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Juhana Venäläinen Researcher, PhD Student University of Eastern Finland School of Humanities [email protected]
5516126 New Commons / Juhana Venäläinen / University of Eastern Finland / Spring 2013
freeasinfreedom / flickr.com / by-‐nc-‐nd
[25 August 1991]-> comp.os.minix Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready.
¡ Most studied of all operating system projects
¡ “Adaptability over planning”
¡ “Naturally emergent” organization
¡ …from the romantic view of authorship to the spontaneous organization of the commons…
¡ I Networking commons § The idea of ”the networking commons” § Example: the political economy of Wikipedia § Licensing as commons governance
¡ II Peer production § The idea of ”peer production” § Some critiques of the P2P paradigm § Preliminary notes on network value
networking commons
= shared means of productive communication
-‐> A. communication as a catalyst of production (knowledge economy thesis)
-‐> B. communication as the target of
production, a goal in itself (immaterial economy thesis)
¡ Technological infrastructure § The tools and routes for communication
¡ Organizational norms § Institutions for regulating the communication
¡ Cultural values § The “good” and “bad” habits of communication
¡ Frameworks of assessment § How to measure the productivity of the system in whole? § How to measure the efforts of individuals?
¡ Principles of equity § How is the added value distributed among the participants?
¡ Means of reproduction § How does the networking system sustain itself? § How does the networking system sustain the individual participants?
Wikipedia?
1) Shared practices of communication… 2) … for building a shared base of knowledge
-‐> networking commons +
knowledge commons
¡ Technological infra (hardware) § Internet
▪ Communications cables ▪ Internet exchange points (IXPs)
§ Data center(s) ▪ WP: 300 servers in Tampa, FL
§ Electricity, power grids
¡ Code, services, protocols (software) § Maintenance and improvement of MediaWiki § Resistance to cyberattacks etc.
¡ Sociocultural practices of sharing (netware) § Attraction to contribute (social “barrier of entry”) § Mechanisms of quality control § Communal “goodwill”
¡ Factors of (re)production: § Financing the fixed capital / rents § Financing the variable capital (wages) § Sustaining the supply of voluntary workforce § Sustaining the “good atmosphere” of sharing
¡ Wikimedia Foundation § Non-‐profit charitable organization
¡ Input-‐output-‐streams § Donations -‐> WMF -‐> monetized assets § Non-‐paid voluntary work (playbor) -‐> WP -‐> non-‐monetized assets
¡ Externalities § WP provides positive externalities for knowledge-‐intensive production § -‐> the knowledge commons of WP: economically valuable factor of
production § -‐> the networking commons of WP: a “non-‐market” way of building
and sustaining that factor of production
¡ -‐> market value produced outside of the market
¡ Open software § E.g. Firefox, OpenOffice, Linux, Apache, MySQL
¡ Open knowledge § E.g. Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive
¡ Open protocols § E.g. Internet standards (RFCs), OpenDocument, Google APIs
¡ Open hardware
¡ Alternative namings § ”Free software”
▪ The Free Software Foundation (1985-‐) § Open Source software
▪ Open Source Initiative (1998-‐) § Software Libre
▪ European Commission (2000-‐) § ”FLOSS”: free / libre / open source software
▪ Rishab Ghosh 2001
¡ Licenses § Copyleft licenses
▪ E.g. GNU General Public Licence (1989, 1991, 2007) ▪ Most widely used open software licence ▪ Guarantees end users the freedoms to use, study, share (copy) and modify the software ▪ Prohibits commercial redistribution (”share-‐alike” clause)
§ Copycenter lisences ▪ E.g. MIT/X11 licence (1988), BSD licences
¡ Knowledge that ”one is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it without legal, social or technological restriction” (Open Definition)
¡ “Knowledge” = § 1. Content (music, films, books…) § 2. Data (scientific, historical, geographic…) § 3. Administrative information
¡ Licenses § Creative Commons licenses (2002-‐) § GNU Free Documentation License (2000-‐2008-‐) § Free Art License (2000-‐2007-‐) § Etc.
¡ Open Data movement § Open Knowledge Foundation (2004-‐) § OK Festival (http://okfestival.org/)
¡ APIs: freedom of ”machine-‐to-‐machine” communication
¡ Physical artifacts that § Use open source code § Use standardized open protocols § Use standardized parts § Use other kinds of ”open design” principles (e.g. crowdsourcing)
¡ http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=2686 ¡ E.g. Arduino (a multi-‐purpose programmable circuit board) § http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWkUFxItWmU
¡ ”Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive. That ension will not go away.” (Stewart Brand, 1984?) § -‐> freedom of information as right to open access
¡ ”Free as in free speech, not as in free beer” (Richard Stallman) § -‐> ”Libre/gratis” distinction
¡ Licence: a legal framework for regulating the use of networking commons
¡ Contractual -‐> does not restrict freedoms based on fundamental civil rights (e.g. fair use)
¡ Main concern: balancing the economic rights of the producers, distributors and end-‐users
Tacit norms
Institutions of self-‐regulation
Regulation of the networking infrastructure
Constitutional rights
WORLD OF COPYLEFT
¡ Knowledge as commons ¡ Legal enforcement of the
open access to the cultural artefacts
¡ Derivative works are also determined to be copyleft
WORLD OF COPYRIGHT
¡ Propriety rights ¡ Legal enforcement of the
private ownership of the cultural artefacts
¡ Relapse to the public domain through expiring copyright terms
¡ Attribution (by) § Rights: to copy, distribute, display, and to make derivative
works § Obligations: the name of the author and the original work have
to be mentioned, as well as the license
¡ Share-‐alike (sa) § Derivative works shall have the same license as the original
¡ Noncommercial (nc) § Prohibits commercial use
¡ No derivative works (nd) § Only identical copies / performances allowed
¡ Dmitry Kleiner: ”artists can not earn a living from exclusivity of ‘intellectual property’ and that that neither copyleft licenses like the GPL, nor "copyjustright" frameworks such as the creative commons, can help."
