Dear friends, thanks for eventually spreading the word about this amongst your friends in California: More info at http://michelbauwens.eventbrite.com/ Institute for the Future (IFTF) and Shareable Magazine invite you to join us for a evening of discussion with Michel Bauwens<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Bauwens>, Founder of the Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives<http://p2pfoundation.net/>, about the promise and challenges of the emerging peer-to-peer society. Michel's basic thesis is the dominant Fordist mode of managing society has run out of steam and that a new technology enabled social forms are allowing a hyper-productive peer-to-peer mode to emerge. The new mode is exemplified by the open hardware and software movements, the peer created online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and the microfinance social enterprise Kiva. The peer to peer mode places power to create and manage resources directly in citizens' hands. Michel contends that in this shift is the opportunity to create a radically more democratic and sustainable global society, and just in time as governments and large institutions everywhere are failing people and planet. Is the shift to peer to peer a powerful answer to global civilization's most pressing problems or just a means to extend what already exists? This is the question that IFTF's Executive Director Marina Gorbis and Shareable Magazine's Neal Gorenflo will explore in discussion with the world's pre-eminent peer to peer intellectual, archivist, and activist. Drinks and appetizers will be served. -- 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