Date archives "February 2006"

Exploring the possibility of non-capitalist markets

Michel Bauwens: This is an important aspect of research for P2P Theory. Following the relational typology of Alan Page Fiske, there are four intersubjective modes which have existed cross-culturally and historically: equality matching (gift economy), authority ranking (feudal-type structures), market pricing, and communal shareholding (according to us: P2P). Societies have always been a mix, but… Continue reading

Rank-thinking vs. peer thinking

Nice quote: “”’I define rank thinking as the belief that only a few in any organization should be given special privilege to monopolize information, control decision-making, and command obedience from the vast majority either through coercive or manipulative power. Peer thinking, on the other hand, is the belief that everyone in the organization should have… Continue reading

The fight against network neutrality, or: The (anti-)P2P Counter-Revolution has begun

Michel Bauwens: So far, I have been quite optimistic about the continued progress of participatory, P2P-based social processes, and attempts such as those of the record industry to stop filesharing were not of the kind to keep me awake, I saw them as inefficient rearguard actions. But the organized campaign of the telco’s and cable… Continue reading

Center for Digital Democracy launches ‘Beyond Broadcast’ report

“The Center for Digital Democracy today released the first of a series of white papers on the future of public media in the digital age. “Beyond Broadcast: Expanding Public Media in the Digital Age” examines a broad range of independent and noncommercial expression (including public broadcasting, but focusing especially on newer forms of community media… Continue reading

Participatory Culture Foundation announces Videobomb ‘democratic TV’ project

Videobomb combines aspects of the news site digg.com and the bookmarking site del.icio.us to make a democratic playground for video. People can submit videos and vote (“bomb”) their favorites onto the front page. Your favorites go to your own personal channel, that your friends can watch in players like DTV or iTunes. We know you… Continue reading

Television “as you know it” will die soon!

In the last millenium Jeremy Allaire and his brother J. J. established the Allaire Corporation, which made ColdFusion, an early tool for making Web sites. In 2001, Allaire was bought by Macromedia for $360 million. Mr. Allaire became Macromedia’s chief technical officer and helped oversee the development of Flash, which originally was to add animation… Continue reading

Conference: Class composition in Cognitive Capitalism

I feel extremely honoured to be invited to a conference in Cambridge at the end of April, that will discuss the contemporary class structure of society and how it is changing under ‘cognitive capitalism‘. A lot of my intellectual heroes will be present. The latter denotes a political economy where the central process has become… Continue reading

Australian Report on the future of the internet, Darren Sharp

Darren Sharp, a contributor to the P2P Foundation, has recently co-authored a report on the future of the internet. Here’s the announcement: The Smart Internet 2010 report was launched in September 2005 by Australian Minister for Communications Senator Helen Coonan at the ICT Outlook Forum, held at Sydney’s Powerhouse museum. The Report provides insight into… Continue reading

Aspen report on the Pull Economy

One of our heros, the tireless Commons advocate David Bollier, with whom we’ve dialogued on occasion (see here and here), has recently published a report for the Aspen Institute: When Push Turns To Pull: The Technology-Enabled Society August 2-5, 2005. Aspen Meadows Conference Center, Aspen Colorado “When Push Turns to Pull: The Technology-Enabled Society” focused… Continue reading