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

crossposting? International Forum on the social and solidarity economy 2011
by Synnove Mathe 28 Jan '11

28 Jan '11

Hi, I think this event might be interesting for all of you, I hope so !! http://www.fiess2011.org/en/ Regards, -- Synnöve

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an open letter to a pro-copyright author
by Michel Bauwens 28 Jan '11

28 Jan '11

interesting letter from Josef Davies-Coates, central to the values defended by the FC Forum See: to be published at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/an-open-letter-to-a-pro-copyright-author/2011…; forgot to note the source of josef's original link, but book in question is available via http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Permaculture/ An open letter to a pro-copyright author<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/an-open-letter-to-a-pro-copyright-author/2011…> [image: photo of Michel Bauwens] Michel Bauwens 2nd February 2011 >From Josef Davies Coates, who received a threatening letter regarding a book that was posted online: Toby Hemenway, a leading permaculture author sent me a message with very very thinly veiled threat to sue me for including his great book Gaia’s Garden here http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Permaculture/ (someone else has also put it up on Scribd) Here is the text of his message: at http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Permaculture/ you have a pirated copy of my book, Gaia’s Garden. My publisher, Chelsea Green, has prosecuted pirates often. You also have copies of Paul Stamet’s books, and Paul has been known to sue the shit out of pirates. You also have Fukuoka’s books, which my friend Larry Korn took years to translate. Larry, a pioneer organic farmer, badly needs the money from sales. Why would you steal from your colleagues and teachers like this? It makes it very hard to write again if we aren’t supported. You might want to take those books down. Free is not sustainable. And here is my response: Hi Toby, Thanks for getting in touch. [image: :)] Please forgive me in advance for this lengthly email, but this is a topic that is of great import to me (and I’m supposed to be doing my tax return! [image: ;)] ) Firstly, let me share with you that I’m currently in the process of designing my first Forest Garden and I was just last night reading the 2nd edition of your great book (of which I own a hard copy). Thanks for all your great work! I must say, however, that it saddens me greatly that people as enlightened as yourself have not yet realised how backward and pointless trying to enforce copyright is, nor accepted the fact that digital content that exists can be, and usually is, copied many many times. It is time for many more authors and publishers (especially the good ones!) to acknowledge that the current, rather dated, publishing model is no longer sustainable in the digital networked age we find ourselves in. The commons-based peer production of free software and content is in fact much more so; Linux dominates the server market and more and more enlightened people use it on their desktops too. Firefox is now the most popular web browser in Europe. Wikipedia, whose software and content has always been free to share, is consistently in the top 10 visited websites on the planet. Perhaps even more excitingly, the Open Source 3D Printer, RepRap, cost 60 times less than commercial competition and Open Source Ecology are designing, building and sharing a whole Global Village Construction Set, (think PermaFacture of just about everything [image: :)] ) http://openfarmtech.org The electronic copy of your book (and all the other important and timely information nicely organised into folders on http://files.uniteddiversity.com ) is out in the wild already, and was so before I got my hands on it (that is how I got my hands on it). There is absolutely nothing anyone can do about that, however many lawyers and court cases are involved. This is a fact that publishers and authors stuck in an old mindset and dependent on old business models ignore at their peril. For some context, I’d really love it if you could please take 30mins to listen to this great presentation that Lawrence Lessig of the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave back in 2002: http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html He sums it up at the beginning with a short refrain: 1. Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. 2. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. 3. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. 4. Ours is less and less a free society. Perhaps also read these articles by Sci-Fi author Cory Doctorow… Why free ebooks should be part of the plot for writers: “My problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity, and free ebooks generate more sales than they displace.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/18/free-ebooks-cory-doctorow The real cost of free: “The topic I leave my family and my desk to talk to people all over the world about is the risks to freedom arising from the failure of copyright giants to adapt to a world where it’s impossible to prevent copying. Because it is impossible.