Mutualist journal club

Factory-in-a-day

2013-12-09T15:23:00.002-08:00

This service/technology may bring sophisticated automation technology to small enterprizes that value flexibility

http://www.gizmag.com/factory-in-a-day/30053/

Here's what a bossless company looks like

2013-03-04T22:44:00.003-08:00

Slashdot examines the software design company Valve, which is apparently a non-hierarchical organization. I have yet to read up on this, but it has been covered by Library of Economics and Liberty (Brian Caplan's site, I believe).

I'd like to compare it to more traditional coops, such as the Cheese Board in Berkeley, CA.

Printing guns at home

2013-02-19T22:43:00.001-08:00

From the Economist:

LAST autumn Cody Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas, leased a Stratasys 3D printer. He wanted to print a gun, and more—he and the group he founded, Defense Distributed, wanted to develop blueprints for 3D printing of guns and gun parts, and distribute those blueprints online. Mr Wilson’s motives are overtly political; he wants to “[expand] a free sphere of action…in contradistinction to a planned regulatory scheme…The file is the message. Anyone can have it, anyone can print it, anyone can use it.”

The President's plan to make "manufacturing hubs"

2013-02-12T21:47:00.001-08:00

Mentioned in the STOTU speech, I looked up some details:

The President will announce a new proposal for a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, to build a network of up to fifteen Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation around the country, serving as regional hubs of manufacturing excellence that will help to make our manufacturers more competitive and encourage investment in the United States. The President’s Budget proposes a $1 billion investment to create this new National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.

My impression is that these will be research institutes, not material infrastructure. This clearly won't support home-brew manufacturing technology. The Prez emphasizes "small business" support, but does that mean that these institutes will actually focus on their own technological problems, or does it just mean "we will try not to forget about small business"?

Bypassing the big guys to get broadband - The Washington Post

2011-03-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Bypassing the big guys to get broadband - The Washington Post

This article describes a small wireless ISP system in rural Virginia. It's commercial, more expensive than major networks, and eventually taps into the traditional Internet backbone, but it does indicate that small-scale ISPs are possible. Who knows how well this would work in a more densely populated area...but it does suggest that we have an alternative to the big telecom companies, whether in the form of small local businesses or consumer cooperatives.

Technology: Print me a Stradivarius | The Economist

2011-02-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

The Economist discusses "3D printing" -- mainly focusing on the short term impact of this technology (i.e. what will drive its development). Of interest, they mention how this system may cause intellectual property to become even more important.

Technology: Print me a Stradivarius | The Economist

Copyright enforcement without lawyers (Cooks Source Magazine and Apple Pies)

2010-11-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | Cook's Magazine Claims Web Is Public Domain

The above Slashdot discussion provides an overview of an interesting strategy for enforcing copyright. This dovetails with Kevin Carson's writings about open-mouth sabatoge, and my own musings about a world without (as many) lawyers. It is interesting because it provides some inkling of how some form of copyright may be enforced by social norms rather than legal sanction. However, there is always the question of what role formal law plays in reinforcing social norms and facilitating coordinated enforcement. The gist of the story is this:

Several years ago, Monica Gaudio wrote an article about the evolution of apple pie, which was published online
Recently, Cooks Source Magazine republished the article with attribution, but without notifying Gaudio.
When Gaudio learned of this, she asked for a public apology and a $130 dollar donation to a school.
The editor responded with a snippy email, essentially telling Gaudio to "shove it".
Following this, Gaudio's supporters (and supporters of copyright) swarmed the online sites for Cooks Source, and petitioned the advertisers to cease advertising.

I'm not sure if this dispute has been resolved.

The Reasoning Behind Changing Daylight-Saving : NPR

2010-10-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Reasoning Behind Changing Daylight-Saving : NPR

Just in time for Halloween, I came across an old story discussing the corporate lobbying involved in Daylight Savings Time legislation. Turns out that the candy companies have finally gotten their wish of a longer Halloween.

Gangs of women in rural India fight abuse with bamboo sticks - Boing Boing

2010-10-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

Gangs of women in rural India fight abuse with bamboo sticks - Boing Boing

An example of grass-roots direct action to address problems that the state claims as its own jurisdiction.

