The emergence of the peer to peer relational dynamic depends on either an abundance of resources (immaterial production), or a distribution of limited means of production so that they are under control of the individual. So a good summary of this positioning is that we favor the ‘distribution of everything’. Including the distribution of energy…. Continue reading
Date archives "June 2007"
Criteria for the design and implementation of the next generation of post-Enlightenment institutions
John Clippinger has a landmark book out, A Crowd of One: The Future of Individual Identity, which examines what kind of institutions would be appropriate for the new era of cooperative individuals. As he himself explains the rationale for his book: “In contrast to well-entrenched economic and organizational models that operate on the assumption that… Continue reading
Peer to peer organizational forms as form of power
In our own writings on peer to peer, we are aware of the following polarity. There is the emergence of bottom up processes by communities of sharing of desiring to produce value in common. And there is the desire by existing institutions to incorporate participative processes in their own value chain. And of course, there… Continue reading
New & Noteworthy: The Art of Free Cooperation
Of special note this week is this recent release from Autonomedia / Institute for Distributed Creativity. Contributors Howard Rheingold, Christoph Spehr, Brian Holmes, Geert Lovink and Trbor Scholz link the debates about web-based, cooperation-enhancing technologies to the broader world of political activism. Note: Support the P2P Foundation not only by buying books in our Bookstore,… Continue reading
Reforming Asian economies: peer to peer, threefolding, and associative economics
I participated in a very stimulating exchange between the tradition of thought and practice of Assotiative Economics, linked to Anthroposophy, and the ideas around peer to peer networks. Hans van Willenswaard, who together with his wife Willapa operates an indepedent publishing house in Bangkok, recently sent me the following report, which captures very well the… Continue reading
Power and control in peer production (Response to Adam Arvidsson, conclusion)
Here is the last part of the response to Adam Arvidsson’s essay on the Crisis of Value. The Ethical Economy, Power, and Common Norms I may disagree with Adam Arvidsson that this emerging ethical economy, a concept that I consider analogous to what I call the emerging sphere of peer production, is not ‘necessarily better’… Continue reading
The Crisis of Value: P2P Essay of the Year
I read a fair amount of essays during the year, and none struck me as important as Adam Arvidsson’s analysis of the emerging crisis of value in our society and economy. More and more social value is created, but less and less of it is being monetized. It creates a situation whereby our current model… Continue reading
The Real Wealth of Nations acknowledges unacknowledged wealth
While we eagerly await Russ Volckman’s review of the book in the Integral Leadership Review, here is already a summary of what promises to be a landmark book by Riane Eisler: “An economy is more than the market, the government, and the military, says Eisler, eventually citing chapter and verse from a long list of… Continue reading
The coming crisis of capital accumulation, and its solution (Response to Adam Arvidsson, 2)
We are restating Adam Arvidsson’s analysis of the Crisis of Value, in our own words, also thinking on how it may be eventually solved. 1. The Crisis of Value It is now possible to create all kinds of use value without, or with only a minimal, intervention of capital. We are dealing with post-monetary, post-capitalist… Continue reading
The three forms of P2P based economics (Response to Adam Arvidsson, 1)
First part of a commentary on Adam’s essay, from which we published three excerpts earlier. Here a typology of 3 forms of economic activity arising out of the emergence of peer production: the sharing model, the commons model, the co-creation/crowdsourcing model. Text: One, the sharing economy, which is primarily about sharing one’s creative expression, not… Continue reading
Adam Arvidsson: The advantages of peer-based measurement systems
Here is a third excerpt from Adam Arvidsson’s essay: ” The advantages of such peer based measurement systems are that they are emergent. They are not imposed by managers, NGOs or other organizations who might have little knowledge of the actual productive realities of particular practice, and who tend to impose ‘codes of conduct’ which… Continue reading
The dark side of P2P and its freedom (Clay Shirky)
Clay Shirky has written a response to Andrew Keen’s Cult of the Amateur. Part of that response deals with the part of truth of that book, which is that any change also has negative consequences. This passage is worth reading and pondering. Clay Shirky: “Keen is correct in seeing that the internet is not an… Continue reading
Adam Arvidsson: The new ethical economy is beyond measure
Here is our second excerpt of the remarkable essay by Adam Arvidsson: This absence of a measure points towards a power vacuum within the information economy. There is no common measure simply because nobody has been strong enough to impose a common measure, or to put in more Nietzschian terms, to decide what the values… Continue reading
Adam Arvidsson: The monetary economy vs. the ethical economy
Adam Arvidsson has just sent me his latest essay, and I have no hesitation to call it a landmark essay because it is the very first really cogent analysis of the emerging Crisis of Value which is affecting the present market economy model. In short, a new second economy is arising, which he calls the… Continue reading
Namahn P2P interview available on iTunes
Namahn is a planet of self aware artificial intelligences that are striving for mystical consciousness, featured in David Zindell’s Neverness trilogy. It’s also the name of a human computer interaction design company, led by Joannes Vandermeulen in Brussels, which applies progressive management techniques such as open accounting, and they regularly publish podcasts with HCI experts…. Continue reading
Polymorph: Hacking Business Models
Zak Greant’s Polymorph Blog has an amazing, and thought provoking post about his plans to help organize an Open Business Model. This is a rough draft model, but it has many of the core qualities that we’ve defined at Open Business Model, and some interesting new ones. Particularly the “Methods” section: Methods ======= Concrete tools… Continue reading