“ if I give away my ebooks under a Creative Commons licence that allows non-commercial sharing, I’ll attract readers who buy hard copies. It’s worked for me – I’ve had books on the New York Times bestseller list for the past two years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/oct/05/free-online-content-c… Free data sharing is here to stay I sell my printed books by giving away electronic books http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/18/informationeconomy This post (and the comments) on Rob Hopkins book is also relevant: http://transitionculture.org/2008/06/20/the-fascinating-story-of-a-viral-dr… The fact is, copying isn’t theft (the owner of the original copy still has their copy) and ALL creative work is derivative. As for your threats to get Chelsea Green etc to sue me… 1. I have no money and no assets (OK, I admit, I do have about 300GBP in savings and 1000GBP invested in the Ecological Land Co-op, plus a few other bits and bobs here and there), so not sure what they’d achieve with that. 2. The small two-person co-op I work for and founded, United Diversity, is all about helping people to discover, contribute to and replicate intelligent responses to climate, energy and economic uncertainty. Our purpose is to improve quality of life on Earth whilst simultaneously reducing ecological footprint. Is this really the sort of organisation you want to sue? 3. As part of our work, we are indirect long-term customers of your publisher, Chelsea Green (through UK distributors, Green Books). I have personally set-up and run market stalls at green fairs and festivals all over the UK and have sold 100s, probably 1000s of their hard copy books, including yours. Is this really the sort of person you’d want your publishers to waste their time and money trying to sue from across the Atlantic? Are there not many many far more urgent and important (let alone more fun, interesting and inspiring) things to be getting on with and using precious resources to do? 4. I personally take the viewpoint that whilst sharing copyrighted material that is not released under a Creative Commons (or some other modern, open, license) is technically illegal, that sharing it is in fact preventing a far greater crime; widespread ignorance and the destruction of ecosystems everywhere. Note that in the UK this argument has on numerous occasions stood up in a court of law. See, for example: http://uniteddiversity.com/damaging-property-to-prevent-climate-change-is-l… So whilst I “might want to take those books down”, then again, I might not. Afterall, what good would it really achieve? Like I said before, everything on http://files.uniteddiversity.com is not only really important info very pertinent to our times, but its also already out in the wild. It is literally impossible to remove it from the Internet at large (which is where I got it all from in the first place). What is really the point of removing it from my lovingly-collated pdf collection when anyone who can get online (that’ll be nearly 1/3 of the population on Earth then, nearly 2 billion people) and knows how to search http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=gaias+garden+.torrent will be able to find it and download it from peers spread all over the globe (some of which, no doubt, live in jurisdictions with more sensible, i.e. non-existent, copyright laws). Of course, we’ve all got to make a livelihood. And in this overly monestised world we find ourselves in, part of that involves creating/ producing stuff for sale to others for money – because most of us still need money to live (although don’t say that to my friend Mark “Moneyless Man” Boyle who has lived for about 2 years without using money at all and is currently blogging about others who’ve been doing it for years http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/blog ). And, of course, I think creators of all kinds, authors included, ought to be fairly compensated for their efforts. One possible solution to this conundrum in the digital age is what is known at the Street Performer Protocol or Threshold Pledge System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_pledge_system http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/rspp http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html Numerous online crowdfunding platforms (e.g. Kickstarter.com, IndieGoGo.com etc.) are now available that facilitate such a system. Flattr http://flattr.com/ , launched last August, is also a great model that nicely fits the world we now inhabit. How about we try an experiment? Next time you are about to start writing a new book, or a new edition of an existing book, you estimate the amount of work it’ll take, and the revenue you’d expect to make, and then, using one of the many crowdfunding platforms, simply ask people to give you however much you think is fair, up front. In return you could agree to publish it as a public domain work, gifting it to the global commons. That’d be awesome! You could also simultaneously publish the book online and put flattr buttons on each and every post/ page. I bet that would work. You could probably make even more money from your writing by publishing that way than you do now. Meanwhile your important work would be legally free to share (thankfully its already free to share, just not legally) and we’d all be a step closer to creating and living in the the world we want (not in a world dominated by bankers, lawyers and monocultures). Moreover, people like me who dedicate their lives to collecting and spreading important information wouldn’t have to live their lives in fear of law suits! You’d also gain respect from all the cool young kids who’ve grown up with the Internet (i.e. the very people we NEED to get doing permaculture NOW) and who understand intuitively that artificially creating scarcity of electronic goods is as absurd as pretending the world is infinite and the economy can grow forever. If you try it and it doesn’t work, I’ll happily take your book down from http://files.uniteddiversity.com despite the fact that this would be fairly pointless and the only thing it is likely to achieve is to very very slightly reduce your book sales as less people (i.e. those few that find it via my website) discover your important work. Warmest regards and much respect, Josef. -- 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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very important: the end of rss ?
by Michel Bauwens 28 Jan '11

28 Jan '11

Sepp, this would be quite significant, can you investigate: see http://www.newsome.org/2011/01/why-big-media-wants-to-kill-rss-and-why-we-s… -- 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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Fwd: New answer to "What factors facilitate collective intelligence?"
by Michel Bauwens 28 Jan '11

