[p2p-research] Fwd: P2P Foundation and Related Orgs
Michel Bauwens
michelsub2004 at gmail.com
Thu Sep 3 07:57:05 CEST 2009
general presentation of p2p-f
(see also here
http://p2pfoundation.net/History_and_Structure_of_the_P2P_Foundation)
- 1 Mission and
Objectives<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation#Mission_and_Objectives>
- 2 Structure of the P2P
Foundation<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation#Structure_of_the_P2P_Foundation>
- 3 What Other People Are Saying about
Us<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation#What_Other_People_Are_Saying_about_Us>
- 4 Evolution of the P2P
Foundation<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation#Evolution_of_the_P2P_Foundation>
[edit<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation?title=P2P_Foundation:About&action=edit§ion=1>
] Mission and Objectives
*The Foundation for P2P
Alternatives<http://p2pfoundation.net/The_Foundation_for_P2P_Alternatives>
* proposes to be a meeting place for those who can broadly agree with the
following propositions, which are also argued in the essay or book in
progress, P2P and Human Evolution:
- that peer-to-peer based technology reflects a change of consciousness
towards participation, and in turn strengthens it
- that the "distributed network" format, expressed in the specific manner
of peer to peer relations, is a new form of political organizing and
subjectivity, and an alternative for the current political/economic order,
which though it does not offer solutions per se, points the way to a variety
of dialogical and self-organizing formats, i.e. it represents different
processes for arriving at such solutions; it ushers in a era of
‘nonrepresentational democracy’, where an increasing number of people are
able to manage their social and productive life through the use of a variety
of autonomous and interdependent networks and peer circles; that global
governance, and the global market will be, and will have to be, more
influenced by modes of governance involving multistakeholdership
- that it creates a new public domain, an information commons, which
should be protected and extended, especially in the domain of common
knowledge creation; and that this domain, where the cost of reproducing
knowledge is near zero, requires fundamental changes in the intellectual
property regime, as reflected by new forms such as the free software
movement; that universal common property regimes, i.e. modes of peer
property, such as the General Public Licese and the Creative Commons
licenses should be promoted and extended
- that the principles developed by the free software movement, in
particular the General Public License, and the general principles behind the
open source and open access movements, provides for models that could be
used in other areas of social and productive life
- that it reconnects with the older traditions and attempts for a more
cooperative social order, but this time obviates the need for
authoritarianism and centralization; it has the potential of showing that
the new more egalitarian digital culture, is connected to the older
traditions of cooperation of the workers and peasants, and to the search for
an engaged and meaningful life as expressed in one’s work, which becomes an
expression of individual and collective creativity, rather than as a
salaried means of survival
- that it offers youth a vision of renewal and hope, to create a world
that is more in tune with their values; that it creates a new language and
discourse in tune with the new historical phase of ‘cognitive capitalism’;
P2P is a language which every ‘digital youngster’ can understand. However,
'peer to peer theory' addresses itself not just to the network-enabled and
to knowledge workers, but to the whole of civil society (the 'multitudes'),
and to whoever agrees that the core of decision-making should be located in
civil society, and not in the market or in the state, and that the latters
should be the servants of civil society
- it combines subjectivity (new values), intersubjectivity (new
relations), objectivity (an enabling technology) and interobjectivity (new
forms of organization) that mutually strengthen each other in a positive
feedback loop, and it is clearly on the offensive and growing, but lacking
‘political self-consciousness’. It is this form of awareness that the P2P
Foundation wants to promote.
*The Foundation for P2P
Alternatives<http://p2pfoundation.net/The_Foundation_for_P2P_Alternatives>
* would address the following issues:
- P2P currently exists in discrete separate movements and projects but
these different movements are often unaware of the common P2P ethos that
binds them
- thus, there is a need for a common initiative, which
1. brings information together;
2. connects people and mutually informs them
3. strives for integrative insights coming from the many subfields;
4. can organize events for reflection and action;
5. can educate people about critical and creative tools for world-making
- the Foundation would be a matrix or womb which would inspire the
creation and linking of other nodes active in the P2P field, organized
around topics and common interests, locality, and any form of identity and
organization which makes sense for the people involved
- the zero node website, i.e. the site of the P2P Foundation, would have
a website with directories, an electronic newsletter and blog, and a
magazine. It aims to be one of the places where people can interconnect and
strengthen each other, and discuss topics of common interest.
