A compilation of academic and other research projects on the peer to peer aspects of the internet and society.

Danah Boyd recommends: Students, License your dissertation under Creative Commons!!

We support:

• Just One Giant Lab (JoGL) is the first research and innovation laboratory operating as a distributed, open and massive mobilisation platform for volunteer-based, IP-free task solving. [1]

• The research initiative: Journal of Peer Production

• Goteo, commons-oriented Crowdfunding platform for P2P research, from Platoniq

• The P2P facilitation and research method 'par excellence' is: Co-operative Inquiry

• Don't forget to check out the P2P Lab, based in Ioannina, northern Greece and augmented with a global research network

Research Paradigms

"We have now reached a stage, through dialogues using Archdisciplinarity, to compare and contrast meta-theories for better mutual understanding of the cosmos, life, and human consciousness.

See the arc of development in research methodologies and paradigms, starting with

• Disciplinarity
  • The Problem of Disciplinarity,
• via multi-disciplinary and Cross–Disciplinary Research methods, and to
• Interdisciplinarity and
  • Interdisciplinary Perspectivist Approaches, reaching
• Transdisciplinarity and
• Archdisciplinarity.

For an intro, listen to this podcast: Mark Edwards, Nick Hedlund et al. on What Are Meta-Studies?

The P2P Foundation Research Output

 Download Portfolio 

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Our Publications

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I. Introduction to P2P and Commons Dynamics

1. Political Economy of Peer Production

Bauwens, M. (2005). CTheory. PDF (Original P2P Foundation file, may not be accessible)

**Alternative Access:** View on Semantic Scholar [citation:1]

Foundational text offering the first analysis of peer production's meaning for human society and productive capacity.

2. Synthetic Overview of the Collaborative Economy

Bauwens, M. et al. (2012). P2P Foundation & Orange Labs. Direct PDF Link [citation:5][citation:8]

Explores collaborative economic practices (peer production, crowdsourcing, collaborative consumption) and their impact on corporations.

3. Commons Transition and P2P Primer

Bauwens, M. et al. (2017). Transnational Institute (TNI) and P2P Foundation. **Web Version:** Commons Transition Primer Website [citation:10]

Illustrated primer summarizing commons principles and presenting a pioneering transition program for policy.

II. Our Books

1. Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy

Kostakis, V. and Bauwens, M. (2014). Palgrave Macmillan. **Book Information:** Publisher's Page [citation:14]

Outlines four potential scenarios for the networked society, from centralized extraction to distributed global commons.

III. Proposals for Commons-Based Policy Transitions

1. Commons Transition Plan (FLOK version)

Bauwens, M. et al. (2014). P2P Foundation. PDF

A transition plan towards a commons-centric knowledge society, created for the State of Ecuador. (Link may need verification)

2. Commons Transition Plan for the City of Ghent

Bauwens, M., & Onzia, Y. (2017). P2P Foundation. PDF

An integrated plan for urban commons transition, co-created with over 500 initiatives in Ghent, Belgium. (Link may need verification)

3. Changing Societies through Urban Commons Transitions

Bauwens, M., & Niaros, V. (2017). P2P Foundation & Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. PDF

Explores urban commons revival through grassroots and municipal initiatives, with case studies from cities like Barcelona and Seoul. (Link may need verification)

4. Mutualizing Urban Provisioning Systems

Bauwens, M., Kranjc, R. & Ramos, J. (2022). Chapter in Sacred Civics. Earthscan. PDF

Reviews municipal policies supporting citizen-centric commons initiatives, including regulatory innovations like the Bologna Regulation. (Link may need verification)

IV. The Shift Towards a Contribution-Based Commons Economy

1. Value in the Commons Economy

Bauwens, M., & Niaros, V. (2017). P2P Foundation & Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. PDF

Examines how value is being redefined in digital and networked societies, moving beyond traditional market metrics. (Link may need verification)

2. P2P Accounting for Planetary Survival

Bauwens, M. & Pazaitis, A. (2019). P2P Foundation. PDF

Explores how new accounting systems (blockchain, contributory, flow accounting) can enable a socially just circular society. (Link may need verification)

