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

autocracy as most efficient governance?
by Michel Bauwens 20 Jul '11

20 Jul '11

see http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/07/eve-online-audience-with-the-kin… Autocracy is the most effective form of government in null sec [the enormous sections of space within Eve Online with no AI police, where players rule themselves]. Council systems don’t work very well. Goonswarm is very lucky in that we have one large corporation, Goonwaffe, which used to be Goonfleet, which is mostly Something Awful members and has over 2,000 people. Since I’m the CEO of that corporation all the other ancillary corporations in the alliance are relatively powerless, and that works towards an autocracy. Council-based alliances typically have corporations of roughly the same size. (I actually agree with this, in case of warfare, even egalitarian tribes had warchiefs for the duration of hostilities; or does anyone want to challenge thi?) -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Aaron Swartz charged for downloading too many Journal articles from the Library: Please sign suport petition.
by Fuster, Mayo 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

Hi! Aaron Swartz Internet activist (and friend) has been arrested for downloading too many journal articles from the Library. Please sign the petition of suport and help to spread the word, Mayo NY Times article: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/reddit-co-founder-charged-with-d… //// Aaron Swartz charged for downloading too many journal articles from the Library //// Shocking news: Moments ago former Demand Progress Executive Director Aaron Swartz was indicted by the US government. As best as we can tell, he is being charged with allegedly downloading too many journal articles from the Web. The government contends that downloading so many journal articles constitutes felony computer hacking and should be punished with time in prison. We disagree. Will you click here to sign our petition of support for Aaron? http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/support_aaron The charges are made all the more senseless by the fact that the alleged victim has settled any claims against Aaron, explained they've suffered no loss or damage, and asked the government not to prosecute. James Jacobs, the Government Documents Librarian at Stanford University -- where Aaron did undergraduate work -- denounced the arrest: "Aaron's prosecution undermines academic inquiry and democratic principles," Jacobs said. "It's incredible that the government would try to lock someone up for allegedly looking up articles at a library." Will you click here to show your support for Aaron? http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/support_aaron Thanks for your support and concern as we help see Aaron through these tough times. We'll keep you updated. -- The Demand Progress team P.S. Please considering forwarding this email to your friends or using the links below to alert them to Aaron's predicament. «·´`·.(*·.¸(`·.¸ ¸.·´)¸.·*).·´`·» «·´¨*·¸¸« Mayo Fuster Morell ».¸.·*¨`·» «·´`·.(¸.·´(¸.·* *·.¸)`·.¸).·´`·» Research Digital Commons Governance: http://www.onlinecreation.info Ph.D European University Institute Postdoctoral Researcher. Institute of Govern and Public Policies. Autonomous University of Barcelona. Visiting scholar. Internet Interdisciplinary Institute. Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Visiting researcher (2008). School of information. University of California, Berkeley. Member Research Committee. Wikimedia Foundation http://www.onlinecreation.info E-mail: mayo.fuster(a)eui.eu Skype: mayoneti Phone Spanish State: 0034-648877748

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TOm Walker's social accounting for a labor commons
by Michel Bauwens 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

