[p2p-research] The Numerati. A story of the Taylorization of the service and information economies!

Fri Sep 12 11:55:51 CEST 2008

Dear Nathan,

I do not share your enthusiasm for this kind of measurability used in a
fundamentally unequal, feudal corporation ... It can only further dehumanize
and commodify work ...

I would love to find a volunteer to write something sensible about the book
and its positibve/negative implications, including sam's comments about a
p2p version of such metrics ...

Any candidates?

Michel

On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 11:10 AM, Nathan Cravens <knuggy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Samuel,
>
> From 'By building mathematical models of its own employees, IBM aims to
> improve productivity and automate management':
>
> "Eventually, companies could take this knowledge much further, using the
> numbers, in a sense, to clone us. Imagine, says Aleksandra Mojsilovic, one
> of Takriti's close colleagues, that the company has a superior worker named
> Joe Smith. Management could really benefit from two or three others just
> like him, or even a dozen. Once the company has built rich mathematical
> profiles of Smith and his fellow workers, it might be possible to identify
> at least a few of the experiences or routines that make Joe Smith so good.
> "If you had the full employment history, you could even compute the steps to
> become a Joe Smith," she says. "I'm not saying you can recreate a scientist,
> or a painter, or a musician," Mojsilovic adds. "But there are a lot of job
> roles that are really commodities." And if people turn out to be poorly
> designed for these jobs, they'll be reconfigured, first mathematically and
> then in life."
>
> I see proprietary agencies, due to the evolutionary forces of competition,
> sidestepping the worker's activity to perform the function itself without
> costly human mechanisms known as labor. A once highly payed white collar
> salary worker with multiple PhDs is bound to go back to school only so many
> times to relent the job market.
>
> The more detailed the model of an organization, the best weakness are
> observed and rooted out with intelligence automation. Open source
> communities are bound to become more attractive for more than out of work
> factory hands. When we start discussing teams of engineers and other former
> white collars out of work, it will get interesting. Even when a Basic Income
> in put in place, someone that enjoys building will find an outlet somewhere.
> This is where P2P comes out to play its part, developing communities and
> manufacturing items, further fueling competition with the proprietary
> system. I have my bets on who wins. ;)
>
> Best,
> Nathan
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 8:34 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hmmm.. so how does datamining modelling people relate to p2p phenomenon
>> and peer production?
>>
>> What if people started sharing data among trusted networks, and datamining
>> and modelling themselves? That is a question I was asking a couple of years
>> ago. Even one individual could datamine themselves, given a good model.
>> Then, that individual could pool data with others doing the same thing for
>> mutually-agreed-upon purposes that don't yet really exist (actually in some
>> rudimentary cases they do, like people sharing where the best gas price is
>> in online databses, etc)
>>
>> Expecially within small local economies, this can be very empowering.
>> Like, community members are willing to share data about certain things with
>> local businesses to help them out-compete bigger international businesses,
>> for instance. People would need the http://attentiontrust.org/ -type
>> mechanisms and technologies in place and working well before they will
>> really feel comfortable venturing into this territory. But, I believe the
>> building blocks are there....
>>
>>   On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 3:18 AM, Michel Bauwens <
>> michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>   Hi Nathan,
>>>
>>> once you have more precise ideas about the connection, feel free to write
>>> up a blog entry, this is outside my own field of expertise,
>>>
>>> Michel
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 2:58 AM, Nathan Cravens <knuggy at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Michel,
>>>>
>>>> If not already familier with the Numerati, here's an article that
>>>> introduces the conception. I think you'll find of interest: 'By
>>>> building mathematical models of its own employees, IBM aims to improve
>>>> productivity and automate management' (
>>>> http://thenumerati.net/index.cfm?postID=76).
>>>>
>>>> The book is top on my to-read list. It screams Effortless Economy.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Nathan
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Sam Rose
>> Social Synergy
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>
>

-- 
The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer
alternatives.

Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at
http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p

Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at
http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html
BEST VIDEO ON P2P:
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4549818267592301968&hl=en-AU

KEEP UP TO DATE through our Delicious tags at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens

The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
http://www.shiftn.com/
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