Date archives "November 2006"

Book of the Week: Peter Barnes on Capitalism 3.0

Peter Barnes has published his landmark book on the Commons and the market, Capitalism 3.0: Enriching Ourselves By Enhancing Our Commons, Berrett-Koehler, 2006. It is also available at the excellent On the Commons blog, where it is downloadable for free in pdf format. 1. Peter Barnes on Natural Capitalism “Since the 18th century, and especially… Continue reading

Distinguishing Open Commons Organizations from Open Business Organizations

Pure peer production is essentially a form of non-reciprocal generalized exchange, in which everyone contributes voluntarily to his ability and can use according to need. But such projects do need a measure of infrastructure and institutionalization, i.e. a codified form of property (the GPL, CC or associated licenses), and some form of governance. Thus such… Continue reading

Gems at the P2P Foundation: February 2006

A selection of interesting blog entries from February 2006 P2P Hierarchy Theory Dave Ellerman’s Helping Theory http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=75 Riane Eisler’s Partnership Society http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=74 Rank thinking vs. peer thinking http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=63 Edelman: Trusting peers more than institutions http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=50 P2P Politics and Society Four levels of P2P http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=104 The influence of P2P advances in stages: which ones? Peer Production… Continue reading

Voluntary Collective Licensing as a solution to the copyright wars

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a white paper explaining why voluntary collective licensing is the best solution for combining the interests of both creators and users. We’re quoting the first paragraphs: Â “The current battles surrounding peer-to-peer file sharing are a losing proposition for everyone. The record labels continue to face lackluster sales, while… Continue reading

Fab@Home or the importance of universal freeform manufacturing

Here’s an excerpt from a project to create open source personal fabricators. Why it is potentially so important: “Universal manufacturing embodied as todays freeform fabrication systems has like universal computers the potential to transform human society to a degree that few creations ever have. The ability to directly fabricate functional custom objects could transform the… Continue reading

John Hagel on the Open Distribution Model

I recommend reading the whole blog entry, from John Hagel, who writes consistently interesting commetary on business innovation, especially on the new Asian models. Here, we are merely reblogging the paragraphs on open distribution: “Looked at through an innovation lens, Grameen Bank represents one of the earliest examples of a powerful form of business innovation… Continue reading

Creative Commons defends the author, and why this is necessary

There is an ongoing debate on the internet over the merits of Creative Commons licenses, either because it is not radical enough, or, because it is wrong to support the copyright culture, of which CC is an emanation, and which it paradoxically re-inforces. This is not a critique that I share, and other collaborators at… Continue reading

Franz Nahrada reports on the new work movement

Franz Nahrada, known himself for his important work on Global Villages, reports on the related New Work movement, which is certainly very kindred as to what the P2P Foundation wants to achieve. We cite extensively from his report, which include pictures and extra references to projects in Africa: Â “greetings from Vienna, Austria, where we… Continue reading

Book of the Week: Kevin Carson on the Mutualist Political Economy, excerpts

We continue our publication of excerpts from Kevin Carson‘s significant book, which we have read, and strongly recommend. SELECTION THREE, From Chapter Three, “Time Preference and the Labor Theory of Value” …Böhm-Bawerk for the most part stuck to an ahistorical treatment of the actual origins of the distribution of wealth, taking as a given that… Continue reading

Legal vs. Social Commons: Brazil

An interesting distinction between Legal Commons vs. Social Commons, by Ronaldo Commons, in an earlier presentation at Wizard of Os. Our own wiki pages have some related material. “Ronaldo Lemos from ccBrazil started the session by presenting a developing countries perspective on commons-based business. According to him, open business can take two forms. One is… Continue reading

Interview on the p2p society for Panopticon: peer governance vs. representative democracy

Belgian futurist Nik Baerten has conducted a lengthy interview on peer to peer.  Here, we are just excerpting one question on peer governance vs. democracy:  P: Indeed, while the online world facilitates p2p action, the effect of it moves beyond the online-offline screen into our daily physical world. When you speak of ‘peer… Continue reading