[p2p-research] greek text for container magazine, fyi

[Michel Bauwens]

The emergence of peer production and the commons

It will be no secret to most readers that the social DNA of globalized
capitalism has it exactly backwards:
1)      it combines a belief in infinite accumulation of capital, and hence
infinite economic growth on a planet with finite resources,  i.e. it is
based on a fake notion of abundance
2)      with the belief that the sharing of knowledge, science and
innovation, should be impeded through intellectual monopoly rights which aim
to turn matter, life and mind into scarce, marketable commodities, i.e. it
is based on artificial scarcity
Since this system is in the process of destroying the biosphere, a radical
change in the basic premises of our social system would seem an urgent
necessity.
Marx believed, we think correctly, that societies do change, when a more
productive way of producing value is at hand, and the old system has
exhausted its possibilities. However, clearly, the socialist hypothesis did
not come to pass. Not only was ‘really existing socialism’, mostly a variant
of industrial society, not ultimately more competitive than the capitalist
system it aimed to replace, but it mostly placed power in the hand of a
managerial elite that controlled the property of the state. Not exactly the
worker’s control and ownership that Marx himself had in mind.

P2P Theory makes the bold new hypothesis that this new mode of creation
value is now at hand, and can be empirically observed within existing
society. The invention of global internetworks has fundamentally altered the
configuration of time and space, and now allows individuals and small groups
to coordinate large projects on a global scale, and to do this in a way
which outcooperates and outcompetes traditionally operating for-profit
companies.
Peer production occurs when individuals and communities can aggregate
without permission around a common project, and create a commons of
knowledge (Wikipedia), of code (free software) and designs (open hardware
and open and distributed manufacturing). These commons and communities of
contributors, when successful, attract a entrepreneurial coalition which
adds market value to it, creates for-benefit associations that manage the
infrastructure of cooperation, and make the commons activity sustainable.
When those communities start operating outside command and control
modalities, they develop new modes of governance,  “peer governance”; and
new modalities of property that protect the common work from private
appropriation, “peer property”.
This new mode of value creation creates three important new paradigms in
human activity. In order to permissionlessly work together, the input needs
to be open and free; hence peer production automatically addresses the first
problem of global capitalism, i.e. the artificial scarcity; second, in order
to attract contributors, the processes of production need to be
participatory. In this way, peer production addresses another important
problem of the current system: that work itself is still organized in feudal
and authoritarian ways. Finally, the output needs to be a commons, so that
new generations can continue to work cooperatively.
Peer production also tackles the issue of sustainability. While for-profit
companies design for planned obsolescence and try to ignore environmental
externalities as much as they can; open design communities have no such
perverse incentives, and they design intrinsically for sustainability.
The strength of the new modality is probably familiar to most readers.
Wikipedia, despite its own problems, has largely displaced the command and
control encyclopedias; open source software has become the standard for new
software development; and the first examples of open hardware are entering
the market.
An example can illustrate the evolution. Private telecommunications
companies made it almost impossible to develop independent applications, and
asked for 90% of the income; the Apple iPhone, allows for open applications,
but strongly controls its acceptance on its privately controlled platform,
and this partial openness has destroyed the old model; finally, Google opens
up Android almost completely.
Nevertheless, market players will always to attempt to enclose some part of
the process,  in order to create some controllable scarcity that they can
sell on the market. But the open knowledge, software and hardware
communities that are at the heart of peer production, have their own
autonomous strength. More fundamentally, once they realize their own social
strength, they could start aligning themselves with modalities of physical
production, that are more aligned with their own peer to peer ethos, i.e.
cooperatives and expressions of the solidarity economy.
In this way, it is not only the netarchical capitalists that are aligning
themselves with the new productive possibilities, but also social forces
that are clearly post-capitalist.
The paradox of peer production is that, like serfdom and capitalism before
it, it will first strengthen the survival of the old system (slavery and
feudalism respectively), which needs it so endure; but at the same time, and
precisely because of this, it will grow within that old system, and create
the conditions for transcending it.
Reforming the DNA of the old destructive system, i.e. recognizing the limits
of the planet and the need for open sharing of innovation, needs a third
stool, i.e. the change needs to be accompanied by social justice. Thus we
suggest that the workers and farmer’s movement in the world, start aligning
themselves with the new modality of production, to create the conditions for
a sustainable and just  society, that will be aligned around peer to peer
commons in every field of social activity.
Social systems change when both sections of the managerial and producing
classes start reconfiguring themselves, and the transformation towards
commons oriented peer production represents unique emancipator
possibilities, which means the left should urgently understand this
transformation and align themselves with peer producing communities
struggling for maximal autonomy.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: George Papanikolaou <georgepapani at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 4, 2010 at 5:49 PM
Subject: [Fwd: Re: new proposal for container]
To: Michael Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>




Michel

thank you so much for re-working the text!
i think it fits to the magazine much better now and it s a very interesting
approach of course.