¡ Peer Production Licence § only other commoners, cooperatives and nonprofits can share and re-‐use the material, but not commercial entities intent on making profit through the commons without explicit reciprocity
”FREE” LICENCES
Attribution (by)
Attribution + No-‐derivatives
(by-‐nd)
Attribution + Share-‐alike (by-‐
sa)
NON-‐COMMERCIAL LICENCES
Attribution + Noncommercial (by-‐
nc)
Attribution + Noncommercial + No-‐derivatives (by-‐
nc-‐nd)
Attribution + Noncommercial +
Share-‐alike (by-‐nc-‐sa)
¡ peer (n.) c.1300, "an equal in rank or status" (early 13c. in Anglo-‐Latin), from Anglo-‐French peir, Old French per (10c.), from Latin par "equal”
¡ par (n.) 1620s, "equality," also "value of one currency in terms of another," from Latin par "equal, equal-‐sized, well-‐matched," also as a noun, "that which is equal, equality," -‐> perhaps from PIE root *pere-‐ "to grant, allot," with suggestion of reciprocality
(Online Etymology Dictionary)
¡ Peer = § 1. A person who has equal standing with another or others, as in rank, class, or age: children who are easily influenced by their peers.
§ 2. ▪ a. A nobleman. ▪ b. A man who holds a peerage by descent or appointment.
§ 3. [Archaic] A companion; a fellow: "To stray away into these forests drear,/Alone, without a peer" (John Keats).
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/peer)
CENTRALIZED (SERVER-‐BASED) PEER-‐TO-‐PEER
¡ Napster (1999-‐)
¡ BitTorrent (2001-‐)
¡ Internet (esp. WWW) as a P2P network
OPTE Project / Matt Britt
¡ Yochai Benkler (2006): commons-‐based peer production § Socio-‐economic system of production § Emerges in digitally networked environment § Collaboration among large groups of individuals § Organized independently of market pricing and managerial
hierarchies
¡ Michel Bauwens (2012): Peer production: ”when a pool of voluntary contributors can create commons-‐oriented value, under conditions of participatory governance, i.e. through the social, and not market or hierarchical, allocation of productive resources”
¡ -‐> The Wealth of Networks (Benkler) -‐> a ”P2P Society”?
¡ “Digital revolution” through ICT & Internet § New global opportunities for free self-‐expression § Emergence of information-‐based economy § Inexpensive and effective tools for data processing
¡ -‐> Constitutes a new mode of production (“Networked Information Economy”)
¡ -‐> Poses new regulatory challenges & struggles
¡ 1. Peer production as complementary to the market dynamics
¡ 2. Peer production as a pioneer form for building a ”peer society”
¡ 3. Peer production as a harmful illusion ¡ 4. Peer production as a double-‐edged phenomenon
¡ (Bauwens 2012: ”From the Theory of Peer Production to the Production of Peer Production Theory”)
¡ P2P: flexible complementary to more traditional market dynamics (Benkler)
¡ Lowers the transaction and coordination costs of production
¡ Embraces classic Liberal concerns and values (liberty, equality, diversity)
¡ Seeks to improve and balance negative aspects of capitalism
¡ Free software as a forerunner for wider social transformation § E.g. the Oekonux movement (Stefan Meretz, Christian Sie{es)
¡ Peer production as an autonomous mode of value creation
¡ Problems: § Commons-‐based reproduction of human life (“wetware”)? § New ways of extracting and enclosing value from the common?
¡ “Peer production” as an extension of capitalism and the market
¡ New way of distributing products and workforce -‐> increased productivity
¡ Real peer production would require commonly owned stocks of physical “counter-‐capital”
¡ E.g. Dmitry Kleiner: venture communism
¡ Two kinds of commons: § Capitalist commons: used by the capital for its self-‐reproduction (against the interest of the commoners)
§ Anti-‐capitalist commons produce “other values” that escape and subvert the logic of the capital
¡ -‐> a sharp antagonism between the “liberal” and “anti-‐capitalist” commons projects
¡ E.g. George Caffentzis, Massimo de Angelis
Humilde Fotero del Pánico / flickr / by-‐nc
¡ Bauwens, Michel. 2012. “From the Theory of Peer Production to the Production of Peer Production Theory”. Journal of Peer Production (1). http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-‐1/invited-‐comments/from-‐the-‐theory-‐of-‐peer-‐production-‐to-‐the-‐production-‐of-‐peer-‐production-‐theory/.
¡ Bauwens, Michel. 2005. “The Political Economy of Peer Production”. CTHEORY. http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499
¡ Benkler, Yochai. 2006. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.
¡ Kelty, Christopher M. 2008. Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press. http://twobits.net/pub/Kelty-‐TwoBits.pdf
¡ Pasquinelli, Matteo. 2008. Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons.
Rotterdam: NAi Publishers / Institute of Network Cultures.
![Self-organisation in Commons-Based Peer Production · Infosys [India]) Areas of interest: organisational theory, free software, commons-based peer production, social computing, decentralised](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/606f551cf3faea3f3c542fef/self-organisation-in-commons-based-peer-production-infosys-india-areas-of-interest.jpg)
