Out of Print: The 20th Century

The Missing 20th Century: How Copyright Protection Makes Books Vanish

Paul Heald:

"This is super exciting, interesting preliminary data, I think. I had one of my students write a computer program that would crawl through Amazon.com and pull 2,500 fiction titles at random. ... The findings are absolutely fascinating."

"We broke these out by decade. ... You would expect that if you can crawl through Amazon looking at only new books and only books sold by Amazon -- so these are not used books, these are not sold by Amazon associates, this is what's in Amazon's warehouses -- of course, the biggest number of books is from the decade 2000-2010. That's what you'd expect; they're more recent, more popular. Drops off really quickly for books in the 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, '60, 1950, 1940, 1930 -- here's the point in time where books start falling in the public domain. Suddenly it goes up and up and up. There's as many books [that] Amazon is selling brand new right now from the 1900s to 1910 as from the 2000s to 2010. You go all the way back to 1850 -- there's twice as many books from the 1850s being sold on Amazon right now as the 1950s. So this sort of confirms the notion that there's some sort of positive public-domain effect ..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpfZcftI00

If what you are doing is not helpful, please stop doing it. Seriously.

Nuff said.

International Anarchism Gathering, St-Imier 2012

All libertarians from the various anarchist movements around the world, and all those interested in learning more about anarchism are invited to gather from August 8-12, 2012 in St-Imier in the Jura mountains in Switzerland.

We will be celebrating the 140th anniversary of the first congress of St-Imier that was held in 1872, when the St-Imier Anarchist International was created after anti-authoritarian members were expelled from the First International.

Historic context: The Jura Federation and the Congress of St-Imier 1872

In 1864, the International Workers Association was founded, quickly followed by sections in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, St-Imier and other regions in the Swiss Jura mountains. Many of the members in these sections were working in their homes as watchmakers, were well read, and had an independent spirit. When Bakunin came to the region in 1869, there was an immediate meeting of minds.

As a result of this convergence of ideas, the Jura Federation became the libertarian pole of the First International, opposed to the Marxists. Infuriated by this opposition, Marx did everything he could to eliminate this diverging current. In 1872 he thought that he had achieved that goal. At the Hague Congress he managed to assemble his supporters and with some of his supporters posing as representatives of non-existing sections, managed to get votes passed for the exclusion of Bakunin and James Guillaume, only missing a few votes to do the same to Adhemar Schwitzguebel, which were all delegates from the Jura Federation.

Shocked by these actions, the sections that were sympathetic to the anti-authoritarian current, including Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and the USA, organized a conference in St-Imier, where they passed resolutions that were strongly libertarian. The anti-authoritarian IWA survived the Marxist branch to the end of the century.

140 years after the Congress of St-Imier, the Marxist illusion has dissipated in light of the communist dictatorships. Capitalism lives from crisis to crisis. Social crises, political crises, in addition to the ecological crisis.

Where does the anarchist movement stand today?

The anarchist gathering in St-Imier in 2012 will be an opportunity to review the history of the anarchist movement, its ideas, its achievements, its hopes, its defeats, and its opportunities today; its own battles and those it shares with others: anti-militarism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, autonomous self-management, degrowth, education, feminism, internationalism, non-violence, etc.. A number of workshops and events are already planned: historical lectures, thematic conferences, theater, concerts, exhibitions, films, a book fair, a radio station, a libertarian camp, a self-managed market with organic products, workshops, restaurants, etc..

This international event will be public and wants to be open not only to the entire international anarchist movement, but also to the public at large without discrimination. Free admissions and voluntary pricing will be used wherever feasible, in order to enable as many people as possible to participate in the event. Having said that, the organizing committee will use its discretion to decide which participants will be hosted, based on the ideas and practices that were also the principals of the Anti-authoritarian International. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and all forms of violence and discrimination will not be tolerated.

