We introduced the book last Monday, ending with an excerpt describing three conditions a genuine green state would have to abide by. Here, author Robyn Eckersley, asks the key question: What would it take for such a good/strong/cosmopolitan state to emerge? She identifies four environmental qualities that such a state must possess, and which are… Continue reading
Opening up the Book Commons
Openness creates value, enclosure captures it. The innate tendency of proprietary platforms and for-profit players is to enclose and privatize, to create silo’s of information which go against a truly open internet of content. In an interesting editorial, Tim O’Reilly is pointing out that the internet majors are following in the footsteps of the financial… Continue reading
Obituary: Gerard Fairtlough and Lawrence Rhoades, peer-oriented business leaders
We received the following message from the staff at Triarchy Press, concerning the passing away of Mr. Fairtlough, which we are forwarding with some delay, in order to honour his legacy concerning the triarchical organization of human society. We publish the announcement first, then a summary of his main ideas. He was former CEO of… Continue reading
Peer production, the guilds, and the washing machine
This is not a new article, but a transcript of a marvellous talk by Graham Seaman in 2002 (at the Oekonux conference). I have added it to our selection of key peer to peer essays, which I believe everyone should read to understand the various key aspects of peer production and governance. Graham’s is a… Continue reading
Book of the Week: The Green State (1)
The Australian professor Robyn Eckersley has published a very important book on the contours of a green democratic state, which would have legitimate coercive power for environmental protection. As Robyn argues: “To fixate on the coercive power of the state is to fail to grasp the crucial difference between untamed or arbitrary power and democratically… Continue reading
Peer to Peer dynamics in a corporate context: is it possible?
From the dynamic p2presearch mailing list, created after the Nottingham Peer Production Workshop, another great contribution by Henrik Ingo, who explains why it is impossible to fully implement peer to peer practices in a traditional corporation: Henrik Ingo: “From this it follows that a modern enterprise is not well suited for a p2p governance model,… Continue reading
A commons policy for public authorities
Red Pepper has an excellent article on how the left should let itself be influenced by the new commons-based practices. We publish excerpts in two parts, but please read the whole article. The author is Hilary Wainwright. Part One: The Role of the Left: Beyond Representational Democracy “Our discussions on political representation have been searching… Continue reading
Understanding the concept of benevolent dictatorship in Peer Governance
Henrik Ingo, in his excellent and supremely easily readable book Open Life, on the open source ethos and life practice, has an interesting page explaining why a benevolent dictator makes sense: “We’ll leave the values of Linus and his friends for a while and turn to learning something from the organization and hierarchies of the… Continue reading
The importance of ownership for peer production
How important is it to own things, in the context of a social agenda that favours collaborative production and peer to peer dynamics? I see roughly two polarities in the debate. On the one hand, there are those who think that nothing is fundamentally changing until we tackle the ownership structure. This is voiced by… Continue reading
Towards the co-created society
Bill Matheson at Worldchanging has an interesting approach explaining how the shift from a focus on individuality to a focus on relationality, affects governance models. Here is his graph on the co-created society, followed by his explanation. There is much more in the full article, which discusses ‘green sovereignity’ inspired by a book on the… Continue reading
Rise Up announces Freedom Summer of Code
We’re forwarding this call for support: “For seven years, riseup.net has provided secure, movement-run services to thousands of folks like you. We feel that in an era of automated mass surveillance, it is a deeply radical act to provide secure alternatives to the corporate interweb. Although we still have a lot of work to do… Continue reading
From equipotentiality to coliberation
If we accept Equipotentiality as the basic worldview and principle explaining peer to peer dynamics, then Coliberation is the active ethical principle derived from it. Coliberation is what could/should drive our actions as conscious peer producers. It signifies both the shared transcendence of the group, and the practice of designing social processes so each of… Continue reading
Re-public: Towards a critique of the social web
Re-public, that most interesting online journal that consistently examines the political implications of the web age, is at it again, with a series of contributions on the Social Web. The starting article is a vigorous interview/debate by Paul Hartzog and Trebor Scholz, who attempt to outline a critique of the social web organised along five… Continue reading
Complementary currencies for user-generated content
Blogger “Bonecone” is launching an appeal to develop a complementary currency that could be used in sites using user-generated content, such as YouTube. Such initiatives are part of a global movement towards peer to peer based exchange systems. I must admit I have a mixed mind about approaches that aim to monetize immaterial sharing. The… Continue reading
Converting state property to commons property: the case of public broadcasting
This is a continuation of the earlier posting by Vasilis, and the subsequent commentary by Michel Bauwens, on the discussion in Greece about the national broadcaster ERT. We publish the following commentary by George Papanikolaou separately, as it clearly poses the more general issue of public property vs. commons property. George Papanikolaou: “A diverse nature… Continue reading
The Cape Town Declaration on Open Education
Representatives from the open education movement who met in Cape Town in September have worked hard to achieve consensus on this draft, its open for comment. The Declaration will be finalised in January 2008. The text is available here. Here is how it starts: “We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching… Continue reading