28 Jan '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Quora <noreply(a)quora.com> Date: Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 1:42 PM Subject: New answer to "What factors facilitate collective intelligence?" To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com [image: Quora]New answer to "What factors facilitate collective intelligence?" *Greald Henstra*: Collective intelligence has always been there. The most impeding factor, I think, always has been the constraints of information exchange. In time and place. These constraints have gradually been deminished by the introduction of script, book printing, mass media. But nowadays with internet and other communication technology these constraints can be neglected. The impeding factor that now comes to surface is a harder nut to crack. It has to do with the difference between information and human knowledge. Information can be assembled from a limited number of bits, letters, numbers etc. But the basic elements of human knowledge are concepts, visions, opinions, convictions, images, ideas. These are by no means limited and cannot be ordered in a logical manner. So picking the elements of knowledge from the ocean (representing the collective), analogous to the way Google picks information from the internet, is not straightforward yet. One way that should work is to organise information in the way the brain does. That is to construct self reinforcing association tables between information elements. *To see the question page with all answers, visit: http://www.quora.com/l/NQbZlv5L* Thanks, The Quora Team We sent you this email because you are following this question. To stop following it, click this link: http://www.quora.com/l/u0DUVuid/_STOP_FOLLOWING To control which emails we send you, visit: http://www.quora.com/l/Su3lucq1 This email was sent by Quora, a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. To disable all email from Quora, visit the following link: http://www.quora.com/l/K3HE3bvA -- 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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Fwd: ted - stroke of insight - video - right hemisphere like parallel processor, left hemisphere like serial processor
by Michel Bauwens 28 Jan '11

28 Jan '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 8:42 AM Subject: ted - stroke of insight - video - right hemisphere like parallel processor, left hemisphere like serial processor To: sustainable_solidarity(a)yahoogroups.com, hc_ecology(a)yahoogroups.com, econowmix(a)googlegroups.com nice to see this ted presentation again : http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html around perception ( choice of under-titles in various languages available under the video ) --- at minute 3 excerpted the speech transcript from http://www.strategies-for-managing-change.com/tao-of-change.html *Microcircuitry of the brain * Jill says of her work:"... we were essentially mapping the microcircuitry of the brain, which cells are communicating with which cells, with which chemicals, and then with what quantities of those chemicals. And when you look at the brain, it's obvious that the two cerebral cortices are completely separate from one another. For those of you who understand computers, our right hemisphere functions like a parallel processor. While our left hemisphere functions like a serial processor. The two hemispheres do communicate with one another through the corpus collosum, which is made up of some 300 million axonal fibers. But other than that, the two hemispheres are completely separate. Because they process information differently, each hemisphere thinks about different things, they care about different things, and dare I say, they have very different personalities." *Right brain* "Our right hemisphere is all about this present moment. It's all about right here right now. Our right hemisphere, it thinks in pictures and it learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies. Information in the form of energy streams in simultaneously through all of our sensory systems. And then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like. What this present moment smells like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like. I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the consciousness of my right hemisphere. We are energy beings connected to one another through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family. And right here, right now, all we are brothers and sisters on this planet, here to make the world a better place. And in this moment we are perfect. We are whole. And we are beautiful." *Left brain* "My left hemisphere is a very different place. Our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically. Our left hemisphere is all about the past, and it's all about the future. Our left hemisphere is designed to take that enormous collage of the present moment. And start picking details and more details and more details about those details. It then categorizes and organizes all that information. Associates it with everything in the past we've ever learned and projects into the future all of our possibilities. And our left hemisphere thinks in language. It's that ongoing brain chatter that connects me and my internal world to my external world. It's that little voice that says to me, "Hey, you gotta remember to pick up bananas on your way home, and eat 'em in the morning." It's that calculating intelligence that reminds me when I have to do my laundry. But perhaps most important, it's that little voice that says to me, "I am. I am." And as soon as my left hemisphere says to me "I am," I become separate. I become a single solid individual separate from the energy flow around me and separate from you." -- 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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.Tracing and reconfiguring networks to build a political alternative
by Michel Bauwens 27 Jan '11

