sutton038

AHOY, THERE BE A CLOSED SYSTEM TO OPEN This is an article about Open Source Finance. It's an idea I first sketched out at a  talk  I gave at the  Open Data Institute  in London. By 'Open Source Finance', I don't just mean open source software programmes. Rather, I'm referring to something much deeper and broader. It's a way of framing an overall change we might want to see in the financial system. To illustrate this, I set up an analogy between computer systems and economic systems, and I then explore what financial 'code' might be. I then sketch out the five pillars that could underpin an open finance movement. Computer systems as economies Computer systems are great metaphors for economic systems. That's because, in a sense, a computer is a microcosm of our economy, albeit one that is a lot more predictable and controllable. Economies, at some basic level, are based upon people using energy to extract useful stuff from the earth, using tools, proce...

[Note: An up to date blogpost about the book appears here , and the book's page is here ] This blog has been on the down low over the last few months because I've been writing a book. The book is now finished, 78 579 words aimed at   providing a gateway for an individual to gain access to the matrix of global finance. It's called The Heretic's Guide To Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money .  It will be published in May 2013 by Pluto Press , a fantastic independent publisher based in Highgate, London, who have published such societal shitstirrers as Noam Chomsky , Edward Said , Vandana Shiva , Susan George, and John Holloway, amongst others. I've often found that I'll read an interesting book providing a critique of the financial system, but then I'll put it down and that's kind of the end of it. I store the info away somewhere and pull it out during a conversation maybe, but I don't really act on it. Thus, when Pluto approached me to write a b...