January 2011 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

open source fashion
by Michel Bauwens 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Dear Zoe/Bertram: could you eventually cover this for the p2p blog: http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/Tau-Meta-Tau-Physica-Bringing-Ope… your brand manual is slated for the 18th, Michel -- 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 tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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New report about Open Data for an Open Society
by M. Fioretti 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Greetings, Open Data, Open Society is a report I wrote for the Institute of Economics of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. The report represents the first part of a research project (1) financed through the DIME network (Dynamics of Institutions and Markets in Europe), as part of DIME Work Package 6.8, coordinated by Professor Giulio Bottazzi. The report discusses the current and potential role, in a truly open society, of raw Public Sector Information (PSI) that is really open, that is fully accessible and reusable by everybody. The general characteristics of PSI and the conclusions are based on previous studies and on the analysis of current examples both from the European Union and the rest of the world. The full report is released under a Creative Commons cc-by license (2) and can be freely downloaded as a single file in HTML or PDF format from the websites of DIME (3) and of the Sant'Anna school (4). In order to facilitate as much as possible feedback and discussion on each single part, the whole report, split in separate pages with comments open to anonymous readers, is also available online at http://stop.zona-m.net/2011/01/the-open-data-open-society-report-2/ The "Open Data, Open Society" project will continue with an online survey that will attempt to assess how many types of raw PSI are already released, in which formats and under which licenses, by the city and regional administration of the EU-15 countries. A final report will summarize and comment the results of the survey. For more information please contact: Prof. Giulio Bottazzi g.bottazzi(a)ssup.it Marco Fioretti mfioretti(a)nexaima.net Thanks in advance for forwarding this announcement to whoever it may concern. Best Regards, Marco Fioretti 1) http://stop.zona-m.net/?p=52 2) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 3) http://www.dime-eu.org/editions 4) http://www.lem.sssup.it/books.html

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Fwd: Denounce severe Greek police attack on US activist & brutal repression of dissent-please sign
by Michel Bauwens 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Oppose Greek Police Repression < opposegreekpolicerepression(a)occupiedlondon.org> Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 3:39 AM Subject: Denounce severe Greek police attack on US activist & brutal repression of dissent-please sign To: opposegreekpolicerepression(a)occupiedlondon.org The following statement has already been quickly signed by Noam Chomsky. Please help show that the international community opposes brutal repression of public dissent here in Greece, such as the attack on our American comrade. Please list your faculty and title when signing. *Please sign the following statement to call for an investigation and accountability for the nearly fatal attack on an American writer and activist by Greek police on November 15th, 2010, during a demonstration in Athens, and to urge the Greek authorities to prevent further physical brutality against those expressing dissent during such turbulent times in Greece. To sign the statement on the online petition, go here*: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/opposegreekpolicerepression/ * (Please review the attached PDF for photo evidence of the November 15th Delta police attack and of the gravely injured activist, a mention of the attack in a report from the European Commission for the Prevention of Torture, an article concerning the beating and injuries suffered by a major Greek magazine, accounts from eye-witnesses of the attack, as well as background information on the specific role of the Greek Delta police in political repression.)* We, the undersigned, are faculty, students, lawyers, and journalists from across the United States and Europe who believe that all people of the world should have the rights to express dissenting views and to protest for social change. We have learned that the “ Delta” force in Greece denies protestors those rights through physical brutality against them. We call for a full investigation and accountability for those involved in the latest police violence. On November 15th, 2010, during a demonstration called by labor unions and leftists groups against the entrance of the IMF into Greece, the Delta police nearly fatally attacked a member of the international community-a 105 pound female American writer and activist who was beaten to unconsciousness with a blunt object and then kicked and beaten repeatedly in the head, neck and back, and abdomen. Eyewitnesses report the use of force by multiple officers during a prolonged time in which the demonstrator was already unconscious, laying on the ground and bleeding from the head. Among multiple injuries, including blood hemorrhaging, her skull was fractured and she suffers permanent inner ear damage. This is not the first time that the Delta police have been responsible for brutal attack on demonstrations in Athens- indicative cases of penal charges against the Delta were brought by the group “ Dikaioma” last week for an attempt by the Delta to break up a demonstration by an attack against their block during the general strike on the 15th December 2010.Charges have also been bought by Professor Aggeliki Koutsoumpou, who was seriously injured when Delta police officers rammed her with their motorcycles during a demonstration on the 6th of December 2009. The members of the Delta force are able to act with impunity against demonstrators and are difficult to identify, having no visible numbers or placards on their uniforms. It is a unacceptable that the Greek government, at a heightened moment of crisis and global instability, chooses to turn its police force on legitimate political speech, physically attacking and harassing demonstrators. We, the undersigned, urge a full disclosure of information regarding the identity of the Delta unit responsible for the excessive attack on the night of the 15th of November. The officers who carried out and commanded these actions must be punished, and effective steps must be taken to end the impunity provided to the Delta force and to prevent further brutality. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/opposegreekpolicerepression/ -- 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 tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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sharing, essence of things, technological determinism, economic determinism, and neoliberalism
by Andreas Wittel 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

