Humans constantly delegate cognitive functions to the environment: (Zhang, 1997; Gatti and Magnani, 2005; Knuuttila and Honkela, 2005) argue that the traditional notion of representation as a kind of abstract mental structure is misleading. Ecological approach aims at understanding cognitive systems in terms of their environmental situatedness (Clancey, 1997; Magnani, 2005). Last week i finally had the chance to meet in person with Emanuele Bardone from University of Pavia, with whom i have been in contact in concerns of affordance and niche ideas for about a year when i discovered papers about eco-cognitive niche construction he wrote with Lorenzo Magnani.

In the area of software development copyleft has proved to be a tremendously effective means of creating an information commons which broadly benefits all those whose production depends on it. However, many artists, musicians, writers, film-makers and other information producers remain sceptical that a copyleft based system where anyone is free to reproduce their work, can earn them a living. Challenges to traditional copyright resulting from peer-to-peer applications, free software, filesharing and appropriation art have caused a wide ranging debate on the future of copyright.

In October 2005, Seedling, the magazine of GRAIN, published a series of contributions on the ways in which people are resisting the push for monopoly rights over information in different sectors. Peter Drahos “ What links do you see between the struggles happening in different sectors around patents, copyrights and other forms of monopoly rights over information? They interviewed a ten-person panel includes people working in the fields of free and open software (FOSS), access to medicines, seeds, communications and the media. (GRAIN GRAIN is a small international