Economics/True Cost – Page 19 – Public Intelligence Blog

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To answer this question, we need to clarify specifically what is being asked. Almost everywhere you look when searching for the answer to this question, you won't find the answer to what a Bitcoin is, but rather what it does, or otherwise how bitcoins work in conjunction with one another as a system. What most people are asking however when first introduced to Bitcoin, is really what Bitcoin is at its most granular level. Most often, it is this step of the explanation that is missed resulting in a stumpling block to understand how bitcoins work together as a system. So what is a bitcoin? The answer to this question is that, at its most basic fundamental level, an individual bitcoin is simply a computer record. You can think of a bitcoin as a computer file such as a word document, an email, or a photo image. What makes a bitcoin file special, and makes it different from any other files that you might have on your computer, is that once a bitcoin file is created, the original record can always identified within the bitcoin user community.

So why does everywhere else I look say that Bitcoin is a new kind of money?

When you generally attempt to find the answer to what bitcoin is, you often find answers such as “Bitcoin is a decentralized Crypto-currency”, “It's a peer-to-peer virtual money”, or “It's a open-source revolutionary digital comodity.” Rather than identifying what an individual bitcoin is however, such answers are describing how bitcoins are used. These descriptions are not describing what an individual bitcoin is, but rather how the bitcoin network or system is used to create a digital currency. Of course, the purpose for the creation of bitcoins was, in fact, to create such a monetary system, however to properly understand Bitcoin as a system, it is necessary to first understand what bitcoin is at it's most basic level.

Learn more.

2013/04/022013/04/03

Patrick Meier: Digital Humanitarians and The Theory of Crowd Capital

Crowd-Sourcing, Economics/True Cost, Innovation, Knowledge

Digital Humanitarians and The Theory of Crowd Capital

An iRevolution reader very kindly pointed me to this excellent conceptual study: “The Theory of Crowd Capital”. The authors’ observations and insights resonate with me deeply given my experience in crowdsourcing digital humanitarian response. Over two years ago, I published this blog post in which I wrote that, “The value of Crisis Mapping may at times have less to do with the actual map and more with the conversations and new collaborative networks catalyzed by launching a Crisis Mapping project. Indeed, this in part explains why the Standby Volunteer Task Force (SBTF) exists in the first place.” I was not very familiar with the concept of social capital at the time, but that’s precisely what I was describing. I’ve since written extensively about the very important role that social capital plays in disaster resilience and digital humanitarian response. But I hadn’t taken the obvious next step: “Crowd Capital.”

Read full article.

2013/04/022013/04/03

Jean Lievens: Sharing is Caring

Crowd-Sourcing, Design, Economics/True Cost

Sharing is Caring

The S(e)oul of Asia aims to become a ‘Sharing City’. Forbes Magazine refers to it as an ‘unstoppable force’, replications of AirBnB or TaskRabbit pop ups as mushrooms and 2013 is named as the year of the Sharing Economy – Seoul bandwagons the trend and sets out the be the ‘Sharing City’.

South Korea is a key country when observing the rising trends in social innovation and social entrepreneurship in East- and South East Asia. The passing of the Social Enterprise Act in 2007 and the election of Park Won-Soon for Seoul mayor in 2011 are only two amongst other milestones that have indicated the embracement of social entrepreneurship as guideline in addressing the societal issues arisen in the wake of the financial crisis in 1997.

Park Won-Soon is the founder of South Korea’s first social enterprise The Beautiful Store and a think-tank known as The Hope Institute (the South Korean SIX Asia partner) and now a strong supporter of the initiative to establish Seoul as a ‘Sharing City’

Read full article.

2013/02/272013/03/01

Eagle: Concentration camp survivor, Resistance fighter and the man who inspired the Occupy movement: Stephane Hessel dies at age of 95

Civil Society, Commercial Intelligence, Crowd-Sourcing, Cultural Intelligence, Economics/True Cost, Ethics

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

Concentration camp survivor, Resistance fighter and the man who inspired the Occupy movement: Stephane Hessel dies at age of 95

A German by birth, he was imprisoned in Nazi camps during World War II
At the camps he was waterboarded during torture sessions
Time for Outrage became an inspiration for Occupy Wall Street movement

Jill Reilly

MailOnline, 27 February 2013

Stephane Hessel, the concentration camp survivor who inspired the Occupy Wall Street movement has died aged 95.

