Michel Bauwens › Comments

How a new communications technology disrupted America’s newspaper industry—in 1845 - Michel Bauwens

pools the financial resources of people who believe in the ethics of Permaculture – care of the earth, care of people, and reinvestment of surplus for the betterment of both. We apply those resources to earth-friendly and socially responsible loans and investments. - Michel Bauwens

Pirate Coelho is a site that was hosted somewhere, with a collection of my texts in P2P sites. It was not me who put it there, but being adept of free contents, I asked the original site to put this URL here. - Michel Bauwens

Using exclusive access to key government insiders, Shane Harris chronicles the rise of America’s surveillance state over the past 25 years and highlights a dangerous paradox: Our government’s strategy has made it harder to catch terrorists and easier to spy on the rest of us - Michel Bauwens

must read essay: what happens to human labor, and its preference of the mental above the physical, in the coming age of resource scarcity? - Michel Bauwens

"Conventional wisdom holds that YouTube, videogames, cable TV and iPods have turned us away from the written word. Glowing streams of visual delights replaced paper and longhand letters shrank to bite-sized Facebook status updates, the theory held. Conventional wisdom, in this case, is wrong. A large-scale study by the University of San Diego and other research universities revealed what some of us have long suspected: We’re reading far more words than we used to as we adopt new technologies. “Reading, which was in decline due to the growth of television, tripled from 1980 to 2008, because it is the overwhelmingly preferred way to receive words on the Internet,” found a University of San Diego study (.pdf) published this month by Roger E. Bohn and James E. Short of the University of San Diego." - Michel Bauwens

A Timeline of Information History This timeline presents significant events and developments in the innovation and management of information and documents from cave paintings (ca 30,000 BC) to the present. Only non-electronic innovations and developments are included (that is, digital and electronic communications are excluded)." - Michel Bauwens

Below, I’m focusing on trends in business and politics. WHAT DID I FORGET? Thanks for adding further suggestions to our comment field. What has been important in 2009, that is not reflected here? - Michel Bauwens

I’m pleased to present a timeline of 100 or so of the most significant events and developments in the innovation and management of information and documents from cave paintings ( ca 30,000 BC) to the present. - Michel Bauwens

This page contains all the LIFT speeches that have been recorded over the years. - Michel Bauwens

People are rejecting current political conversation by simply saying, "This is not an important part of my world", returning politics more and more to the elite and that is dangerous to the future of democracy. - Michel Bauwens

The best things in life often actually are free. Here, a list of 173 of the best things in life—free software, for launching apps, networking, backup, synchronization, entertainment, and more. - Michel Bauwens

The study “Social Networking Usage and Grades Among College Students” (PDF) finds that students who heavily engage in social networking do just as well academically as students who are less interested in keeping in touch with the medium. - Michel Bauwens

n the first part of this two-part series, Berkeley, California mom Jill Suttie explored the obstacles to sharing cars in her personal life--but also the reasons why carsharing might be good for her, her family, and the planet. In Part II, Suttie looks at all the ways people can share cars. - Michel Bauwens

an online service that finds someone in your neighborhood who is willing to lend you something that you need. Need that ladder? Or how about borrowing an Xbox and Guitar hero for your holiday? You can go to www.ShareSomeSugar.com and type in the item along with your zip code. A list of results come up, showing which neighbors are willing to lend out that item. - Michel Bauwens

Wealth for the Common Good is a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation. Our membership includes entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, school teachers, engineers and elected officials of all backgrounds, political stripes and from all over the country. - Michel Bauwens

Rentalic helps individual people rent their stuff -- lawnmowers, parking spaces, clothes, whatever you got --to other people. A social venture that combines for-profit and non-profit goals, their mission is "to help people save money, make money, and save the environment by encouraging reuse and sharing through person-to-person renting." - Michel Bauwens

Thankfully, there are a host of free or low cost tools available to help companies and organizations track social media success. Use one or more of these 5 social media monitoring tools to gauge how well your efforts are working. - Michel Bauwens

The Bike-sharing Blog provides information on the emerging public transportation mode of bike-sharing. - Michel Bauwens

Quality inbound links are an essential element of web site marketing and search engine optimization programs to increase traffic and online sales. The greater the number of relevant and authoritative links to a web page, the greater the potential for higher search engine rankings and qualified traffic. - Michel Bauwens

NeighborGoods launched last week in Los Angeles as an online community that allows people to freely share, borrow, and lend the things they already own with the other people in their neighborhoods. - Michel Bauwens

There is no justification for tax avoidance and evasion through offshore tax havens. Everyone needs to pay their fair share to keep America moving forward. Tax dodging deprives our nation of revenue needed to maintain and modernize the infrastructure and services underpinning a strong economy. An estimated $100 billion or more in tax revenue is lost every year. Our economic progress is undermined when companies are rewarded for financial manipulation rather than innovation and productive investment. - Michel Bauwens

We live in the internet-age, with an explosion of news and information at our fingertips. Yet we are saturated with news, numb and immobilized. This era of hyper-communication means that more and more we will be interacting with each other via technology. What’s missing is the human element. The Forum Organizing Project is creating a national Community Forum network that seeks to revive community entertainment, education and connection. - Michel Bauwens

Of the books published regarding hyperinflation, this may be the only one that provides effective strategies for operating a business under conditions of a rapidly depreciating currency. "The Hyperinflation Survival Guide: Strategies for American Businesses" was written by Dr. Gerald Swanson (an associate professor of economics at the University of Arizona). Harry E. Figgie, Jr. sponsored the research and production of this book. As it was originally printed in 1989, it was way ahead of its time. However, this doesn't change the fact that this book will prove to be an excellent resource for businessmen and individuals once the Federal Reserve's destruction of the U.S. dollar enters its terminal stage. - Michel Bauwens

“Common Security Clubs provide the opportunity to revisit a forgotten idea, the idea that we can do for ourselves. In this post-industrial epoch, we must learn that doing for ‘ourselves’ means transforming our conception of ‘ourselves’ to mean, not the ‘me’ of an exploitative capitalistic culture, but ‘ourselves’ as defined by ‘us,’ the ‘we’ of our extended families, our community, our ‘hood.” - Michel Bauwens

Cap and dividend is a simple, market-based way to reduce CO2 emissions without reducing household incomes. It caps fossil fuel supplies, makes polluters pay, and returns the revenue to everyone equally. - Michel Bauwens

The Solar Commons is a plan to produce renewable energy in our public right of way and capture the common wealth it generates in a community trust dedicated to local social equity. Using principles of commons management, the Solar Commons is a powerful organizing tool for civic organizations to partner with government and investors to grow a commons sector of the green economy. Our demonstration project was named the 2009 Legacy Project of the US Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Convention. - Michel Bauwens

A new database of patent-free technologies will make “green innovation" more available to all. - Michel Bauwens

Humans are naturally inclined to cooperate and create social norms, the foundation for building commons. - Michel Bauwens

The year 2010 may be remembered as a turning point in many American cities, towns and suburbs. It could be the moment when citizens say “enough is enough” and rally to save essential public services from the chopping block, even if it means paying higher local taxes. - Michel Bauwens