Business Commons^™

Fixing Social Media: Toward A Democratic Digital Commons, Michael Kwet

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

In the past few years, big Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have received intense scrutiny from the intellectual classes. This article critiques the dominant strain of criticism, the neo-Brandeisian School of antitrust, for its narrow focus on “regulated competition” as an appropriate means to “fix social media”. This essay calls for a socialist alternative: a democratic social media commons based on free and open source technology, decentralization, and democratic socialist legal solutions. It reviews how existing solutions like the Fediverse and LibreSocial work, and how they may provide answers for a better way forward.

A Comprehensive Study Of The Patent Process, Andrew Schicho

Senior Honors Projects

A Comprehensive Study Of The Patent Application Process
Andrew Schicho
Faculty Sponsor: Bahram Nassersharif, Mechanical Engineering

Next year I will be attending graduate school to attain a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. During this time, I will be completing a research fellowship which involves the study of new forms of green energy. The field of green energy is expanding and new inventions have the potential to be incredibly profitable if they are efficient and competitive in today’s market. It is likely that my research will need to be protected from competitors looking to create similar products for harvesting …

Development For The Past, Present, And Future: Defining And Measuring Sustainable Development, Max Cantor

Senior Honors Projects

In 1987, the United Nations released the Brundtland Report, which defined sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” While this definition provides a relatively stable theoretical base from which development economists and political scientists can begin to tackle issues surrounding sustainable development, the inherently amorphous nature of this definition has also created a fair amount of ambiguity in both the economic literature surrounding sustainable development and the subsequent attempts by economists to measure it.

Historically, those interested in the science of development have typically …

The Effect Of Inventions Upon Social Problems, Henry A. Congdon

Student and Lippitt Prize essays

A study of the most notable effects of new inventions upon social issues, including employment opportunities, distribution of industry and the life of a laborer.