The new journal Critical Studies in Peer Production (CSPP) invited me to submit a debate paper for the next issue on Free Software. In this paper I try to describe analytical patterns developed by the Oekonux Project since over ten years of research on Free Software and commons-based peer production. The paper being part of the next CSPP issue should be released in December 2011, but according to the release-early practices in Free Software, I will publish the patterns in a series of weekly blog posts. I will extensively use cross-linking between these pattern posts. First, most of the links will not work, since futures patterns still reside in the publishing queue, but more and more links will function as the referenced pattern posts appear — please have a litte patience. Now, let’s start with the abstract, introduction, credits, and literature.
Kategorie: English
Patent!?
Collaborative Film Making: »Waking Up«
How can we imagine a world without money, private property, exchange and the like? Filmmaker Harald Sandø from Norway is creating the movie »Waking Up«. The film is not really »open source« (as mentioned on the website) since the sources are not accessible, but the author is open for participation writing the scripts. The story is inspired by the concept of a Resource Based Economy developed by Zeitgeist-Movement. Here’s the teaser:
The film teaser made it to the shortlist of the Film Festival Cinema Out of Your Backpack.
Open Source — Share the Liberty
The Emergence of Benefit-driven Production
The following paper was written for the Proceedings of the 6th Annual Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon 2011) which took place about a month before in Berlin. It is also available in PDF format.
Abstract
The free software and free culture movements have radically changed the ways of producing software and knowledge goods. In many cases, participation in such project is benefit-driven rather than profit-driven. Participants get involved in order to realize some practical or social benefit, not because of monetary gains. Another difference from market- and firm-based production is that peer production is non-hierarchical: people voluntarily cooperate as peers; there are no fixed employer/employee or client/contractor relationships. And peer production is based on commons: goods which are jointly developed and maintained by a community and which are shared according to community-defined rules.
Peer production is not just about producing knowledge: Hackerspaces and Fab Labs are the first forerunners of a commons-based production infrastructure. While commons-based peer production reaches beyond capitalism, the preconditions of its development are created by capitalism itself. The paradoxical relationship of capitalism to human labor leads to developments that might make the concept of labor (as we know it today) obsolete, and with it capitalism itself.
Reichtum — Wealth
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Inside the box
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Understanding Commons and Peer Production
These are the slides of my presentation at OKCon 2011 in Berlin. Unfortunately, I have to present them here in proprietary flash format slidesshare uses, because I was not able to find HTML5-flashfree alternatives (hints are welcome). Alternatively, you can download the respective PDF file or the source in Open Document Format ODP.
Report From Open Knowledge Conference 2011
OKCon 2011 in Berlin was really a great conference and I’m really happy that I were there. Knowing what organizing conferences like this means I’d like to say a big thank you to the organizers.
I don’t have exact numbers but would think that about 200 people attended the conference.
The conference was rather big in terms of program. For two days there were five parallel tracks from 10:00-20:00. A regular slot for a presentation was only 30 minutes unfortunately so beyond some superficial questions there was no room to discuss the things presented. Also there were no time in the schedule between the sessions so it was always a hurry to change rooms. As a result everyone was in a constant hurry which made it difficult to talk to each other.
Open Knowledge Conference Berlin
This year the OKCon is taking place in Berlin, Germany, on the 31st June and 1st July. The conference is not limited to open knowledge, but interesting talks come from the diverse fields of the commons in general. Personally, I will give an introductory talk on »Understanding Commons and Peer Production«. Christian is talking about »The Emergence of Benefit-driven Production«. The conference entrance fee is 30 Euro per day.