Tom, I created 3 entries for your work, feel free to improve them, see: http://p2pfoundation.net/Employment_as_a_Common_Pool_Resource http://p2pfoundation.net/Social_Accounting http://p2pfoundation.net/Labor_Commons This goes into an article for the blog on july 20, entitled, Towards a Labor Commons: Considering Employment as a Common Pool Resource through Social Accounting <http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=17893> The text is below: Towards a Labor Commons: Considering Employment as a Common Pool Resource through Social Accounting <http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=17893> Tags: [empty] [image: photo of Michel Bauwens] Michel Bauwens 20th July 2011 “Not only can employment be regarded as one more common pool resource among others, it can also be argued that it is the common pool resource par excellence – the instance that stands as the single most far-reaching and democratically vital model of a common pool resource. Donald Stabile alluded to something in this vein when he noted that, “Human labor is also the primary constituent of the society whose values must be part of any criterion of social evaluation.The appropriate starting point in any policy directed at social costs is with those imposed on labor.” Until now, labor is explicitly considered as a commodity, and we intuitively know that human labor cannot be subjugated in such a way. But is there a concrete alternative? Tom Walker thinks so, and believes a new social accounting is the method to get there. The following is excerpted from chapter 4<http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/59880049?access_key=key-1ajmcetzddqc7zpz2z…>of his book: *Book: Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line, Tom Walker, Draft: 12/07/2011* *Tom Walker, on Employment as a Common Pool Resource:* *“Ostrom’s framework for distinguishing different types of goods and services classifies them as either highly subtractable – meaning that one person’s use of a resource leaves less available for others – or have low subtractability and as either more or less excludable, depending on how difficult or costly it is to exclude people from access to the good. Taken together, those two pairs constitute a matrix that specifies four ideal types of goods. Private goods are subtractable and excludable (that is it is not difficult to exclude beneficiaries). Public goods are neither highly subtractable nor excludable. The remaining sectors are common pool resources, which are subtractable but difficult to exclude and toll goods, which have low subtractability but are notdifficult to exclude people from.* *Labor is commonly treated as a commodity, which the employer purchases with a wage or salary. However, it is also possible and useful to view a job position, with its income, status and promotional opportunities, as a good that the worker purchases with his or her time and relevant skill and credentials. From the perspective of the workers, job positions would arguably rank within Ostrom’s analytical grid as both highly subtractable and difficult to exclude potential competitors from. Employment thus would count as a common pool resource in that framework. A disclaimer is necessary here. A good needn’t be available only in a fixed quantity to be considered subtractable. The supply can be ever expanding, but if demand expands faster than supply, there still may not be enough to go around. Contrary to the theoretical abstractions based on assumptions of perfect competition, full employment, etc., price competition doesn’t clear the market for jobs, nor can most workers voluntarily withdraw from competition on the job market and subsist on a private income or the family farm.Another way of thinking about common pool resources is as gifts. Peter Barnes uses the generic term, the commons,to refer to “all the gifts that we inherit or create together.” If it seems strange at first to refer to employment as a gift, it should be remembered that we already do so inevery day speech – “I applied for the job but they gave it to someone else.” “She’s a hard worker,if only someone would give her a job.” We don’t talk about a store giving us something we’ve just bought. But we do talk about teachers giving students their grades.* *There is some ambiguity in the notion of employment as a gift. After all, as Barnes points out, “A gift is something we receive, as opposed to something we earn.” On the one hand, people do earn their job opportunities by acquiring credentials, experience and networks of contacts. But, on the other hand, those qualifications don’t always land them the jobs they are qualified for and people often take advantage of connections to get jobs they’re not really qualified for. Despite an inexhaustible supply of rhetoric and ritual about meritocracy, there remains a residual element of vassalage in the employment relation, as there is in academia. Successful institutions of the type identified by Ostrom rarely come into being through explicit contracts. More often they evolve through long periods of informal, collective learning about what works and what doesn’t. Another approach to creating these institutions would involve more deliberate experimentation. For such institutional innovation to take place,however, it is essential, Dryzek cautioned, that participation “move beyond the narrow community of political economists and political theorists and into society at large.” Treating employment as a common pool resource could be one such deliberate experiment.The labor commons union is proposed here an experimental institution that would treat employment as a common pool resource. Such an undertaking has various precedents, none of them exact but all nonetheless suggestive. The traditional workers’ ethic of the craft guilds viewed the work available as something akin to a common resource. Guild principles included the proposition that a given amount of work could be divided up equitably among the available hands. This is not to say that workers assumed the amount of work to be unalterably fixed for all time. They were, however, dealing with the finite demands of a given locality at a particular time. In addition there are worker co-ops, works councils, syndicalism and the movement unionism such as the eight-hour leagues and nine-hour leagues in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.in the 19th century. Regardless of whether the idea of sharing work makes sense strictly in terms of industrial efficiency, as an ethical proposition it is simply the reciprocal gesture of co-operative working arrangements. John