P2P Foundation

I’m writing a monthly column for the European Center for the European Economy, including a recent one in which I presented the Bauwens Model of Participatory Business Models, a variation on the ladder of participation.

This entry has received a erudite response by Angelique van Engelen, which is a recommended read on the monetization of attention. As she also discusses other contributions such as by Robin Good and makes many detailed observations, it is worth reading in full.

However, as she also explains my own purpose perhaps even better than I could have, and adds a clear view of the ‘process’ of choice and production (which may be lost in my own longer paragraphs), itis worth reproducing the model once again with her improvements.

Because she may have slightly different interpretations of my own model, I’m highlighting my divergences in bold. Please note that the first five stages are adapted from a previous modelling effort by Xavier Comtesse.

Angelique van Engelen:

“Michel Bauwens published a number of hybrid models which show how various types of peer-informed modes of production can find their way in economic conditions of scarcity. They also show what the models based on free sharing look like. Bauwens’ models are brilliant, because they reflect a sliding scale illustrating the various cases in which producers are receding and consumers are dominating as well as the shift toward left and right of the actual exchange itself. Outlines like this are shining beacons of clarity because they facilitate a slight comprehension of a general world that is beginning to lag stretches behind the rise of an unfathomable particular.

This is the schematic Bauwens’ model.

1. consumption

Consumer -> cash -> company’s products/services made entirely by company

2. Self Service

Consumer -> choice -> cash -> company’s products/services made entirely by company

3. DIY Do it yourself

Consumer -> degree of involvement in the value chain -> cash -> company’s products/services made by the company

4. Co-design

Consumer -> customizing the product -> cash -> company’s products/services for partial products made by the company

5. Co-creation

Consumer -> actual involvement in design/production -> (cash ->) open sourced produced product ->(possibly a company or not, ie Wikipedia).

This is where Xavier Comtesse puts open source, and he stops there in his direct economy model. However, I use the next part to define peer production models, and therefore, in my model, co-creation is not necessarily open source. You can have co-creation, for products that are proprietary.

6. Direct peer production of use value with no concern for monetization

Consumer -> idea -> (cash ->) consumer produced/manufactured product. Example: couchsurfing.com.

Important here is that cash is not necessary, but in theory possible.

7. Direct peer production of use value with concern for equitable monetization

Consumer community-> a commons -> peer production -> cash -> equitable production and commerce

Note that I wouldn’t use ‘consumer community’, as we are talking about both producers and consumers, users might be more correct, or as Axel Bruns says: “produsers”

8. Direct production of use value by groups with commons-oriented business ecology

Customer community -> ecology of business producing marketable, scarce goods through a foundation on non profit basis -> consumer consumes. (Linux)

Here I make a difference between the businesses creating added value on top of the commons, say IBM vs. Linux, and the foundations which run the infrastructure of the commons, such as the Wikimedia Foundation. They are not the same.

9. Direct production of use value by individuals with monetization of attention through proprietary platforms

Consumer -> (Intellectual) Product on a communal (proprietary) platform -> Cash -> Consumer (Web2.0)

10. Direct production of exchange value by groups: cooperative production

Consumer communities -> cooperative format of product -> cash -> consumer (Old model of producer cooperatives).

11. Direct production of exchange value by individuals

Consumer-> product distributed using local infrastructure for distributed production-> cash -> consumer (Ebay, a person designing something that operates a machine in a far off place to churn out the product)”