Michel Bauwens <http://p2pfoundation.net/Michel_Bauwens>, November 29, 2005
[edit<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation?title=P2P_Foundation:About&action=edit§ion=2>
] Structure of the P2P Foundation
The P2P Foundation is a decentralized organization. In order to foster it's
growth, however, it has been necessary to create some centralized and
managed structures. These are documented here.
- The P2P Foundation is a registered institute founded in in Amsterdam,
Netherlands. It's local registered name is: Stichting Peer to Peer
Alternatives, dossier nr: 34264847.
- There are no formal operational roles, but Founder Michel
Bauwens<http://p2pfoundation.net/Michel_Bauwens>produces most of the
content creation and takes care of community
management.
- Bios are available for the P2P Foundation's 3
Founders<http://p2pfoundation.net/Founders>
- The P2P Foundation has several nodes on the web: a
wiki<http://p2pfoundation.net/>,
a blog <http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/>, a social
network<http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/>,
and an email discussion
list<http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org>.
Each has an administrator.
- The wiki is administered by James Burke; technical assistance is
regularly provided by Kasper Souren.
- The blog is administered, and the server space paid for, by James
Burke
- The list is administered by Ryan Lanham and Kevin Carson
- The social network at Ning was created by Joseph Davies-Coates and
is (mainly) administered by Michel Bauwens
Read here for more on the History and Structure of the P2P
Foundation<http://p2pfoundation.net/History_and_Structure_of_the_P2P_Foundation>
[edit<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation?title=P2P_Foundation:About&action=edit§ion=3>
] What Other People Are Saying about Us
- Franz Nahrada GIVE - Global Villages Lab, Austria:
"The Peer to Peer Foundation is the one organisation that brings toghether
knowledge about the emerging cooperative economy and society from all walks
of life. Be it new products based on collective imagination and testing, be
it participatory forms of decisionmaking, be it good practises of
strengthening the cultural commons - P2P foundation spans it all and
provides us with knowledge resources essential for our daily work in
harnessing the power of local community and global networking."
- Sam Rose
"How will humans solve the problem of working together to create new and
better working systems for technology production, energy, knowledge
creation, education, conflict resolution, media production, health care,
design, research and development, finance and natural resource management?
If you are interested in engaging these questions, P2P Foundation is one of
the few entities that gives those interested access to explore, develop,
contribute and benefit from the largest knowledge base in the world of
people trying to set right what is really abundant, what is really scarce,
and act accordingly. Trying to help create a better world? Start here!"
- Natalie Pang
"In a world dominated by market relations, the Peer to Peer (P2P) Foundation
provides a solid insight on how alternative structural mechanisms i.e.
peer-to-peer and collaborative production can be applied to all aspects of
everyday life. This includes technological developments, the economy,
cultural and social development, research and development, and the
sustainability of natural resources. While grounded in theory, the P2P
Foundation also offers ongoing dialogue with interdisciplinary researchers
and practitioners to explore pragmatic solutions to contemporary issues and
problems."
- Kevin Carson
"The quality of writing on the P2P Foundation blog is incomparable, and I
have relied heavily on material in the P2P Wiki on peer production, open
source manufacturing, and desktop manufacturing, in writing Chapters
Fourteen and Fifteen of my org theory manuscript.
I highly recommend Bauwens' extended essay "P2P and Human
Evolution<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation?title=P2P_and_Human_Evolution&action=edit&redlink=1>,"
and his shorter introductory essay "The Political Economy of Peer
Production<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation?title=Political_Economy_of_Peer_Production&action=edit&redlink=1>."
[edit<http://p2pfoundation.net/About_The_Foundation?title=P2P_Foundation:About&action=edit§ion=4>
] Evolution of the P2P Foundation
Interview of Michel Bauwens by V. Sasi Kumar:
"Michel Bauwens was in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in December 2008, to
participate in the Free Software Free Society conference and talked about
the work of the Foundation. *In this interview, done through email after his
return to Thailand, Michel speaks about how he decided to leave his job and
start the P2P Foundation, what principles the Foundation is based on, what
its work is, and how the work has been progressing.*
You were an information scientist and magazine editor before you started the
P2P Foundation. Can you tell us about this evolution? How did it happen?