27 Jan '11

http://yannickrumpala.wordpress.com/category/networks-and-rhizomes/Dear Mayo, if you have any comments on this, I'd like to publish them on the p2p blog, Michel Tracing and reconfiguring networks to build a political alternative<http://yannickrumpala.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/tracing-and-reconfiguring-ne…> 21 10 2009 Just published: “Knowledge and praxis of networks as a political project” Published in: *Twenty-First Century Society*, Volume 4, Issue 3, November 2009, pages 277-295. *Abstract:* Modern-day society is increasingly described as an extensive web of networks, but as such, it is often perceived and experienced as elusive. In light of this paralysing description, this paper aims to highlight the potentially political dimension of network analysis, namely as defined in the social sciences, and of the notion of networks itself. It will be shown that a political project could, in this case, be built on the desire to know this reticular world better, but also to be able to act appropriately towards it. Three steps are proposed to specify how such a political project could be built. The first step aims at deploying knowledge of networks and emphasises the usefulness of a procedure to trace them. The second step shows the possibilities that this knowledge offers, particularly in allowing one to find one’s bearings in a world which is frequently described as veering towards an increasing complexity, and by helping to rebuild the selection criteria for connections in this world, thanks to an additional degree of reflexivity. The third step draws on these points to extend them and bring out potentialities with regards to the intervention capacities in network configurations. -- 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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Fwd: Mapping Citizenship 2.0
by Michel Bauwens 27 Jan '11

27 Jan '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: José Carlos Mota <jcmota(a)ua.pt> Date: 2011/1/27 Subject: Mapping Citizenship 2.0 To: Mapping Citizenship 2.0 The civic project *'No economic recovery without cities [& citizens]' *(*) is launching a challenge of creating a global list of 'blogs [or sites] of streets, neighbourhoods, villages or cities’ promoted by citizens or groups of citizens that whish to think collectively about the future of the places they live and/or work. The initiative is developed under the spirit of '2011 European Year of Volunteering to promote more active citizenship’ ( http://europa.eu/volunteering/) and seeks to involve citizens and groups of citizens worldwide. The provisional list can be found here: http://noeconomicrecoverywithoutcities.blogs.sapo.pt/31893.html. We appreciate all the help you can give in spreading the idea! Best regards José Carlos Mota facebook <http://www.facebook.com/Josecarlosmota> & email: josecarlosmota(a)gmail.com *'NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY WITHOUT CITIES & CITIZENS' CIVIC INITIATIVE* Comments and suggestions to noeconomicrecovery(a)gmail.com *(*)* * 'NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY WITHOUT CITIES & CITIZENS' CIVIC INITIATIVE | 'MOVIMENTO CIDADES PELA RETOMA' site/blog ** **http://noeconomicrecoverywithoutcities.blogs.sapo.pt/*<http://noeconomicrecoverywithoutcities.blogs.sapo.pt/> *facebook **http://www.facebook.com/CidadespelaRetoma*<http://www.facebook.com/CidadespelaRetoma> * & *http://www.facebook.com/NoRecoverywithoutCities *2011 global urban blogs map http://maps.google.pt/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=pt-PT&t=h&msa=0&msid=2120363799044… * -- 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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CfP Platform Politics, Cambridge (UK), 12-13 May 2011
by Franco Iacomella 27 Jan '11

