Date archives "March 2006"

Creators, Synthesizers, Consumers: we’re all of it

Following a post and interesting graphic about community participation in blogs, wiki’s and internet communities, which divided people in three groups: 1% creators, 10% synthesizers of other people’s material, and the rest being passive Consumers, there has been a lot of debate on the internet. The gist is that such a view is too simplistic… Continue reading

Roberto Unger: a P2P political philosophy

About five years ago, I was still working for a large corporation, and increasingly unhappy about what I saw both inside and outside of it. Inside, a creativity-deadening atmosphere, and deadly turf fights at the top; increasing short-termism around monetary targets, endlessly fiddling with the corporate data to suit political ends; and increasing stress levels… Continue reading

Beyond Bittorrent: peer to peer-based distribution grids

This blog also aims to monitor fundamental technological developments that take a P2P-model. Robert X. Cringely of PBS argues that massive distribution of video cannot take the Bittorrent route, and that a new broadband infrastructure is needed, but one based on P2P principles. Currently, ISP’s are opposing this, but he points to the following pioneering… Continue reading

Equipotentiality vs. credentialism

Jimmy Wales: “And if a person‘s really smart and they‘re doing fantastic work I don‘t care if they‘re a high school kid or a Harvard professor, it‘s the work that matters. And you can‘t coast on your credentials on Wikipedia. You have to – you have to enter the marketplace of ideas and engage with… Continue reading

Dignitarianism: a P2P movement?

There are two important questions related to the emergence of P2P: is there any contempary movement which exemplifies its values and shows what it is really all about? And the secondary question then becomes: what then is the enemy of P2P. One possible answer comes from Robert Fuller, a past Professor of Physics at Columbia… Continue reading

Dave Pollard on Rich Warren’s Cellular Church

Here’s a clear example of a P2P-inspired vision of hierarchy and organizational format, from Dave Pollard’s blog How to Save the World: “”’Rick Warren’s ‘Cellular Church’, a religious and now social action network based on ‘cells’, political units even smaller than communities, handfuls of people with shared values and ideals working, each in their own… Continue reading

Multi-laterally Assured Pervasive Permanent Surveillance: new P2P security concept

Our readers might have read David Brin’s Transparent Society, or our recent entries on sousveillance and the participatory panopticon. Philippe Van Nedervelde has systematized some of these insights into what should be a more generalized security concept -a new security doctrine, in fact- which might have frightening aspects for some, but which is surely in… Continue reading

Alan Kazlev responds to the great Cosmic Mash-Up

Alan Kazlev, responds to our earlier entry, The Great Cosmic Mash-Up : I feel that you are still to reliant on the Wilberian error of a simple linear sequence of premodernity-modernity-postmodernity. Premodernity was not a monolithic mythical-metaphysical belief system; it’s just a label some academics give to everything before the 17th century west or whatever…. Continue reading