*MB:* My first job (but without any formal library and information science
training, as I studied political science) was nine years as reference
librarian and information analyst for a centre in Brussels. In 1990, I
started working as strategic business information manager at the
headquarters of the agribusiness wing of British Petroleum. At that time, I
reformulated the role of librarian into that of ‘cybrarian’, ie managing
“just in time, just for you” information streams to senior management who
were not in any real sense using the physical library resources anymore.
As the animal feed businesses were divested by 1993, I moved on to creating
a Flemish magazine that was a mix of Mondo 2000 and Wired, and then became
one of the Internet evangelists in my home country, leading to work as a
serial Internet entrepreneur.
>From my very first encounter with the Internet, ie collective mailing lists
combining experts from around the world, I knew this was a technology that
would change the very fabric of our world. Never before had there been such
real-time possibilities for human cooperation and collective intelligence on
a global scale. From now on, the privileged communication infrastructures
that were only in the hands of multinationals and the State, would be
distributed and democratised, a shift at least as important as the effect of
the printing press.
At the same time, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the corporate
world, seeing how the neoliberal system not only created increased social
inequality, exacted a terrible psychic cost from even its privileged
managerial layers, while also creating havoc in our natural world. I started
seeing the system as a giant Ponzi scheme (a scheme in which the profit of
those who invest earlier comes from those who invest later), so what
surprised me was not the meltdown of 2008, but why it took so long to
actually manifest itself!
At the same time, there was a revival of social resistance starting in 1995,
and I was noticing, as a professional trend-watcher, that there was a common
template in the new forms of social organisation, the one I now call the
‘peer to peer’ dynamic, or ‘voluntary permissionless self-aggregation around
the production of common value’.
Key for me was the observation of the Internet bust in April 2000, which I
witnessed from a privileged position as I was working in the same sector. As
the stock market imploded, pundits were predicting the end of the Internet
because no more capital was available for innovation and development. In
fact the opposite happened -- rather than diminishing, innovation increased,
entirely driven by the social field of aggregating geeks, giving birth to
the Web 2.0, the first social model based on an interrelationship between
new forms of capitalism and user-generated production of value. I knew then
that I would study this phenomenon more deeply, and in particular since I
consider peer aggregation to be a non-alienating form of work, how it could
be leveraged as a force for social change.
So in October 2002, I decided to quit my corporate engagement, take a
sabbatical to think things through, and moved to Thailand to create a global
cyber-collective to research and promote P2P dynamics.
*Is there a basic set of hypotheses from which the Foundation starts?*
Yes, I formulated the following principles when I started the Foundation:
- That peer to peer-based technology reflects a change of consciousness
towards participation, and in turn, strengthens it.
- That the ‘distributed network’ format, expressed in the specific manner
of peer to peer relations, is a new form of political organising and
subjectivity, and an alternative for the current political/economic order,
ie I believe that peer to peer allows for ‘permission-less’
self-organisation to create common value, in a way that is more productive
than both the state and private for-profit alternatives. People can now
engage in peer production that creates very complex ‘products’ that can
achieve higher quality standards than pure corporate competitors.
I also believe that it creates a new public domain, an information commons,
which should be protected and extended, especially in the domain of common
knowledge-creation; and that this domain, where the cost of reproducing
knowledge is near-zero, requires fundamental changes in the intellectual
property regime, as reflected by new forms such as the free software
movement; that universal common property regimes, ie modes of peer property
such as the general public licence and the creative commons licences should
be promoted and extended.
These principles developed by the free software movement, in particular the
general public licence, and the general principles behind the open source
and open access movements, provide for models that could be used in other
areas of social and productive life.
If we can connect this new mode of production, pioneered by knowledge
workers, with the older traditions of sharing and solidarity of workers and
farmers movements, then we can build a very strong contemporary social
movement that can transcend the failures of socialism.
I think it also offers youth a vision of renewal and hope, to create a world
that is more in tune with their values.
I call the new peer to peer mode a ‘total social fact’, because it
integratively combines subjectivity (new values), inter-subjectivity (new
relations), objectivity (an enabling technology) and inter-objectivity (new
forms of organisation) that mutually strengthen each other in a positive
feedback loop, and it is clearly on the offensive and growing, but lacking
‘political self-consciousness’. It is this form of awareness that the P2P
Foundation wants to promote.
