---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: George Por <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 2:23 PM Subject: [Occupy London] Transcending State & Corporations: Introduction to Peer-to-Peer and the Commons To: [email protected] hi all, Normally, I wouldn’t use this list for announcing an educational programme at the Bank of Ideas if it was not for the shortness of time left to reach people by other channels, and more importantly, for the high importance of the subject to the long-term strategy development of the Occupy movement. Michel Bauwens, founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives, and an Advisor to our School of Commoning, led an acclaimed teach-in on “Peer-to-Peer and the Commons, a new paradigm for change” at OWS in Zuccotti Park <http:// nurturingthecommons.nycga.net/2011/11/03/michael-bauwens-address-at-zuccotti-park/
, a month ago. Now he is visiting London and will bring his talk to the Tent City University, 10 Dec, 10 am. Given the feedback we got from some Occupy-ers, saying that 10 am is too early, he will repeat the programme by offering an extended, 2-hrs version of teach-in facilitation the same day, 10 Dec, 2-4 pm at the Bank of Ideas
This is the first programme in a new series of events offered by the School of Commoning at the Bank of Ideas. To RSVP, please go to <http:// www.meetup.com/School-of-Commoning-Events/events/43804672/> . Hope to see you either at TCU in the morning or at BoI in the afternoon. george -- George Pór Director, School of Commoning education for commons culture & social renewal <http://www.schoolofcommoning.com/> "amplifying your collective intelligence & wisdom" *Transcending State & Corporations: Introduction to Peer-to-Peer and the Commons * Key ideas: To succeed in radical social change, we need three things: 1. a genuine mass movement, 2. concrete alternatives that can change our lives, and 3. the ability to be able to stop bad policies, and propose new ones. 1. As the first native movement and great hope of the digital age, Occupy has grown into mass movement in a relatively short time. 2. Regarding the concrete alternatives that can change our lives and allow us to live our values right now, that is what commons-based peer production provides – a new way of producing value. 3. To stop bad policies that don’t work and propose good ones that does, we need true democratic processes. The peer-to-peer vision relies upon the three major sectors of society – the state, market and civil society – but with different roles and in a revitalized equilibrium. At the core of the new society is civic society, with as its main institution, the commons, which uses peer production to generate common value outside of the market logic. These commons consist of both the natural heritage of mankind (oceans, the atmosphere, land, etc.), and commons that are created through collective societal innovation, many of which can be freely shared because of their immaterial nature (shared knowledge, software and design, culture and science). In the vision of a commons-based society, the market is subsumed under the dominant logic of the commons... This vision does not preclude an evolution of society through which the market may become entirely marginal. In this vision, the public sector is neither a corporate welfare state at the service of a financial elite, nor a welfare state that has a paternalistic relation to civil society, but a Partner State, which serves civil society. This vision anticipates an evolution of society through which the state becomes marginal and sovereignty returns to the people. In this teach-in, we will also explore how to get from here to there. Bring your curiosity and open mind. -- 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