives: "For those of ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=6 Most things in life are spoiled by the need for money. Having graduated college, I have a few ideas of what I want to do with the next part of my life. None of them involve working under someone else, and hopefully none of them involve others working for me. ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=5 For both my personal life and society in general I oppose hierarchy when it is unjustified. It turns out that in almost all cases in the world where we find hierarchal authority of one entity over another it is unjustified. For example, the corporate control over the world's ... http://www.desperatelyobvious.com/blog/?p=3