27 Jan '11

> *Platform Politics - Call for Papers* > *A Multidisciplinary Conference in Cambridge, UK, 12 & 13 May, 2011* > > > *Deadline for abstract (400 words) = Monday 14 February 2011* > > Wired recently announced the death of the Web, based on the premise > that platforms are becoming the primary mode of access to the > Internet. Platforms are portals or applications that offer specific > Internet services, frameworks for social interaction, or interfaces to > access other networked communications and information distribution > systems. Additionally the prevalence of mobile computing and its > operating systems, that prioritise Internet access via apps not web > browsers, is intensifying this transformation, and this model is now > being applied to tablet computing - and may well soon spread into > general computing and computer mediated communication. These platforms > are able to take advantage of the scale-free architecture of the > Internet to built very large user bases and communities of interest. > However, unlike the world-wide-web, these platforms are often > proprietorial, have closed protocols and operate as a kind of > privatised public space. As such platforms themselves are becoming the > object and enabler of politics, but also new arenas of control. > Therefore network politics can be seen as pertaining not only to the > question of content (what questions, agendas and activities are taken > up and promoted as political?) but also to the role of platforms and > apps as political objects that shape the form and the structure of > political mediation. > > Such proprietorial platforms as Facebook and Twitter have been used in > the various modes of organization of political events, both on and > offline, and have been discussed with enthusiasm as new tools for > stimulating the democratic process, with electoral campaigns, and as > organising tools to influence public opinion and create pressure > groups. At the same time the proprietorial nature of these platforms > and their role as an integral part of a communicative capitalism > works to create a situation of great ambiguity and has not gone > unnoticed in either network theory or software development. There is, > however, an emerging movement of software development for activism, > and non-proprietorial social networking, that places at its core the > values of openness, decentralisation and not-for-profit projects - > such as Diaspora and Thimbl - that are emblematic of the alternative > political economies of network politics. So the question of how > politics is increasingly processed through the form of software and > hardware design, as well as the hacking of closed platforms and > creation of peer-to-peer networks, is a pressing one. This conference > thus wishes to engage with the full range of these concerns and to map > out the place of software, hardware and online platforms, as a realm > of both control, but also as opportunity for radical political > practices, in the democratising of democracy, and in the challenge > to the interpassive political economy of communicative capitalism. > > Hence, this conference is interested in such questions as: > > What are the platforms on which network politics takes place and what > can we think of as political action in this context? > What are the particular forms of platform politics and how can we > theorize such forms and practices? > Can we extend critical theory into such new modalities as media > critique through software? > How to think circuit bending, hardware hacking and such practices as > political? > What are the future forms and new conceptualisations of hacking that > merit attention? > Can we really conceive the openness of FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open > Source Software) as a genuinely radical practice or > rather another circuit in the production of communicative capital? > Is it too late to de-monetise social media? > > We invite theoretical interventions, empirical papers, as well as case > studies from theorists, practitioners, and activists to engage with > the question of platform politics. > > Speakers include: Nick Couldry (Goldsmiths College, University of > London), (Michael Goddard (University of Salford), Tim Jordan (Kings > College, University of London), Dmytri Kleiner (Telekommunisten), > Tiziana Terranova (University of Naples, LOrientale). Also with Greg > Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (University of Ontario > Institute of Technology) representing the Infoscape Research Lab > <http://www.infoscapelab.ca/>. > > Please send your abstracts of up to 400 words by Monday 14 February > 2011 to both organisers:[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> and jussi.parikka(a)anglia.ac.uk > <mailto:[email protected]> - acceptances will be announced by > Monday 7 March 2011. > > This conference is part of the project Exploring New Configurations of > Network Politics, funded by the AHRC and situated at Anglia Ruskin > University, Cambridge, UK. The projects previous events have tackled > methodological and theoretical questions underpinning network > politics, as well as new object oriented approaches for > interdisciplinary analysis. > > More info on the project: > http://www.networkpolitics.org >

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R: Re: hylozoic
by Bertram Maria Niessen 26 Jan '11

26 Jan '11

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commonwealth, critique by silvia federici
by Michel Bauwens 26 Jan '11

26 Jan '11

Dear Michael, In her latest essay, Silivia Federici writes the following about your trilogy, and Commonwealth in particular: (http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=113) .. The appeal of this theory is that it does not separate the formation of “the common” from the organization of work and production but sees it immanent to it. Its limit is that its picture of the common absolutizes the work of a minority possessing skills not available to most of the world population. It also ignores that this work produces commodities for the market, and it overlooks the fact that online communication/production depends on economic activities – mining, microchip and rare earth production—that, as presently organized, are extremely destructive, socially and ecologically. Moreover, with its emphasis on knowledge and information, this theory skirts the question of the reproduction of everyday life. .. I have read Empire and at least half of the two next books, and I must say I have not read into your book that you absolutize the work of a minority, nor that you ignore that it produces commodities for the market, nor a denial that such commons have a material basis, so it can only be based on a very skimpy reading. (one could of course argue more realistically that your books do not pay sufficient attention to those without access, does not pay sufficient attention to the material basis, and to the incorporation of value by capitalism, which, even if perhaps incorrect, would be an even more nuanced and productive debate) However, perhaps you have addressed such critiques in more detail, If so, thanks for sharing the links and I'll forward to our commoning list in cc, Eventually, if you address them or have addressed them, and I think you should as these kinds of claims are recurrent, I would eventually like to republish in the P2P FOundation blog, In addition, have you addressed anywhere the issue of capitalist commons and how we should address them (note to our friends in commoning: I'm writing a mini-article on the material basis of autonomy this afternoon) The P2P Foundation's approach (i.e. my own) is not exactly identical to yours in Commonwealth, but sufficiently related to have to converse about the same critiques. In our case, we have always favoured an alliance between knowledge workers and digital commoners with other commoners, have paid strong attention to the value capture issue (the Crisis of Value theory formulated with Adam Arvidsson) which is central to our thinking, as well as regular attention to the issue of the materiality of autonomy, through our monitoring and support for genuine p2p infrastructures, Michel Bauwens,P2P Foundation -- 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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