<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">peter waterman</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterwaterman1936@gmail.com">peterwaterman1936@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 12:13 AM<br>Subject: [NetworkedLabour] Mayo Fuster, Barcelona: Review of Benkler, 'The Wealth of Networks'<br>To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa <<a href="mailto:debate-list@fahamu.org">debate-list@fahamu.org</a>>, WSFDiscuss List <<a href="mailto:WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net">WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net</a>>, "<a href="mailto:CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk">CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk</a>" <<a href="mailto:CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk">CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk</a>>, "<<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>" <<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>><br><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">03-02-2015
| <a href="http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/author/mayo-fuster-morell/" title="Posts by Mayo Fuster Morell" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Mayo Fuster Morell</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Times">The
Wealth of Networks</span></b></p>
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/category/proj/p2pvalue/" title="P2PValue" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">P2PValue</a></span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/category/proj/univers-internet/" title="Internet Universe" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Internet Universe</a></span></li></ul>
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Share</span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/article_la-riquesa-de-les-xarxes/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">29 </a></span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=The+Wealth+of+Networks+%7C+Mayo+Fuster+Morell+%7C+CCCB+LAB+http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.cccb.org%2Flab%2Fen%2Farticle_la-riquesa-de-les-xarxes%2F" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">34 </a></span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/article_la-riquesa-de-les-xarxes/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">0 </a></span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/article_la-riquesa-de-les-xarxes/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">2 </a></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"></span><i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Gill-nets
are set out at a wharf on the Pacific coast, Canada, <a href="tel:1963" value="+661963" target="_blank">1963</a>. Source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/7457019872" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">The National Archives UK</a>. </span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">A
review of the book <i>The Wealth of Networks. How Social Production Transforms
Markets and Freedom </i>by Yochai Benkler, which has recently been published in
Spanish by Icaria publishers, and is being launched at the CCCB as part of a
session on <a href="http://www.cccb.org/en/curs_o_conferencia-procom_espai_pblic_en_xarxa_i_geopoltica_dinternet-195704" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Commons, Public Space Network and the Geopolitics of the
Internet with the participation of the author on 25 February 2015</a>.
The book looks at how information technologies enable extensive forms of
collaboration that can have transformative effects on the economy and on
society, as in the cases of Wikipedia, Podemos at the political level, and Uber
at the economic level, for example. Yochai Benkler is co-Director of the
Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University.</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Times">The Emergence of the
Networked Information Economy and Commons-Based Peer Production</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">In
2006, the book <i>The Wealth of Networks</i> played a crucial role in drawing
the world’s attention to a phenomenon that was still unfamiliar to large
sectors of the population. Although it may not have been the first text written
on the subject, it was the first reference book that explained the emerging
phenomenon of collaborative production and offered keys for interpreting and
understanding its potential. It’s main message could be summed up as: “Hey!
Something’s going on here and it’s not inconsequential. It boosts the potential
of freedom and autonomy and shifts the balance of power between markets, the
State, and civil society.” Almost a decade after the release of the first
edition of the book – and partly thanks to it – many more people now sense and take
an interest in the political and economic importance of collaborative
production. Today, Wikipedia is the fifth most visited site in the world, and
contains articles in 287 languages. And FLOSS (free and open source software)
has transformed the software industry and become the benchmark in some of the
layers that make the Internet possible. As Benkler predicted, commons-based
peer production has grown exponentially, and is now used in fields such as open
mapping, crowdfunding, and the production of open hardware, as he found in <a href="http://pas.sagepub.com/content/41/2/213.abstract" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">subsequent studies</a>, including the recent<a href="http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/category/proj/p2pvalue/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">P2Pvalue</a> project in which we collaborated. Beyond
its economic impact, commons-based peer production has also made an impression
on political institutions such as the European Commission, which recognises the
importance of what it has come to call “social innovation”, and has adopted it as
the core element of its European strategy until 2020.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">The
changes that have taken place since 2006 and contributed to supporting
Benkler’s arguments are diverse, and include economic, environmental, and
technological factors that have favoured the increasing importance of social
production. The economic “crisis” of 2008 cast doubt on the dominant neoliberal
economic ideology and increased the interest in alternative models; the crisis
in the political system and the welfare system fuelled new forms of organisation
for the political field but also for covering the needs of large swathes of the
population who have been pushed out of the labour market or are no longer
covered by social policies; climate change and the need to rethink the
sustainability of the production system and reduce the consumption of resources
have favoured sharing models, and the spread of new technologies has expanded
the sectors of the population who are able to participate in net-based
collaborative experiences. Taken as a whole, these macro-processes have
favoured the conditions required for new spaces of innovation, and supported
the increasing importance of civil society as an actor and as a source of
alternative models of organisation other than the prevailing models of the State
and the market, as Benkler had already predicted in 2006.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Book cover from “The Penguin and the
Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest” by Benkler. Source: <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2011/10/benkler" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Harvard University</a>.</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">As
a result, the book’s main message has gained validity over time –and in what
seems to be a quirk of fate, its Spanish translation arrives precisely at a
moment of great social effervescence and demands of support for the commons.
