Twenty years ago today….
Back in 1998-2000 I was a major figure in efforts to prepare for possible Y2K disruptions and to use that possibility for …
Sprouting self-organized collaborative governance
People without special authority but with real interest in their community and larger social issues are working together to do what’s needed …
Self-managed villages of tiny houses => many solutions!
Self-managed villages of tiny houses can address many of the ills of homelessness, middle class struggles, civic belt-tightening, sustainability, quality of life …
Why we should give free money to everyone
“I am now convinced that the simplest approach… to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the …
Emerging EcoNomics #5: Gifting – and the gift economy
For years I’ve known people who gave away their professional services as a gift, explicitly encouraging (though not requiring) gifts in return to allow them to continue their work. I’ve also loved the idea of “paying it forward” – enjoying as a gi…
Emerging EcoNomics #2: The Emerging New Economy Movement
AlterNet has published an excellent article that seeks to summarize the “new economy movement” – at least from a progressive perspective – including sustainability, community, co-ops, localization, collective ownership, stockholder activism, corpo…
Strategies to rein in corporate power?
There are many emerging strategies to counter corporate control of our political life (quite in addition to efforts to counter their control of our economic lives). Seeing this as a necessity if we are to have effectively empowered public wisdom, …
Game changers in education and local economics…
Every now and then potentially game changing innovations show up. Wikileaks is one of them, something that shifts the relationship between centralized power and broader national and international populations. We don’t know what exactly will happen…
A story of two investments
The essay below is from Paul Krafel, one of my teachers about systems and nature. Paul, author of SEEING NATURE, one of the more influential books in my life, runs Chrysalis, a nature-based charter school in northern California http://www.chrysali…