*Was this mostly your work, or were others involved in formulating these
principles?*
I formulated the principles on my own, but also after at least two years of
reading, and of being attuned with the zeitgeist (zeitgeist describes the
intellectual, cultural, ethical and political climate, ambience and morals
of an era). Others were formulating similar ideas, though in different ways.
So as usual we should not claim too much personal merit; we are standing on
the shoulders of the giants of the past, and are simply lucky to accompany a
deep shift in human consciousness that would be taking place without us just
as well. At the most, we can try to put some extra grease in the machine.
*What exactly does the Foundation do?*
We want to be an interconnecting platform for people involved in realising
the new open and free, participatory and commons-oriented paradigms in every
social field. So, we are monitoring and describing real-world initiatives,
theoretical efforts, creating a library of primary and secondary material,
and trying to make sense of that aggregation by developing a coherent set of
concepts and principles. We do this with a wiki, with nearly 8,000 pages of
information, which have been viewed over 5 million times; through a blog
reaching about 35,000 unique users last year, a Ning community with a few
hundred members, and a number of mailing lists. The most active is the peer
to peer research list, where academics and non-academics can collaboratively
reach understandings. We also had two annual physical meet-ups in Belgium
and the UK, and have some national groups such as in the Netherlands and
Greece. There’s a lot of hidden activity acting as connectors between
various initiatives, which, despite the global Internet, often don’t know
they are working on very similar projects that could reinforce each other.
Peer to peer happens without us, but we want to add a little interconnecting
grease to the system. My ultimate aim is to create a powerful social
movement that can support the necessary reforms for social justice,
sustainability of the natural world, and opening up science and culture to
open and free sharing and collaboration, so that the whole weight of the
collective intelligence of humanity can be brought to bear on the grave
challenges we are facing.
*How do you see the work that has already been done? Is it progressing
according to your expectations?*
I’m pleased on some levels, frustrated at others. In three years, we have
constructed a sizeable amount of interrelated information and knowledge, and
a ‘community of understanding’. I think we have a ‘really existing virtual
community’ that cares about the ideals that we formulated. Each of these
people are themselves active in their own real-world projects, some of which
will be crucial change agents in the near future. Undoubtedly, the P2P
Foundation is a global brand at least on the level of Internet users, as we
have not crossed the boundary to mass media reporting. Our growth seems
slow, but organic and rather strong, with not so much turnover and a lot of
loyalty. Our internal culture of civil discourse seems very strong. On a
personal level, I have a little more social and reputational capital, and
have been privileged to explain P2P in several countries on four continents,
which has allowed me to relate physical presence with the virtual network --
a strong combination.
My big frustration is that I failed to develop a ‘business model’ to sustain
myself and my family, so I’m returning to paid employment in a few weeks,
which will necessarily diminish my engagement, which has been full-time for
the last three years, with the P2P Foundation’s work." (
http://infochangeindia.org/200907137829/Technology/Features/Dreaming-of-a-peer-to-peer-world.html)
On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 9:50 PM, Suresh Fernando <
suresh at radical-inclusion.com> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I am trying to get a better idea of P2P Foundation. I am assuming that it
> is the P2P Foundation that is holding the Media Ecologies Conference and is
> providing the funding for us to come and present.
>
> FYI, I did go the wiki and look around. Some/all of this info might be
> there but, if so, its not immediately obvious.
>
> - When was it founded?
> - By whom was it founded?
> - What is its legal structure?
> - What is the mandate of the foundation?
> - Is there any management structure/process in place? If so what is the
> structure and who is driving this?
> - What is the source of financing or P2P? Is it ongoing? Is it
> supported via endowment?
> - Who is responsible for the disbursement of funds (assuming that it is
> P2P that is disbursing funds?
> - What is the decision mechanism for disbursement of funds?
> - What sorts of projects does the foundation look to fund?
>
> Also, what is the relationship between the Public Sector of the Future and
> P2P?