Economic contract theory tests models of mutualism — PNAS

2010-09-15T16:37:00.001-07:00

Economic contract theory tests models of mutualism — PNAS

This is just some evolutionary/ecological modeling of how mutalism arises in nature. I found it interesting because it contrasts "forced" cooperation against "voluntary" cooperation, and they decided that voluntary cooperation was more likely to emerge (among organisms incapable of planning). In this situation, "forced" means that one cooperator would make its own cooperation dependent upon the behavior of the other participant, whereas "voluntary" means that each participant gives freely and benefits from the increased growth/power of the other.

ACTA Text Leaks; US Caves On ISPs, Seeks Super-DMCA

2010-09-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | ACTA Text Leaks; US Caves On ISPs, Seeks Super-DMCA

WikiLeaks Calls For Assange To Step Down

2010-09-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Slashdot News Story | WikiLeaks Calls For Assange To Step Down

A Sweedish prosecutor has re-opened the rape case against Assange. Several people inside of Wikileaks are insisting that Assange resign his position until he is cleared of these charges. They deny Assange's assertion that the accusations are obviously meant to discredit him becauso of his role in Wikileaks.

M2Z's Free, Wireless Broadband Killed In Advance

2010-09-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Slashdot Mobile Story | M2Z's Free, Wireless Broadband Killed In Advance

M2Z's proposal for free (but slow) nationwide broadband was nixed by the FCC. The Slashdot crowd speculates about an ISP cartel being involved.

Righthaven's Brand of Copyright Trolling | Electronic Frontier Foundation

2010-09-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Righthaven's Brand of Copyright Trolling | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Righthaven is just the latest group of lawyers to try to turn copyright litigation into a business model. What these lawyers have in common is that they seek to take advantage of copyright's draconian damages in order to bully Internet users into forking over money.

Pay Up :: News :: Article :: Philadelphia City Paper

2010-08-23T17:20:00.001-07:00

Pay Up :: News :: Article :: Philadelphia City Paper

Philly is requiring Bloggers to pay a $300 business registration fee if they have any revenues as a result of their blogging (even if the revenues are reported for the city income tax, and are less than $300). Some liberals and civil libertarians gripe about this as a restriction on the freedom of speech. I think that argument is half baked, but it is clearly a barrier to entry to the writing business, and it prevents writers from exploring different business models (which may or may not generate substantial income).

"No Pago" Confronts Microfinance in Nicaragua | North American Congress on Latin America

2010-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

"No Pago" Confronts Microfinance in Nicaragua | North American Congress on Latin America

I was skimming through Kiva's loans, and saw a notice about Nicaragua's "I won't pay" movement. As described in the above article, many poor people have taken micro-finance (MF) loans that they are unable to repay. They have attacked MF offices and won a "repayment moratorium" in the legislature.

It seems that the basic problem -- and the spark that set off the movement -- is that in Nicaragua, people get arrested for failure to repay their loans. The above article linked to another, with this description of the situation:

In late June, Pro Credit arrested six people with overdue debts in Jalapa. Other regulated financing entities did the same and through legal collection rulings started expropriating the debtors’ loan collateral, often houses and land. This action is required of financing agencies regulated by the Banking Law: if they have an arrears portfolio, they have to do something about it. The law states that a collector has to visit the person with the overdue debt within seven days and then get a judge to execute a sentence within 72 hours. Failure to do so results in a fine by the Superintendence of Banks.

Since these protesters are being faced with arrest (I don't how long it takes to release them), I think that their disruption and vandalism may be justified.

Anyway, the issue of forcible debt collection is something that I rarely see addressed by libertarians. If anything, libertarians seem to take the conservative position of wanting to make bankruptcy harder. I am rather liberal regarding bankruptcy, though I think we should eliminate all of that complicated litigation and place strict limits on how debts may be collected by force.

Since the creditor voluntarily places his wealth at risk, he has no inherent right to use force to recover it. Repayment should me mainly enforced by a reputation system. I am opposed to involuntary wage garnishments by creditors, which amounts to a slavery contract. I am opposed to involuntary bankruptcy. Confiscation of personal property should be limited to property that was explicitly granted as collateral (in which case, the debtor effectively sold it). Confiscation of corporate property is fine, since it is already detached from the owner.