Maurice Clark’s analysis of social overhead costs, discussed below, suggests that the notion also makes economic sense, given an appropriate social accounting framework.Just to be clear, social accounting does not refer to some warm fuzzy notion as opposed to the hard math of business. It is not socialist accounting, sociable accounting, sociological accounting or uniquely subjective. It is, properly speaking, the kind of accounting required when dealing with two or more discrete accounting units. It pays more rigorous attention to boundary conditions when the elements from those accounting units are aggregated. It is harder math than using the single firm’s bottom line as a one-size-fits-all metaphor. It requires explicit accounting for the cost-shifting that results from imposed economic transactions rather than an apologetic shrug about the difficulty of quantifying externalities.Collectively, working people would be better off if they joined in refusing to compete in a race to the bottom. Some individuals might have to forgo receiving more than their share of the economic dividend from the expanded trade that might result from competition between workers.But where does it say it is an ethical imperative that the most ambitious should benefit at the expense of their less single-minded companions? Incidentally, by collectively conserving work effort, the workers acting co-operatively might achieve higher levels of productivity than otherwise as well as build greater social solidarity and security. Economists merely assume that competition between workers will result in greater expanded trade than would cooperation. They don’t consider all the factors.* *How would the labor commons union come into existence? How would it be organized andgoverned? What principles would it uphold and tactics would it employ? These important detailscan be left for future elaboration, not least because they differ from case to case and in manyinstances would involve the reorientation of and transition from established institutions that themselves may vary substantially.* *…* *Not only can employment be regarded as one more common pool resource among others, itcan also be argued that it is the common pool resource par excellance – the instance that stands as the single most far-reaching and democratically vital model of a common pool resource. Donald Stabile alluded to something in this vein when he noted that, “Human labor is also the primary constituent of the society whose values must be part of any criterion of social evaluation.The appropriate starting point in any policy directed at social costs is with those imposed on labor.”* *Tom Walker, on the need for new methods of social accounting:* *“Werner Sombart (1952) described the concept of capital as something that “did not exist before double-entry book-keeping.” “Capital,” he wrote, “can be defined as that amount of wealth which is used in making profits and which enters into the accounts.” In “Accounting and the Labour Process,” Rob Bryer (2006) wrote of a capitalist “mentality” that consists of using accounting information to control the labor process “by holding the collective worker accountable for the rate of return on capital.” Such control from the bottom line is central, not incidental, to both the domination of the labor process by capital and the evolution of the ways that domination has been implemented through successive varieties of technology. Any alternative to that domination requires the development of a counter-mentality that “turns the capitalist development of calculation and accountability to other ends.” Bryer imagined such counter-mentality as a “socialist mentality” but I would amend that to a”social-accounting mentality” to both enlist and implicate an existing social-accounting tradition as well as to differentiate the alternative mentality from advocacy of state socialism. Ownership of the means of production may be beside the point or the amenable forms of ownership may be more eclectic than traditional socialism assumes. It is not private ownership per se that is onerous but the domination over the labor process that capital decrees and a one-dimensional accounting mentality enforces. Social accounting is simply the kind of accounting that needs to be done when two or more accounting entities are aggregated. It differs from the accounting of a single enterprise in the way that transactions between the constituent parts are treated. Great care needs to be taken in defining the boundaries between parties to avoid the double-counting errors that are pervasive in attempts at social accounting.* *…* *When these book-keeping calculations are naïvely transferred to social accounting practices – including collective bargaining – they also produce “really wondrous errors and confusions.” Today, national income accounting – the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – is the most prominent example of social accounting. Most economists assume that a perpetually increasing GDP is an imperative for achieving well-being, full employment or some other normative goal. Critics of this supposed growth imperative suggest otherwise. But perhaps the debate is confounded by a misperception of what it is that is growing.”* * The problem of externalities* *“Roefie Hueting (2008) has adapted Kuznets’s analysis of duplication to the issues of social and environmental externalities, using the term “asymmetrical entering” as a more inclusive description of the accounting error than double counting. Asymmetrical entering refers to the costs of restoring or substituting for an environmental or social free good after it has been damaged or destroyed. There is no subtraction from the GDP for the damage to the environment or social wellbeing, which is technically appropriate because there is no monetary exchange involved, but this is what makes counting the costs of restoration as an addition to GDP asymmetrical. Stefano Bartolini (2006) has made a related point about what he terms negative externality or negative endogenous growth (NEGs). This describes a vicious cycle in which the products required to substitute for the free goods of nature and society destroyed by the negative externalities of industrial activity count as growth even as they are generating additional negative externalities, which then lead to more substitution, more growth and so on.”* -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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request for commentary on labor commons ...
by Michel Bauwens 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