george - do you think you could work on its translation till friday?
this is our deadline for the issue
please remember our word limit - not to exceed max max 1100 words

a big thanks to both of you once again
warm greets
d

On 15 March 2010 09:04, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The emergence of peer production and the commons
>
>
>
> It will be no secret to most readers that the social DNA of globalized
> capitalism has it exactly backwards:
>
> 1)      it combines a belief in infinite accumulation of capital, and
> hence infinite economic growth on a planet with finite resources,  i.e. it
> is based on a fake notion of abundance
>
> 2)      with the belief that the sharing of knowledge, science and
> innovation, should be impeded through intellectual monopoly rights which aim
> to turn matter, life and mind into scarce, marketable commodities, i.e. it
> is based on artificial scarcity
>
> Since this system is in the process of destroying the biosphere, a radical
> change in the basic premises of our social system would seem an urgent
> necessity.
>
> Marx believed, we think correctly, that societies do change, when a more
> productive way of producing value is at hand, and the old system has
> exhausted its possibilities. However, clearly, the socialist hypothesis did
> not come to pass. Not only was ‘really existing socialism’, mostly a variant
> of industrial society, not ultimately more competitive than the capitalist
> system it aimed to replace, but it mostly placed power in the hand of a
> managerial elite that controlled the property of the state. Not exactly the
> worker’s control and ownership that Marx himself had in mind.
>
>
>
> P2P Theory makes the bold new hypothesis that this new mode of creation
> value is now at hand, and can be empirically observed within existing
> society. The invention of global internetworks has fundamentally altered the
> configuration of time and space, and now allows individuals and small groups
> to coordinate large projects on a global scale, and to do this in a way
> which outcooperates and outcompetes traditionally operating for-profit
> companies.
>
> Peer production occurs when individuals and communities can aggregate
> without permission around a common project, and create a commons of
> knowledge (Wikipedia), of code (free software) and designs (open hardware
> and open and distributed manufacturing). These commons and communities of
> contributors, when successful, attract a entrepreneurial coalition which
> adds market value to it, creates for-benefit associations that manage the
> infrastructure of cooperation, and make the commons activity sustainable.
> When those communities start operating outside command and control
> modalities, they develop new modes of governance,  “peer governance”; and
> new modalities of property that protect the common work from private
> appropriation, “peer property”.
>
> This new mode of value creation creates three important new paradigms in
> human activity. In order to permissionlessly work together, the input needs
> to be open and free; hence peer production automatically addresses the first
> problem of global capitalism, i.e. the artificial scarcity; second, in order
> to attract contributors, the processes of production need to be
> participatory. In this way, peer production addresses another important
> problem of the current system: that work itself is still organized in feudal
> and authoritarian ways. Finally, the output needs to be a commons, so that
> new generations can continue to work cooperatively.
>
> Peer production also tackles the issue of sustainability. While for-profit
> companies design for planned obsolescence and try to ignore environmental
> externalities as much as they can; open design communities have no such
> perverse incentives, and they design intrinsically for sustainability.
>
> The strength of the new modality is probably familiar to most readers.
> Wikipedia, despite its own problems, has largely displaced the command and
> control encyclopedias; open source software has become the standard for new
> software development; and the first examples of open hardware are entering
> the market.
>
> An example can illustrate the evolution. Private telecommunications
> companies made it almost impossible to develop independent applications, and
> asked for 90% of the income; the Apple iPhone, allows for open applications,
> but strongly controls its acceptance on its privately controlled platform,
> and this partial openness has destroyed the old model; finally, Google opens
> up Android almost completely.
>
> Nevertheless, market players will always to attempt to enclose some part of
> the process,  in order to create some controllable scarcity that they can
> sell on the market. But the open knowledge, software and hardware
> communities that are at the heart of peer production, have their own
> autonomous strength. More fundamentally, once they realize their own social
> strength, they could start aligning themselves with modalities of physical
> production, that are more aligned with their own peer to peer ethos, i.e.
> cooperatives and expressions of the solidarity economy.
>
> In this way, it is not only the netarchical capitalists that are aligning
> themselves with the new productive possibilities, but also social forces
> that are clearly post-capitalist.
>
> The paradox of peer production is that, like serfdom and capitalism before
> it, it will first strengthen the survival of the old system (slavery and
> feudalism respectively), which needs it so endure; but at the same time, and
> precisely because of this, it will grow within that old system, and create
> the conditions for transcending it.
>
> Reforming the DNA of the old destructive system, i.e. recognizing the
> limits of the planet and the need for open sharing of innovation, needs a
> third stool, i.e. the change needs to be accompanied by social justice. Thus
> we suggest that the workers and farmer’s movement in the world, start
> aligning themselves with the new modality of production, to create the
> conditions for a sustainable and just  society, that will be aligned
> around peer to peer commons in every field of social activity.
>
> Social systems change when both sections of the managerial and producing
> classes start reconfiguring themselves, and the transformation towards
> commons oriented peer production represents unique emancipator
> possibilities, which means the left should urgently understand this
> transformation and align themselves with peer producing communities
> struggling for maximal autonomy.
>
>
> --
> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - 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
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Daphne Dragona
cultural [net]worker & mediator
m: +306974040109
skype name: dapdra
http://www.ludicpyjamas.net




-- 
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

Think thank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
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