We continue yesterday’s coverage of the Quaero Forum on the politics of search engines, with a interesting discussion between Erik Borra of Open Search, being challenged by Richard Rogers Issue 1: Manipulation vs. spam Rogers: Normally search engine companies argue that their logics are closed and not transparent, because if they were open, the search… Continue reading
Update on the Quaero Forum: the politics of search engines, 1
The forum in Amsterdam is asking the following key questions: • What are the politics of the structure and image of search engines and their technologies? • To what extent have search engines like Google, which started from the ideal of access to information, become the modus operandi of political bias? Can we envisage scenarios… Continue reading
What kind of economy are we moving to? 3. A hierarchy of engagement between companies and communities
The ladder of Participation I have reworked Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation to account for the different modalities of community-corporate cooperation and engagement, based on the key variable of who controls the overall framework. Indeed, despite its usefullness, I find that Xavier Comtesse’s approach presents a limited view of use of social innovation by corporations… Continue reading
What kind of economy are we moving to? 2. Overview of the main business models
1. The three business models In P2P theory, I distinguish at least 3 business models that are emerging through peer production. One is precisely that: there is now a sharing economy, where people share value, but mostly from motivations of individual expression and recognition, for which they need platforms, which are proprietary, and fund themselves… Continue reading
What kind of economy are we moving to? 1. Overview of attention economy concepts
Time for an overview of the material we have collated for our Encyclopedia. As a reminder, we have a special section for business-oriented material where we focus on the manyfold implications of the emergence of peer production. Our first argument is that there are in fact two economic realms, a sphere for the direct production… Continue reading
Defining an open movement
What is an open movement? I was asked by Vodes.net to write down a definition of an open movement, and created a specific wiki page for it. For a broader context, see the entry on Openness, and for a different interpretation, see the people who have worked on defining Open Organizations in particular. Readers are… Continue reading
Can the experience economy be capitalist?
I’m reproducing here my monthly column for the Amsterdam-based Center for the Experience Economy: To avoid misunderstandings at the outset, let me clearly state that I distinguish markets from the system of infinite accumulation of capital that we call capitalism. Markets have always existed, and are a mechanism to deal with and allocate scarce rival… Continue reading
GiveMeaning – online donation, online fundraising and creative fundraising ideas
GiveMeaning – online donation, online fundraising and creative fundraising ideas An interesting idea, connecting news stories with Donation projects, and giving people ways to collectively rate and filter different dimensions, or propose their own way to solve the problem. “Problem spaces” are sorted through tags, and tag clouds show areas with higher activity.
Process Network building theory – P2P Foundation
Process Network building theory – P2P Foundation Diagram Stage 1: Discussion/Credibility establishment Assuming the two groups decide they want to connect at all: The process starts out with discussion/conversation among the two groups. This is where the two groups both start to create shared understanding through dialogue, and mutually determine the level of credibility and… Continue reading
Dialstation project launches labour IPO
Dmytri Kleiner and the collective that brought us Dialstation is continuing to construct an alternative mode of owning and producing. Here is their most recent announcement: “On May 1st 2007, Telekommunisten launched it’s first consumer product, Dialstation, which allows inexpensive international telephone calls to be made from any normal or mobile telephone and includes a… Continue reading
From the stadiality of capitalism to the stadiality of peer to peer
David Laibman’s Deep History, which has already inspired me to a previous editorial comparing the peer to peer transition to that from slavery to feudalism, offers an innovative interpretation into the stadial (= by stages) evolution of capitalism. It is an abstract theory, but compatible with the historical record. I will first describe his vision,… Continue reading
New book on the expansion of peer production in the physical economy
Christian Siefkes announces the publication of an important book about the “peer economy” which focuses on the sphere of the production of physical goods: Text of announcement: “The big text I was working on for the last nine months is ready. It is about the question of the potential of peer production — the way… Continue reading
How peer production transcends capitalism: entrepreneurs vs. capitalists, for-benefit vs. for-profit
I missed this great post by the Anomalous Presumptions blog, which also focuses on peer production. It argues that: In peer production, the interests of capitalists and entrepreneurs are no longer aligned. Because it is so central to our concerns, I’m taking a very large excerpt, the text below is from the original author: 1…. Continue reading
Peer to peer scenario building
We received word of a very interesting project by John Cassel (reach him via john dot benjamin dot cassel at gmail), which involves participatory scenario building. This project requires all kinds of technical and other kinds of assistance, and we are therefore quoting the project description in full, based on a summary document provided to… Continue reading
Open Content creates more economic value than copyright
Fair use is the American concept that there are exemptions to copyright in certain cases, which in fact create a form of what is now “open content”. A recent report by the Computer and Communications Industry Association, concludes that this in fact creates more economic value added than the protected material. The importance of this… Continue reading
Ephemeral self-destroying non-collectible p2p art still being shared after one year
Swedish artist Anders Weberg created a p2p artwork in the form of a film, which he destroyed after it was shared, and self-destructs itself each time another person takes it up. Yet after one year, the film is still existing and being shared. Here are the details: “P2P Art – The aesthetics of ephemerality.” Art… Continue reading