hi kevin, i'll be excerpting this, and your commentary would be much appreciated, see http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/59880049?access_key=key-1ajmcetzddqc7zpz2z… Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Re: [P2P-F] Toolbox for P2PF Online Community
by elf Pavlik 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

Excerpts from james burke's message of 2011-07-19 10:02:28 +0200: > Hey Elf, > > can you python? > > perhaps you might help with exporting the data and import? i haven't worked with python since i use mostly ruby... i consider adding python to my toolbox though =) as far as i understood using this script doesn't require any python knowledge, just access to GA account and to the server where you have piwik. where do we want ot migrate it? to Kester's server? > > /J > > On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 12:06 AM, elf Pavlik > <perpetual-tripper(a)wwelves.org>wrote: > > > Excerpts from james burke's message of 2011-07-18 17:19:46 +0200: > > > sure kester, > > > > > > send me a url so i can take a look. > > > At the same time i don't see how the benefits outweigh the costs given > > all > > > the data we have built up over the years > > > will be lost and we start from scratch. > > > > http://piwik.org/blog/2011/02/exporting-google-analytics-to-piwik-google2pi… > > maybe this helps? =) > > > > > > > > On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Kester <kester(a)iskra.net> wrote: > > > > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > > > Hash: SHA1 > > > > > > > > On 18/07/11 16:46, Michel Bauwens wrote: > > > > > so first question, if we move the google analytics tracker, do we > > loose > > > > our > > > > > ability to check who is using our site? that ability is quite crucial > > in > > > > > terms of 'reach' ... > > > > > > > > I've got an instance of Piwik running if you want. Sure others have > > too. > > > > http://piwik.org/ for more info on the software. > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > - -- > > > > Kester Edmonds <kester(a)iskra.net> > > > > http://iskra.net/ > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > > Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) > > > > Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ > > > > > > > > iEYEARECAAYFAk4kSzsACgkQ/uCx40KEyWG78ACgn2v7d1Mb1wSuR+hZ64+rqBMK > > > > fywAnAp4KKVs8Kx+FELX8xqmrLErXyxj > > > > =kWth > > > > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > > > > > > > >

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network for 'free' blogs
by Michel Bauwens 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

see: https://network23.org/about/ posits itself as an alternative to wordpress, Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Project Flow Control
by Michel Bauwens 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

http://events.ccc.de/camp/2011/Fahrplan/track/Hacker%20Space%20Program/4451… Chaos Communication Camp 2011 Project Flow Control A modern manifest of cyberspace The internet is dead, long live the internet! The internet is increasingly falling under the control and restrictions of governments and multinational corporations. Internet connections are filtered and censored, not only in China but blatantly so in 'western' countries such as Australia and Canada. The content industry is clamping down on infringement on intellectual property and calls for ever more far-fetching and over-reaching laws to be put into effect. Meanwhile, telco's are making deals with content providers to decide how gets premium access and who gets degraded access to their networks. We have seen the internet rise, saw its potential and then lost it to capitalism and state control. It is time we truly 'take back the web'. The modern manifest of cyberspace is a call to action, urging the community to regain control and fight for a free infrastructure to sustain an uncensored and unbiased flow of information. The internet is increasingly falling under the control and restrictions of governments and multinational corporations. Internet connections are filtered and censored, not only in China but blatantly so in 'western' countries such as Australia and Canada. The content industry is clamping down on infringement on intellectual property and calls for ever more far-fetching and over-reaching laws to be put into effect. Meanwhile, telco's are making deals with content providers to decide how gets premium access and who gets degraded access to their networks. As such, the independence of cyberspace https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html as declared in 1996 is a thing of the past. We urgently need to reclaim this independence, to ensure the free flow of information. One way out is the deployment of darknets and encrypted tunnels layered over the existing commercial internet. In this talk I will argue for a more radical option though; I will call to abandon the existing infrastructure and build our own. This talk will highlight various already ongoing initiatives supporting this bold idea, and ideas that are currently bubbling up to build grass-roots internet. Wireless mesh networks that connect local areas, initiatives to connect rural areas to the larger networking community and the hackerspaces space program] launching this year at the CCC camp in August, which creates the environment for an actual grass-roots telecommunications satellite network and unites various ongoing efforts in this area. http://events.ccc.de/camp/2011/space.html But most of all, this talk will argue that the time is here to join loose initiatives and localized grass-roots telecommunication efforts to implement a world-wide and independent communications network. This talk will explore possibilities, challenges and perhaps the need to unlearn the familiar and adapt to a new era of a truly decentralized infrastructure without traditional hubs of power and controlling agencies. -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Cloud 9 Bubble Building in barcelona
by Michel Bauwens 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