Hello everyone, this is a late contribution to the very interesting debate between Roberto and Martin on abundance, free culture, information exceptionalism, and the essence of things. I am responding to Roberto's call for others to jump in to break the deadlock. I found myself strangely in the middle, agreeing with Roberto on some issues and with Martin on others. I share Martin's reservations about free culture. As long as we have not found a way to pay for the labour of cultural workers while all the rest of economic activity maintains the status quo this is a dangerous road to travel (I wont't go into this any further as this is another issue). I side with Roberto on the difference between digital and material things and their implications for human behaviour. And I find myself sitting on the fence when it comes to the economic implications of this difference. For sure it is important to make a distinction between the material and the digital side of the information economy (see Patrick's clarification on the two sides of cyberspace on 4.1.2011) Roberto writes (1.1.2011): 'I assert that the differences between the agricultural, industrial and information modes are of primary importance. These differences arise from the very nature of the goods involved in each mode, and the differences propagate to the level of social relations, including the thinking of people involved in the production of such goods....' 'In short, you cannot ignore the nature of the different goods themselves (living, non-living material, non-material) when considering what kind of social relations are appropriate for particular goods...' 'The point is you cannot ignore the nature of the different types of goods, because their nature often determines or significantly influences the way the goods can be produced and the social relations that arise out of such production modes.' Martin responds (1.1.2011) 'I find it reductionistic, simplistic and in denial of the material base. It relies upon the export of the costs - the externalities - of that production, and is as such very close to neoliberal thinking...' 'In political philosophy terms I consider the primary and deterministic view on "production process" and "thing in question" somewhere between crude marxism (as I said earlier, but this is probably an idiosyncratic error, since I don't really know much about marxism) and neoliberalism: void of social relations around it and disregarding externalities. At any rate: the shaping of social relations have been subjected to the essence of a thing - so if we can generate a list of essential shareability properties, then all we need is a computer to calculate degrees of sharing? No need for politics, no need for dialogue: the thing determines. What a horrible vision and logical conclusion.' 'I do not want to envisage a world in which the essential properties of a thing determine whether it is shareable or not. It sounds so mechanic and reductionistic.' In a response to Michel Martin (same day a bit later) explains further: 'Therefore, in some situation, for argument's sake, it might also be more easy to share a car than it is to share a poem digitally. It all depends on access and configuration of society.' Let's start with this last quote. I would question this statement. Can you give an example to make this claim work? Provided someone has access to a digital device (computer, mobile etc.) and access to the internet it will always be easier to share a poem than to share a car. And if access to digital technology and to digital networks doesn't exist there is no point discussing this. Sharing the poem digitally is easier than sharing a car because the sharer of the poem can keep the poem, whereas the sharer of the car has to give away the car. The sharing of a poem is obviously a form of communication and social interaction with respect to the message and the meaning of the poem, but the act of sharing does not rely on any social interaction at all. It is a one-way street. Under normal circumstances nobody would negotiate with a possible sharer whether to send the poem or not. They just do it. In contrast car sharing needs social interaction and those who engage with car sharing, say within a household on a long term basis, have probably all experienced how this can bring about social conflicts. This is the difference: If material and biological things (cars and mangos) are being shared they do not just get multiplied. Sharing a car means not having access to the car all the time, sharing a mango with someone else means that both can only eat half of the mango. This form of sharing usually involves the notion of sacrifice and most anthropologists would argue that it is precisely this sacrifice that produces an intensification of social relationships, a strengthening of social ties. The sharing of digital 'things' does not involve any sacrifice. Digital things just get multiplied. So if we share a poem digitally we do share it in an abstract way, we share the meaning of the poem, we share our taste in poetry and literature, but we do not share the file. For this reason one could argue that the term sharing is in fact very problematic, even misleading, for digital 'things'. It seems that sharing, like stealing, has entered the language of digital practises due to mere ideological reasons. Both terms are used to justify new forms of social practices morally. Sharing is good, stealing is bad. But copying is neither good nor bad, neither sharing nor stealing, it is just copying, multiplying. A very sad example of the social implications of digital sharing can found in a story published by the Telegraph a few days ago. ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8241015/Facebook-friends-moc…) A 42 year old woman in the UK posted a message on facebook to her 1048 friends on Christmas day, announcing that she will commit suicide and that she has just swallowed the pills. Her message was widely discussed in her network and led to 148 responses where her 'friends' discussed the statement and the former breakdown of this women's relationship. But nobody bothered to call her, call the police, or go over to her place, even though many of her friends discussing her post lived very local. So she died. It's a story we probably won't find in Clay Shirky's next book appraising the positive implications for social media on human relationships. I am mentioning this story cause I don't think it is far fetched to assume that this woman would still be alive had she 'shared' her intentions not on a digital network, but with somebody in a 'real' encounter. As stated above, the sharing of material and biological things is harder to do compared to the sharing of digital things, but because it is harder is has different implications for the quality of social interactions. With respect to 'sharing' in the digital realm and its implications for social interaction I would distinguish between two form of 'sharing', which draws on a distinction by Bruno Latour, between intermediaries and mediators. Intermediaries transport messages (content, code, meaning) without transforming them. Mediators transform, translate, distort, and modify the meaning or the elements they are supposed to carry. So the sharing as intermediary refers to a pure dissemination of content (e.g. file-'sharing'), whereas the sharing as mediator refers to, say mailing lists, blogs etc. This form of 'sharing' is exchange and/or collaboration. The first form of digital 'sharing' is about distribution, the latter about exchange, creation and production, and obviously this form of sharing has always existed; it is not at all specific to the digital age. Sharing as distribution has another social quality than sharing as creation and collaboration. It is a lower form of social interaction and produces less communication, weaker ties, less room for conflicts etc. In my view it does make sense to carve out different qualities of sharing, as these qualities are closely connected to the material and digital worlds in which they exist as social practices. If this is true it does also make sense to analytically distinguish between the properties of digital and material things and consequently to claim that these properties determine or at least facilitate rather specific forms and qualities of social relationships. I concede that this might be simplistic and mechanic but it helps in terms of understanding differences which in my view are important ones. This surely is neither a crude marxist nor a neo-liberal position. It is plainly a position usually associated with technological determinism. As most people would put Marx in the camp of technological determinism, one could call this position a Marxist, or alternatively one associated with McLuhan or with actor-network theory, among many others one could refer to. It is certainly not a neo-liberal position as it does not make any statements with respect to the realm of economics. My point really is that we have to be careful to distinguish between technological and economic determinism. For the latter things do indeed get much more complicated due to the material externalities of 'digital' things and due to the different forms of digital sharing (distributing and creating). Roberto does make a connection between different properties of things (biological, material, digital) and different modes of production. Even though I do not agree at all with the claim of biological abundance in the 21st century world we live in, I find this connection rather interesting. Is it neo-liberal per se to speak about an informational mode of production and to distinguish this mode from an industrial or an agricultural mode of production? I have my doubts. It would only be a neoliberal position if the material externalities of digital production and distribution would be denied, which nobody does. What makes this debate so complicated is that it is still impossible to evaluate in any way the relevance of (and the impact for) these material externatities for this digital mode of production. best wishes, andreas