Raids are increasing on farms and private food-supply clubs—here are 5 tips for surviving one | Grist

2010-07-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Raids are increasing on farms and private food-supply clubs—here are 5 tips for surviving one | Grist

Even as Oakland California prepares for large-scale marijuana cultivation, other farms in California -- producing traditional foods -- are facing increased raids for operating without a license or refusing to pasteurize their product. Of course, this has the effect of preventing market fragmentation, and imposes barriers to entry on small scale producers.

Businesses leery of Pittsburgh's parking plan - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

2010-07-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Businesses leery of Pittsburgh's parking plan - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Apparently, the government of Pittsburgh is thinking about privatizing the water and parking authorities. At the moment I see no indication that the plans include any mechanism for introducing competition into these markets -- so the city will be selling off both the infrastructure and the monopoly market.

It sounds like some third-world kleptocracy.

Diaspora -- a mutualized facebook?

2010-06-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

join diaspora - blog

At the beginning of the summer, some college students declared that they were going to produce a free, decentralized (i.e. federated) application to compete with Facebook. They requested donations through Kickstarter, and got everything that they wanted almost instantly. There is apparently a lot of interest in a project like this.

In the end, I hope that projects like this, Google Wave, OneSocialWeb, and AppleSeed will be able to convert modern social networking systems into a decentralized, user-controlled system similar to email but much more powerful (at least, email is self-controlled by anyone who controls a server and domain name).

I think that this is one of the most exciting examples of the mutualist ethic (as I understand it) in the society at large. Communication is fundamental to everything that we do, and a flexible user-controlled instant communication system could provide the foundation for other mutualist reforms, such as decentralised currency systems like BitCoin or RipplePay.

Bitcoin - decentralized monetary system

2010-06-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

Bitcoin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is another decentralized monetary system. It's like Ripplepay in a way, but it seems more sophisticated technically and it has a different basis for value, which I don't quite understand (just reading the Wikipedia article). I see why the currency units are scarce, but not why they are valuable outside of an as-yet unrealized role as money.

Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto

2010-06-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto is now available in hard copy format. The eBook version is here.

Marginal Revolution: Getting tough with Germany?

2010-06-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Marginal Revolution: Getting tough with Germany?

Cowen responds to Krugman's calls to get tough with Germany (and China). Aside from the technical points that Cowen covers, this illustrates how the instabilities of our current economy may lead (is leading) to a global economic system to allocate supply and demand among nations. It sounds like Marx's description of the drive for empire.

FWIW, I wrote a little rant on it.

Protecting Companies That Mix Profitability, Values : NPR

2010-03-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Protecting Companies That Mix Profitability, Values : NPR

Many anti-corporate activists have asserted that "corporations have no souls, no values", and that all they care about is money. I never got a good explanation for this, those anti-corporate activists viewing it as self evident (even though the state is exempt form this rule, apparently). My take was that corporations exist to do whatever their owners and administrators want them to do.

Like everyone, they only have to seek money to the extent that they need it to survive, or otherwise accomplish what they want.

Anyway, this news report discusses the laws that essentially require corporations to place money over all other values.

I think it also illustrates how corporations are not a natural extension of common-law property rights, instead being a class of institutions legislated into existence to advance the interests of particular interest groups.

Slashdot Developers Story | Independent Programmers' No-Win Scenario

2010-02-25T18:35:00.001-08:00

Slashdot Developers Story | Independent Programmers' No-Win Scenario

Discussion of the costs and benefits (and legal hassles) of self employment. Some say that the deck is stacked against independent workers, others say it's no big deal.

How To Start An Ignite Event | Ignite Show Video

2010-02-25T18:34:00.001-08:00

How To Start An Ignite Event | Ignite Show Video

An interesting sort of grass-roots event. It's focused on techies, but might be applicable to activists. Get a group of speakers -- each with a 20 slide slideshow (powerpoint), each slide being on a 20 second timer. Get an audience and have a ball.