And with the passing of the years, the book has also acquired new meanings.
Focusing on the importance of the “classic” examples of Wikipedia and FLOSS, as
Benkler does in his book, could be the key that could guide us in the current
situation, a way of re-channelling the non-commercial corporate developments
that are threatening to distort the phenomenon. It is worth noting, for
example, that if we look at the list of the 50 most-visited websites in the
world – a considerable part of global Internet traffic – Wikipedia is the only
site that does not follow a corporate governance model. Against this backdrop,
Benkler’s emphasis on FLOSS and Wikipedia take on new meaning: the need to
return to these classics in order to reverse the prevalence of corporate models
in the development of social production. This could help us, for example, to
rethink the governance models of services such as Uber.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Times">The commons in
Benkler</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Benkler,
like other jurists who have gone back to the concept of the commons –such as
Lawrence Lessig (although in other aspects there are clear differences between
Benkler and the founder of Creative Commons licences) and Carol Rose (and her <a href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/1828/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Comedy of the Commons</a>) – understands the commons
in the sense of open access: according to this view, the commons refers to resources
that allow people the freedom to use them, without anybody being able to
interfere in their ability to access to them, or in the way they use them. This
approach, which has mainly been developed by cyber jurists, does not place the
emphasis on the conditions of production of a resource, or on the type of human
grouping, and instead focuses on the conditions of access for individuals. It
revolves around freedom among individuals. This open access view of the commons
contrasts with that of <a href="http://elinorostrom.indiana.edu/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Elinor Ostrom</a> – winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize
for Economic Sciences –, whose perspective was based on notion of natural
commons. In Ostrom’s view, the commons is a governance model in which
individuals in a group can actively participate in defining the rules of
interaction in regard to the common resource that they share. Benkler does not
argue against Ostrom’s view, but he believes that there is a need to develop a
theory of the commons that integrates both approaches, because Ostrom’s view is
only applicable to a very small number of cases, and is not sufficiently
applicable to the open nature of the digital commons, where it becomes
difficult to identify a discrete, stable “subject” on whom governance would
fall. Benkler also argues that is more important to focus on relations than on
resources: in other words, on the free and open nature of the relational
environment, rather than on the (non-excludable and competing) nature of
resources, as in Ostrom’s case. Benkler <a href="http://www.benkler.org/Commons_Unmodified_Benkler.pdf" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">is concerned</a> that by restricting ourselves to
Ostrom’s view, we would leave out key resources that form part of the system
(from roads and waterways, for example, to the Internet), thus limiting the
potential impact of promoting a commons-based framework.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Times">The creation of a
networked public sphere </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">In
the second part of his book, Benkler discusses the political implications of
the emergence of a new information environment and the creation of a networked
public sphere that favours new forms of collective action and a new balance of
powers in regard to influencing the political agenda and public policies.
