The trap of Communicative Capitalism

Communicative capitalism is a concept put forward by Jodi Dean in a to be published book of the same title. It is also a previously published essay, Communicative Capitalism: Circulation and the Foreclosure of Politics, in the book, Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times (2008) According to Dean, the Web 2.0 is a… Continue reading

Peer to peer and its alliances

Whom should P2P movements ally with? This question was discussed in our p2p research list, and below is the contribution by Andy Robinson. It starts with an analysis of the U.S.-libertarian ethos, well represented amongst software professionals, then goes on to link the forces for ‘virtual peer production’, with the forces that defend the natural… Continue reading

Program – 4th Inclusiva-net Meeting: P2P Networks and Processes – Medialab-Prado Madrid

Program – 4th Inclusiva-net Meeting: P2P Networks and Processes place: Medialab Prado · Plaza de las Letras, C/ Alameda, 15 Madrid Program of presentations, lectures, and roundtables of the Inclusiva-net: P2P Networks and Processes at Medialab-Prado from July 6 ot 10, 2009. Moderated by Juan Martín Prada. This international seminar will focus on an analysis… Continue reading

The Amateur Class, or, The Reserve Army of the Web

Our collaborator Vasilis Kostakis published an article in Rethinking Marxism. Here’s the editor’s note: “Web 2.0 is exploiting a reserve army of amateurs. That’s the evocative argument advanced by Vasilis Kostakis concerning the transformation of the computer industry inaugurated by the new version of the Internet. The netarchists and netocrats who now own the platforms… Continue reading

The continued importance of unions

The report indicates that if California workers were compensated for 100 percent of their productivity gains since 1980, the average wage would be more than 30 dollars an hour, or 40 percent higher than the average real wage in 2007. The following is from the LIVING WAGE COALITION OF SONOMA COUNTY website in California. The… Continue reading

How Siefkes’ Peer Economy model differs from the market model

The following refers to Christian Siefkes book, From Exchange to Contributions: Generalizing Peer Production into the Physical World. (Edition C. Siefkes, Berlin, 2007), and the occasional critique that the proposed effort sharing scheme is in fact a market. Christian Siefkes: “Markets are based on private, uncoordinated production using privately owned means of production, whose output… Continue reading