Category Archives: Open Source
The Cyberunions Podcast: Episode five
The wiki and Creative Commons rant Subscribe to our weekly podcast. Cyberunions Talk Show Ogg Cyberunions Talk Show Mp3 Show notes Intro Stephen’s trip to Guatemala Flattr is crowdsourced microfinance If you like the show, please Flattr us 3:06 Sharing good practice – tribalism vs pluralism The SEIU union call centre experience It didn’t […]
Continue readingThe Cyberunions Podcast: Episode One
We are really pleased to be able to announce a new feature on Cyberunions: the first of what we hope will be a weekly podcast. The Cyberunions Show is hosted by myself, and MV, a trade union activist based in the Boston area. Throughout the show, we will be testing and talking about technology for […]
Continue readingOpen source trade unions
Is Open Source organising the way forward for trade unions? Some people seem to think so, but are we even sure what it means? Trade unions in the West have been in decline since the late 1970s. This is because the capitalist crisis of the early 70s was caused in part by a powerful labour […]
Continue readingWikileaks, crypto-anarchy and the politics of information freedom
The fact that hackers have been drawn to libertarianism is largely due to the absolute failure of the left to understand where the class line runs through the information wars.
Continue readingWhy Open Source and Creative Commons are important for unions
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) offers powerful, free tools for trade unions and their activists, and a serious attempt should be made to adopt them, and to defend the freedom of the Internet. In the UK, this includes working to repeal the Digital Economy Act. The idea of Creative Commons should not be strange […]
Continue readingCyberspace as space: the ideology of the Internet
While new technologies offer activists new tools to use for union activity, it is important to conceptualise cyperspace as space, and to understand activity taking place there as being in a new realm with its own possibilities, ethics and practice. Peter Waterman feels that most trade union use of new technology “…represents a belated response […]
Continue readingAre FOSS and Creative Commons important for unions?
“The new order is predicated upon open access, decentralized participation, and cheap and easy sharing.” (David Bollier) The Commons Movement is a political, ecological and cultural movement to reclaim the Commons. Its central principle is that the resources of the earth – the Commons – are the collective responsibility and property of all. This includes […]
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