[p2p-research] Corporations vs communities, responding to Franz Nahrada

[Michel Bauwens]

a while ago, Franz posed the following questions:

below with my (short) answers

  1. Can corporations really behave in the same or similar way when they

invest in a community as they behave when they invest in private property?


 Without idealizing the behavior of corporations, and they remain beholden
to profit maximization, the answer has to be yes, corporations who profit
from the commons need to maintain it, “in a socially acceptable way”, also
through the adaptation to rules and norms that are forced upon them by the
power of the community. We know from history that corporations need to
respond to pressure from the state or civil society, when the latter is
strong enough. Certainly most people in the free software community seem to
find the existing social contract between them and the corporations as
mostly acceptable, and seem to have reached a modus vivendi.



 2. Can communities effectively win or maintain supremacy over design and

definition of products even when supported by corporate money or manpower?


 This effort will necessarily result in a compromise between the contending
forces. As a commons becomes dominated by corporations that fund the work,
the direction of the work will necessarily be under the influence of this
direction, but within the constraints and limits set by the rules and norms
of that particular community. Most free software commons are run by
foundations that are also forums of negotiations between various corporate
players. The answer here is that communities need to create their own
framework of value realization, for example through cooperatives and
mission-oriented enterprises, but as long as they operate within a
capitalist framework,the reality of the day, their freedom will always be
constrained by the demands of the market.



 3. Is there a way to successfully fork from projects and regain
independence

in the worst case?


 Theoretically yes, in practice very difficult, and it is difficult to
maintain the social reproduction of software commons without the support of
an entrepreneurial coalition, or another funding mechanism that supports the
core contributors.


 4. Do we see and have alternatives of supporting the livelyhood of people

who invest their lifetime and energy in useful common templates and codes?



 There are only a small number of free software cooperatives in the world.
It seems that at this stage, most free software developers, as aristocracy
of labour, are content to work within the current framework, and do not have
an ideological program that leads them to create such alternatives.


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