Cloud 9 Bubble Building<http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/t/584bc3f57b457594> Eric Hunting <erichunting(a)gmail.com> Jul 15 09:44AM -0600 ^<?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4#13132bfab14c97e9_digest_top> http://inhabitat.com/cloud-9s-incredible-inflatable-bubble-building-opens-i… I've often had this fantasy -a sort of parallel to the 'outquisition'- of a post-industrial future where neo-tribal communities appropriate the abandoned suburban 'office parks' of the failed 20th century economy and convert their buildings by eco-tech retrofit into palatial 'bolo-like micro-arcos, the different functional zones of a community organized by floor level. This building just opened in Barcelona is almost exactly how I imaged these to be -the original structures stripped to a simple series of open decks, a new enclosure 'skin' supported by retrofit space frames, an opening of perimeter spaces into open terraces, integral rainwater catchment, PVs and hydroponic gardens, open plan dwellings based on retrofit partitions, etc. I once tried to get a comic artist friend of mine interested in doing a comic book series based on the theme of a Maker 'tribe' supported by a shadowy secret benefactor (as well as, at different times, other counter-cultural tribes of the emergent post-industrial future) that would travel the world to solve various communities' problems, avert or abate environmental disasters, and engage in geopolitical monkey-wrenching using their unique eco-tech/open-tech skills. They would have had a series of these 'bolo-like HQs in their extended tribe, made by various forms of adaptive reuse in different places in the world, some more secretive or public, permanent or temporary. And, of course, they would have had their own unique collection of, sometimes fanciful, eco-tech vehicles. Imagine a green batmobile... I thought this a good vehicle to introduce kids to environmental issues, green technology, open technology, and post-industrial cultural concepts. Alas, the concept was far too elaborate and science/tech-oriented for him. Eric Hunting erichunting(a)gmail.com -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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the new realities of post-meltdown metagovernance
by Michel Bauwens 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

Kanishka Jayasuriya'sinterview at http://www.criticalglobalisation.com/Issue3/127_138_INTERVIEW_JAYASURIYA_JC… is very strongly recommended, as it sheds light on the new mechanisms of metagovernance instituted after the meltdown. Disturbing is that the author does not seem to see much possibility of change through agency from below, but as a realistic account of what is happening 'from above' this is really stellar. George, this author was mostly influenced by Nikos Poulantzas, below, articles on greece recommended by George: On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 2:37 AM, George Papanikolaou <georgepapani(a)gmail.com > wrote: > http://greekleftreview.**wordpress.com/2011/07/13/** > syntagma-ground-zero-of-the-**global-resistance-movement/<http://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/syntagma-ground-zero-of-the…> > http://greekleftreview.**wordpress.com/2011/07/17/** > indignant-politics-in-athens-%**E2%80%93-democracy-out-of-**rage/<http://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/indignant-politics-in-athen…> > -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Re: [P2P-F] The Open Factory - an Open Hardware factory in an Irish Ecovillage.
by Michel Bauwens 18 Jul '11

18 Jul '11

Dear Vinay, Have a look at this, I think this is an important contextualization for what you are doing: http://p2pfoundation.net/Commodity_Ecology I see Whitaker's work as an enlargement and deepening of the open source ecology project, which is a subcategory for the much larger transformation that is needed, and outlined in this ecology how is the relation of your project to OSE? mICHEL -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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