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White House Open Government Initiative - ExpertNet - extended till Jan 23 2011
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

I vaguely believe I remember ( perhaps wrongly ? ) from the lists that some people related to p2pfoundation may have reacted to the US Open Government platform ? It is extended for another two weeks... Thanks to Seth. --------------------- http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/06/expertnet-two-more-weeks-weigh On December 8, the White House Open Government Initiative and General Services Administration with the support of OMB requested your input<http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/08/designing-democracy-0> in helping us design a next generation public engagement platform where public officials pose questions to citizens and obtain useful and informed contributions for consideration and action. Because the online consultation has been so informative, we are extending the comment period by two weeks until January 23, 2011 and encourage you to participate and to invite others. Keep in mind you can follow additions and changes to the consultation by going to expertnet.wikispaces.com and clicking on Notify Me. http://expertnet.wikispaces.com/Background+and+Principles+Editable An official at the Department of Innovation would solicit this expertise from the public in a four step process: - Step 1<http://expertnet.wikispaces.com/Defining+a+Topic+and+Posing+Questions+Edita…> : Setting up a topic with public consultation questions; - Step 2<http://expertnet.wikispaces.com/Distributing+Questions+to+Professional+Netw…>: Distributing questions to professional networks; - Step 3<http://expertnet.wikispaces.com/Facilitating+Structured+Responses+Editable>: Facilitating structured, online responses to those questions; and - Step 4<http://expertnet.wikispaces.com/Synthesizing+Public+Input+and+Returning+Fee…>: Synthesizing public input and returning feedback. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: S http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/06/expertnet-two-more-weeks-weigh http://expertnet.wikispaces.com/Background+and+Principles+Editable

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reporting from the IASC in Hyderabad, India
by Neal Gorenflo 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

Hi all, For those who couldn't go, Shareable's Christopher D. Cook is reporting from the International Association for the Study of the Commons biennial conference in Hyderabad, India. Here's our first dispatch, a provocative read from an award winning reporter: Commons Conference Highlights Disparities & Challenges http://www.shareable.net/blog/commons-conference-highlights-disparities-cha… -- Neal Gorenflo | Publisher, http://Shareable.net | 415.867.0429

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Open Source Brand
by Bertram Maria Niessen 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

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pearltrees
by Michel Bauwens 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

Having seen this via dante's email, I'm finally really excited about a new social bookmarking service, which I think could do wonders if it's exportable to a wiki page, and could represent our p2p universe .. see http://www.pearltrees.com/ Robin, I tried scoop.it, but find that it really doesn't work for me, what do you recommend in terms of integrated digital curation? Michel -- 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 tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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Re: [P2P-F] http://links.ctrlc.hu
by Michel Bauwens 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

perhaps not the right person to suggest technical improvements, and I'm not sure I'm getting your question right ... Michel On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 9:59 AM, stef <stefan.marsiske(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 09:53:49AM +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote: > > thanks Stef, sharing with our list, > > thanks! > hmm, the url for the src might be wrong, it's: > http://gitorious.org/tagr/tagr > btw if you have some ideas for improvements pls share. i want to have many > of > these serves all interconnected. also i am planning short url support and > snapshotting of the urls content. any other ideas? > cheers,s > > -- > gpg: https://www.ctrlc.hu/~stef/stef.gpg<https://www.ctrlc.hu/%7Estef/stef.gpg> > gpg fp: F617 AC77 6E86 5830 08B8 BB96 E7A4 C6CF A84A 7140 > -- 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 tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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Re: [P2P-F] http://links.ctrlc.hu
by Michel Bauwens 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

thanks Stef, sharing with our list, Michel On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 9:42 AM, stef <stefan.marsiske(a)gmail.com> wrote: > hey Michel, > > if you ever need to go on an exodus with your 50k bookmarks from delicious, > you might consider this option. > http://links.ctrlc.hu > > the code is agplv3, django, mongodb, here: http://gitorious.org/tagr/tagr- > you can host your own - in fact you're encouraged. > > cheers,s > > -- > gpg: https://www.ctrlc.hu/~stef/stef.gpg<https://www.ctrlc.hu/%7Estef/stef.gpg> > gpg fp: F617 AC77 6E86 5830 08B8 BB96 E7A4 C6CF A84A 7140 > -- 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 tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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