Developments in this regard since 2006 appear to prove him right. The emergence
of the Arab Spring, the 15-M movement, Occupy Wall Street, and the long list of
countries that are part of the recent wave of political mobilisations, as well
as the new forms of political “party” organisations such as Syrizia in Greece,
various cases in Latin America, and Guanyem and Podemos closer to home,
illustrate the insightfulness of his argument. Aside from looking at emergent
political mobilisations, in <i>The Wealth of Networks</i> and subsequent works,
Benkler has focused on analysing the democratic qualities of the networked
public sphere as a space of debate among conventional and non-conventional
political actors. More recently, defending the democratic nature of
organisations such as Wikileaks, or using case studies such as the mobilisation
against the SOPA law (“Ley Sinde” in Spain), Benkler has shown the extent to
which a networked public sphere favours a greater plurality of voices and the
possibility of the political impact of non-conventional actors. In other words,
the empowerment of civil society.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"> <span></span><i>Book
cover from the “Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping
the SOPA-PIPA Debate”, by Yochai Benkler, Hal Roberts, Rob Faris, Alicia
Solow-Niederman i Bruce Etling. Source: <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/8416" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:blue">Harvard
University</a>.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Times">The geopolitics of
the Internet</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Lastly,
Benkler offers an analysis of the political economy of the Internet – including
the main development trends – and of the web of geopolitical interests that are
trying to influence its governance and future development. And he pays
particular attention to the potentiality of technology based on de-centralised
models and open spectrums.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Yochai
Benkler’s visit to Barcelona on 25 February is a great opportunity to rethink,
through his works, the “transition” that we appear to be in the midst of.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<br clear="all"></div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><ol><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://snuproject.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/1987-e-reader-ed-by-peter-waterman-on-labour-social-movements-and-internationalism-the-old-internationalism-and-the-new/" target="_blank"></font></font><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "snuproject.wordpress.com" claiming to be</b></font> <font color="#ff0000">2015/1987.<font color="#000000"> The Old Internationalism and the New: On Labour, Social Movements and Internationalism. (A Reader). http://snuproject.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/1987-e-reader-ed-by-pete...</a><div style="text-align:left"><font size="1"><span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span></span><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"></span></font></span></span></font></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><font size="1"><span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font color="#ff0000">2014. </font>From Coldwar Communism to the Global Justice <span></span>Movement: Itinerary of a Long-Distance Internationalis<span></span>t.</span> <span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"></span></font></span></span></font><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"> <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/from_coldwar_communism_to_the_global_emancipatory_movement/" target="_blank">http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/from_coldwar_communism _to_the_global_emancipatory_movement/</a><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">(Free). </span><br></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span></div></li><li><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font color="#ff0000">2014. </font>Interface Journal Special (Co-Editor), December 2014.</span> <a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank">'Social Movement Internationalisms'. (Free).</a></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank"><br></a></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span></b></li><li><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000">2014. <font color="#000000">'The Networked Internationalism of Labour's Others', in Jai Sen (ed), Peter Waterman (co-ed), <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">The Movement of Movements: </a></font></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/" target="_blank"></font></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">Struggles for Other Worlds <font color="#000000">(Part I).</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"> (10 Euros).</span></font></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><br></font></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span></b></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><span><font color="#ff0000">2012. </font>EBook:</span> <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/" target="_blank">Recovering
Internationalism</a>. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">[A compilation of papers from the new millenium. Now free in two download formats]</span></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><span></span></span></font></span></b></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><span><font color="#ff0000">2013. </font>EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical Explorations <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank">http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/</a></span></span><span><span></span></span><span></span></font></span></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><font color="#ff0000">2012. </font>Interface
Journal<span> Special (co-editor), November 2012:</span></span><span> </span><span style="font-weight:normal"></span></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span style="font-weight:normal"><a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank">For the Global Emancipation of Labour </a></span><span lang="NL"></span></font></span></b></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000" size="1"><a href="http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf" target="_blank"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000">2005-?</a></font></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span lang="NL"><font color="#ff0000"> Ongoing. </font>Blog:</span><span lang="NL"> <a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman." target="_blank">http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.</a></span></font></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"></span><span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000" size="1"><a href="http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf" target="_blank"></font></span></font></span></font><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000">???. Needed: a Global Labour Charter Movement<span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#000000"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">(2005-Now!)</a></font></span></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000" size="1"><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/" target="_blank"></font><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.into-ebooks.com" claiming to be</b></font> <font color="#ff0000">2011. Under, Against, Beyond: Labour and Social Movements Confront a Globalised, Informatised Capitalism </a>(2011) <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">(c. 1,000 pages of Working Papers, free, from the <a href="tel:1980" value="+661980" target="_blank">1980</a>'s-90's).</span></font></font></span></div></li></ol></div><div><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr></tr></tbody></table><font size="1">
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<br></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan" target="_blank">http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan</a> </div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div></div>
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