P2P Foundation

The Foundation aims to develop a knowledge base concerning three related social movements:

1) those in favour of participation, i.e. the P2P movement proper. It refers to peer to peer as the relational dynamic at work in distributed networks and the largest possible equipotential participation;

2) those in favour of the open paradigm (open access, open sources, open ‘everything’. This refers to the conditions needed to make participation a reality: open access to knowledge in all its forms;

3) the Commons movement, in particular the creation of a Digital Commonwealth. This refers to the institutional format that is being created by P2P processes: universal common property regimes.

Our aim is to find more interconnection between the different aspects of this ‘three-legged stool’. The foundation wants first of all to create a knowledge base for this: through our newsletter, our blog, the various directories available at the P2P Foundation website. After some time, we would like to favour the creation of communities around these knowledge bases, not just online, but physically as well. Through collective and individual theory-building, we hope to inspire new practices, to interconnect the existing ones, so that it can eventually become a powerful social movement with a clearer vision of where we are heading. In my own view, this would be a “Commons-based society within a reformed market and a reformed state�.

If you feel you can be in broad agreement with these goals, we are appealing for your help.

Amongst the current projects are already the following:

- the creation of a podcasting program by James Burke and Geert Drieghe. We will not only be interviewing people, but also want to create a directory of what is already available;

- the creation of language-based sections. Remi Sussan volunteered for the French pages, and Jim Puntasen for the Thai pages. More are needed.

- Finally, we would like to start with “Country Pages�, which would keep listings of what is happening in various countries. It will also be a great means for interconnection, if you want to find other people with similar values.

The encyclopedic resources need a lot of assistance.

- Who’s who in P2P: can you suggest names, put your own name, or better yet: help us find bios for anyone active in the P2P field?

- Movements: who is doing what

- Resources: software programs, participatory techniques

- Books: what should we be reading

- Articles and Foundational Essays

Most importantly, the Encyclopedia, can you suggest or add concepts, or rework the existing entries. So far, they are rough and ready items based on the endnotes of my own manuscript on peer to peer, but they need polishing, to be eventually integrated with the Wikipedia system.

There are also the topical pages on the main site which need maintenance and development.

A lot more needs to be done to diffuse the work of the P2P Foundation. Can you help us with letting people know what we are doing, what resources are avaible, that they can read to blog or subscribe to the P2P News newsletter?

Does anyone feel able to write some introductory pages, as the amount of materials can be overwhelming for newbies and they may need some handholding in order to find their way in this sometimes complex material?

We will be adding a blogroll on our own blog: what resources should be listed?

Do you have an artistic bent or skills. Contact James Burke to help him beautify our resources.

DO YOU FEEL OTHER THINGS NEED TO BE DONE?

If you can help with any of these endeavours, please let us know at Michelsub2004 at Gmail, Michel Bauwens