Mr Hessel who was a member of the French resistance passed away overnight in Paris according to his wife.

As a spy for the French Resistance, he survived the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald by assuming the identity of a French prisoner who was already dead.

As a diplomat, he helped write the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And at age 93, after a distinguished but relatively anonymous life, he published a slim pamphlet that even he expected would be little more than a vanity project.

But Mr Hessel's 32-page Time for Outrage sold millions of copies across Europe, tapping into a vein of popular discontent with capitalism and transforming him into an intellectual superstar within weeks.

Translated into English, the pocket-sized book became a source of inspiration for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In the book, Mr Hessel urges young people to take inspiration from the anti-Nazi resistance to which he once belonged and rally against what he saw as the newest evil: The love of money.

Read rest of article.

This controversial, impassioned call-to-arms for a return to the ideals that fueled the French Resistance has sold millions of copies worldwide since its publication in France in October 2010. Rejecting the dictatorship of world financial markets and defending the social values of modern democracy, 93-old Stéphane Hessel — Resistance leader, concentration camp survivor, and former UN speechwriter — reminds us that life and liberty must still be fought for, and urges us to reclaim those essential rights we have permitted our governments to erode since the end of World War II.

“This slim but powerful volume answered the public's need for a voice to articulate popular resentment of ruling-class ruthlessness, police brutality, stark income disparities, banking and political corruption, and victimization of the poor and immigrants.” (The Nation )

“INDIGNEZ-VOUS! is creating the sort of stir in France Emile Zola did in 1898, when he published J'Accuse!” (The National Post )

“Like a song you hum or a film you recommend to friends, INDIGNEZ-VOUS! crystallises the spirit of the time. To buy it is a militant act, a gesture towards community and participation in a collective emotion.” (Liberation )

‘The book urges the French, and everyone else, to recapture the wartime spirit of resistance to the Nazis by rejecting the “insolent, selfish” power of money and markets and by defending the social “values of modern democracy”. (The Independent )

Also See:

Indignez Vous!/Time for Outrage! translations (FREE) – Version 1 | Version 2 (pdf)

Audio interview with Stephane Hessel

2013/02/24

John Maguire: Sally Goerner on “Rethinking Captalism”

Economics/True Cost, P2P / Panarchy

Published on Apr 17, 2012. This is the first half of an Occupy Chapel Hill Teach-In presentation by Dr. Sally Goerner with Mayor Randy Voller entitled Rethinking Capitalism: Replacing Trickledown with Healthy Networks. Examples of Democratic Free-Enterprise Networks (DFENs) and their deployment are illustrated.

Published on Apr 19, 2012. This is the second half of an Occupy Chapel Hill Teach-In presentation by Dr. Sally Goerner with Mayor Randy Voller entitled Rethinking Capitalism: Replacing trickledown with Healthy Networks. Examples of Democratic Free-Enterprise Networks (DFENs) and their deployment are illustrated.

2013/02/232013/02/23

Berto Jongman: Paradise or Oblivion – A Documentary by the VENUS PROJECT

Culture, Economics/True Cost, Money, P2P / Panarchy, Resilience

great documentary about jacque fresco and the venus project — early articulation of need to restore natural economy instead of the artificial and very corrupt economy that does not properly value natural resources and human resources.

Paradise or Oblivion – A Documentary by the VENUS PROJECT
FOLLOW THE LINKS BELOW TO HELP MAKE THIS DREAM A REALITY

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Paradise or Oblivion – A Documentary by the VENUS PROJECT”

2013/02/23

Michel Bauwens: The Materially Finite Global Economy Metered in a Unified Physical Currency

Economics/True Cost, Geospatial, Governance, Knowledge

Book Chapter, 31 Pages, Open Access, Read Online or Download as PDF

Summary: financial measures created by bankers and governments are lies writ large — they are totally isolated from the physical reality of the biosphere, and utterly corrupt — therefore they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The author proposes a more holistic, integral approach with deep integrity that eliminates corruption, the externalization of natural resource costs to the public or the future, and the radical reduction of waste now charged off as an external diseconomy for which corporations and governments are not held accountable. This may well be a ROOT document for any intelligence professional aspiring to be relevant to the public interest going into the future.

Category: Economics/True Cost

Jean Lievens: What is a BitCoin?