[P2P-F] [Commoning] new capitalism and commoning

Tue Feb 8 17:51:31 CET 2011

On 08/02/11 12:14, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> so does IBM and at the same time, it is also strengthening
> the free software commons.

On the premise that there are no commons without commoning, IBM does not
strengthen the software commons.

Rather, IBM converts the (re)production of the *resource* that software
commoners have created/established into a matter of wage labour.

Command over wage labour - and the means of production required to
capitalise on it - are thus used to subsume control of what was
previously a commons, - a process also known as enclosure. This is the
first step. They claim ownership, by acquiring decision-making powers,
by claiming de facto leadership of the organisation (and future
direction) of the resource. Software - like most things - is movement,
and IBM moves it in a direction away from common ground.

Due to way in which the GPL sits on the fence, this is possible without
the immediately apparent destruction of the commons. Hence, for the
uncritical observer it might appear as if IBM are adding to the commons,
but their interaction with the commons actually results in the
minimisation/marginalisation of commoners in the development of the
commons: they are rendered marginal: they may still play with the code,
i.e. the resource, but their commoning is ever less significant in the
development of the resource, while waged labour and corporate planning
increasingly determines the trajectory of the resource.

No commons without commoning, no IBM involvement without enclosure.

Unless, of course, we say that IBM is such a nice trustworthy outfit
that like our Open Source friends at Google "do no evil"(TM) and who
would never help computing another holocaust.

m