>
> If the funding is coming from another entity and not the P2P foundation, I
> am interested in learning about this entity, and all of the above questions
> still apply.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> --
> Suresh Fernando
> WEBSITE: http://radical-inclusion.com
> WEBSITE: http://wiki.openkollab.com
> BLOG: http://sureshfernando.wordpress.com
> TWITTER: http://twitter.com/sureshf
> FACEBOOK: facebook.com/suresh.fernando
> 604-889-8167
>
History and Structure of the P2P Foundation From P2P Foundation Jump to:
navigation<http://p2pfoundation.net/History_and_Structure_of_the_P2P_Foundation#column-one>,
search<http://p2pfoundation.net/History_and_Structure_of_the_P2P_Foundation#searchInput>
*The following text was posted to the mailing list by Michel Bauwens on 25
May 2009, in a response to a transparency request by Matt Cooperrider. It is
posted here, lightly edited, to serve as stub for a more complete history
page.*
Some background, as requested, in reverse chronological order
The list was created by Ned Rossiter after Andreas Wittel's Peer Production
workshop meeting in Nottingham in November 2007 .. About 2 months ago, he
quit as listmaster, and the settings he choose went to Kevin Carson and Ryan
Lanaham for review. I have no details about what they changed.
Ning was set up by Josef Davies-Coates, but is administratively maintained
by me.
Tne blog was set up by James Burke, who is admin and gives out pw/id's
usually on my request. I produce 90% of the content, 3-4 items per day. He
pays for the server space.
The wiki was set up by Brice Leblevennec and about 18 months ago, admin was
transferred to James Burke. Since short, it seems a web of trust is
technically operating, i.e. existing members give access to new ones,
before, it was james and I. I produce about 85%, perhaps more, of the
content, from 5 to 25 items per day, depending on my time.
I can easily spent 8 hours a day on this, which was what I did before I
started this job, now I'm down to 4 ... which requires 2 extra hours outside
of the office and 2 times 4 hours on both weekend days.
But to be clear, my work is content oriented and I always forward technical
issues to James, list issues to kevin and ryan, technical ning issues to
joseph ..
There is no formal governance, but I would argue, neither a tyranny of
structurelessness. In fact, inside our resources, the case with Marc (a list
etiquette dispute) was the first conflict.
The P2P-F has a legal structure in the netherlands, with a board and all,
but no real existence so far.
*...*
Here are some extra things that I remember in terms of contributions:
- Kasper Souren is very active in helping us with Wiki technical issues
- Mauro Bieg produced a introduction to P2P for beginners, the one
accessible from the box on the left side of our main wiki
- Vasilis Kostakis has been very active in Greece
- Philippe Vandenbroeck (with Alain Wouters and others from Whole Systems)
organized the first p2p camp in Leuven, Belgium, in 2005 (?) and supported
us financially, later through his new company Shift
- Andreas Wittel organized a second P2P conference, dedicated to research,
at Notthingham Trent in November 2007
- Valentin Spirik developed a substantive guide to audiovisual production in
2007-2008
- Athina Karatzogianni has found funds for conferences organized under the
heading of a to be created Internet and P2P Research Group, at the
University of Hull in 2010
- Chris Pinchen is regularly contributing to the blog
- Kevin Carson, Eric Hunting, and Paul Fernhout are very active in
contributing thoughtpieces in the p2p research mailing list, which are
regularly published in the blog
- Bas Reus has convened a Dutch group of p2p sympathizers
- With the help of the editors of Re-Public, the Greek online magazine which
covers wiki politics, we obtained our very first EU 'FP7' research funds,
which will give the Foundation a real 'practical' existence. The project,
starting in March 2010, involves Adam Arvidsson, Natalie Pang and myself as
co-researchers and concerns the role of digital networks in the religious
practice of female migrants
- A varied number of individuals such as Tere Vaden, Vasilis Kostakis and
others have regularly lend or given some sums of money to go through the
most dire circumstances in the period before February 2009
- I work particularly close with Adam Arvidsson on the topic of the 'crisis
of value' in contemporary capitalist society, and Adam's notion of the
ethical economy is very close to my own understanding
- Nathan Cravens has been very active in redesigning a number of Wiki
sections in 2009, and has also created and assisted with the section of
distributed Manufacturing
This list is not exhaustive, and reflects my current memory and awareness,
in July 2009
--
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090903/26b8567f/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the p2presearch
mailing list