Based on what has been said, any person, group, or organization is welcome to get involved and join this initiative, suggesting exhibitions, debates, lectures, performances, speakers, workshops, etc..

anarchisme2012.ch

Why current institutions are ready to hand over to civil society

I will be offering a session on why and how current institutions will hand over responsibility to an empowered civil society. A presentation and workshop on concepts loosely based on the texts "The Foundation of Democracy" and "The Three Pillars of Democracy", but going further to explain and discuss how and why decentralization and deliberative democracy will work to replace hierarchy with higher forms of organisation, effectively eliminating the need for laws and shifting away from our culture of decision making to a culture of consensus development.

Participate.ch macht Deliberative Demokratie mit Konsensforum

Mit Participate.ch lancieren wir das Konzept vom Konsensforum als Instrument für deliberative Demokratie in der Schweiz:

Die aktuellen gesellschaftspolitischen Herausforderungen verlangen von uns ein anderes Vorgehen als das bekannte lineare Denkschema von Analyse-Planung-Umsetzung. Es braucht neue Wege des gegenseitigen Verständnisses für nachhaltigere Lösungen.

Das Konsensforum.

Ziel von Participate.ch ist es, Menschen durch die Teilnahme an einem Konsensforum dazu zu befähigen, sich eigenverantwortlich mit den Problemen Ihrer Lebenswelt zu beschäftigen und selbst nach Lösungen zu suchen. Das als Empowerment bezeichnete Konzept der Selbstbefähigung ist ein wesentliches Moment gesellschaftlicher Selbstorganisation und somit ein gelebtes Beispiel partizipativer Demokratie und Subsidiarität.

Die Methodik eines Konsensforums beruht auf einer einfachen Form der Bevölkerungsbeteiligung wie sie in der Schweiz bereits für das Zukunftsforum in Thalwil eingesetzt wurde, und welche es kostengünstig und rasch erlaubt, Selbstorganisation und Eigenverantwortung in der Bevölkerung zu stärken und bessere politische Lösungen zu finden.

Neue Ideen und Wahlmöglichkeiten

Ziel eines Konsensforums ist es, neue Ideen und Wahlmöglichkeiten zu finden, die von allen Beteiligten mitgetragen werden. Mit dem Konsensforum können Ideen entstehen, die über bekannte oder nahe liegende Lösungsansätze hinausgehen. Das Konsensforum trifft keine politischen Entscheidungen, kann aber alleine durch die öffentliche Präsentation der Überlegungen und Empfehlungen eine grosse Wirkung haben.

Aus unserer Sicht sind partizipativ-demokratische Strukturen wie das Konsensforum ein wichtiges und bislang fehlendes Element in der Zusammenarbeit zwischen der Politik, der Verwaltung, den Interessengruppen und der Bevölkerung.

Ablauf von Konsensforen

Während einem Konsensforum arbeiten jeweils 12-16 zufällig ausgewählte Personen zwei Tage hinter verschlossenen Türen am Thema. Aufgrund der Zufallsauswahl handelt es sich bei den TeilnehmerInnen um Leute aus der breiten Bevölkerung, die über keinerlei spezielles Vorwissen oder spezielle Qualifikationen verfügen. Insbesondere vertreten sie dadurch keine Interessengruppen, sondern ihre persönliche Meinung. Die TeilnehmerInnen schärfen während ihrer Zusammenarbeit die relevanten Fragen, Probleme und Lösungsideen und folgen dabei dem, was den Teilnehmenden wirklich wichtig ist. Die dahinterliegende Methode des Konsensforums ist sehr intensiv, da alle Zugänge und Perspektiven berücksichtigt werden und ein gemeinsames Anliegen entsteht.

Am Ende des zweiten Tages präsentieren diese 12-16 Personen in einer gemeinsamen Erklärung ihre Ergebnisse der Öffentlichkeit. Gemeinsam werden diese diskutiert. In Resonanzgruppen werden die Ergebnisse mit Vertretern aus Verwaltung und Politik weiter diskutiert und fliessen in die politischen Gremien ein.

Durch die Konsensforen entwickelt Participate.ch mit der Bevölkerung Ideen, die nicht nur innovativ sind, sondern auch breite Zustimmung, Identifikation und Akzeptanz finden.

participate.ch

Sixteen Saltines by Jack White

>>> Self-organisation as a powerful change agent