The Next Generation Sharing Economy – MaidSafe

The following is a few paragraphs from the maidsafe blog:

The press has been deluged in recent times with reports about the surveillance and eaves dropping employed by intelligence and security agencies around the world. Barely a week goes by without a new revelation being announced. But it cannot be ignored that surveillance is big business and this is in fact the way in which many of the largest Internet companies make the vast majority of their revenue. These businesses don’t call it surveillance of course, they call it advertising.

Google generated revenue of $66 billion in 2014, 89.5% of which came through advertising, while Facebook generated 88.5% of their $12.5 billion revenue via the same source. As I said, selling access to us and our data is big business. American cryptographer Bruce Schneier summed the situation up very nicely advising that ‘surveillance is the business model of the Internet’. Informing us, as others did before him, that we are not the customers of these services, we are the product itself, the advertisers are the customers.

This model has been the dominant force for a number of years, but is it all the fault of the Google’s and Facebook’s of this world? Can we lay all the blame at their door? Maybe in part, but we were the all too willing recipients of the ‘free’ services. I suspect that only a small minority of us stopped to think that the seemingly complementary search, mail, maps and social networking platforms came with a higher price. Although most of us didn’t realise the extent of it at the time that price was and is our privacy.

But it is not only our freedom and liberty that is at stake. Our economic well being is also at great risk. This may seem a counter intuitive statement at first glance, how can free services be bad for our economic situation? It may be bad for our privacy, but surely it’s good for my wallet!

Please continue to read from the source

If you want to learn more about this exiting innovation of a new secure internet then click the link below:

Maidsafe Website

Take to the Streets in Pietermaritzburg to Save Properties

June 4^th 2012 will see a protest march near the High Court in Pietermaritzburg. A non-profit organisation called The New Economic Rights Alliance (www.newera.org.za) will present a petition to the Judiciary calling for an enquiry into the handling of insolvency claims against local farmers and other property owners.

The NewERA believes that properties are being taken away unfairly. They believe that lawyers are seeking to satisfy their own pockets at the expense of the nation’s food security. And, by rigorously enforcing strict and complicated administration procedures at the expense the Common Law, the Courts are making the situation worse.

“We have received many complaints from our Members who are very angry.” says NewERA Chairman Scott Cundill.

“They say that legal action provides no benefit to anyone except lawyers.”

Although not just about farmers, they are an important reason for the march.

“Farmers are the bread and butter of this nation. Of all the courts in the country, the Pietermaritzburg High Court should be the most sensitive to their needs. And so should the banks.”

With the ANC set to push through legislation to regulate lawyers’ fees, it seems that change is afoot within the judicial system.

The march will begin at 12pm on Monday, June 4^th in Freedom Square opposite the Pietermaritzburg High Court. They will walk along Church Street and address the crowd outside the offices of a local law firm who is attempting to sequestrate and remove a sustainable community from their land. They will then present that law firm with a petition. From there they will turn into Timber Street and return along Langalibalele Street after presenting the petition to the Kwazulu-Natal Legislature on that same road. The march will only last about an hour and a half and 50-100 are expected to attend.

“This is a low key event. It is just a first step to let farmers and property owners know that they are not alone” says Shirree Leone of the NewERA.

“We also wish to generate awareness for a Constitutional Court case that could help free millions of South Africans from debt slavery.”

The action she is referring to is Tellinger vs. Standard Bank (CCT 28/12) in which Standard Bank, the South African Reserve Bank and the Minister of Finance are being brought before the Constitutional Court by Michael Tellinger. The argument is lengthy (you can read a summary at www.thebigcase.co.za), but it would seem that, like the judicial system, the banks are well and truly under fire. The sentiment echoes the voice of the international Occupy Wall Street movement which continues to call for transparency and the weeding out of corruption in the banking and legal system.

June 4^th also happens to be the anniversary of the famous Tiananmen Square protest in China in 1989. Who could forget that famous photo of a young man standing up to a tank, refusing to move. Perhaps it is time a few unrelenting farmers and citizens stood together to ensure that fairness returns to our legal and banking system.