3. Introduction to Commons Economics

Bauwens, M., Kranjc, R. & Ramos, J. (2022). P2P Foundation. PDF

Outlines seven operational principles for a new economics based on biophysical reality, abundance, and contribution. (Link may need verification)

V. Cosmo-Localization

1. Thermodynamic Perspectives on Peer to Peer and the Commons

Piques, C. & Rizos, X. (2017). P2P Foundation. PDF

Argues that thermodynamics proves decoupling growth from resource use is a myth and that commons are the right paradigm. (Link may need verification)

2. Cosmo-Local Reader

Ramos, J., Bauwens, M. et al. (2021). P2P Foundation / Futures Lab. PDF

Presents 40 case studies and a theoretical perspective on "cosmo-local" production, combining global knowledge commons with localized production. (Link may need verification)

Other Broader Long-Term Research Projects for the Common Good

The following are more or less associated with a view that is compatible with the P2P/Commons Approach:

Dark Matter Labs

https://darkmatterlabs.org/

A lab working on institutional innovation for long-term, systemic challenges, designing infrastructure for a more equitable and sustainable future.

Examples of work: Developing new models for ownership, finance, and governance; creating "custodianship" frameworks for shared resources; prototyping tools for collective decision-making.

Buckminster Fuller Institute

https://www.bfi.org/

An organization dedicated to R. Buckminster Fuller's comprehensive, anticipatory design science approach to solving global problems.

Examples of work: Running the "Global Solutions Challenge"; hosting educational programs; maintaining a digital library of Fuller's works.

Long Now Foundation

https://longnow.org/

A foundation established to foster long-term thinking and responsibility, working on projects to encourage a "slower/better" mindset.

Examples of work: The 10,000 Year Clock; the Rosetta Project; hosting "Seminars About Long-term Thinking" (SALTs).

Common Land

https://www.commonland.com/

An organization applying a "4 Returns" framework to landscape restoration, aiming for financial, social, natural, and inspiration returns over a 20-year horizon.

Examples of work: Developing integrated landscape plans; facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships for ecosystem restoration; creating measurable impact frameworks.

Greaterthan

https://www.greaterthan.works/

A network and platform dedicated to building a regenerative economy, focusing on new forms of ownership, governance, and collaboration.

Examples of work: Supporting the development of worker-owned cooperatives; offering training in decentralized governance; hosting learning journeys and community events.

Regen Network

https://www.regen.network/

A blockchain-based platform for ecological accounting and verification, focused on creating a registry for carbon and other ecological credits.

Examples of work: Developing a blockchain ledger to track ecological data; providing tools for verifiable claims about land stewardship; creating a registry for carbon and ecological credits.

Civilization Research Institute

https://civilizationresearch.org/

An organization whose work involves long-term research into civilizational resilience, regeneration, and the major transitions societies face.

Examples of work: Conducting research on long-term civilizational dynamics; publishing reports and analyses; hosting events and convenings on systemic transitions.

Living Systems Alliance

https://livingsystemsalliance.org/

An organization focused on applying principles of living systems to human design and social systems to foster regenerative outcomes.

Examples of work: Offering programs and trainings on living systems thinking; consulting on regenerative design projects; building networks of practitioners applying ecological principles.

Repatterning Collective

https://www.repattern.org/

A collective focused on fundamentally shifting underlying structures and relationships in social, economic, or ecological systems.

Examples of work: Facilitating workshops and gatherings on systemic repatterning; creating frameworks and tools for structural transformation; supporting community-led change initiatives.

What's Happening in the P2P Research Space

What's Happening in the P2P Research Space

See also: Open Review and Open Peer Review

Calls for Collaboration

Call for a Joint Research Group for Peer Production

By Jarkko Moilanen.

http://surveys.peerproduction.net/2012/09/joint-research-group-for-peer-production/

This call for action aims to:

1. Find all Peer-production researchers and collect them around the same 'table'.
2. Create a more coherent approach to (including statistical) Peer-production research.
3. Form a basis for joint research and tools to ensure future research.

R2R Research Process Protocol Project

http://p2pfoundation.net/The_R2R_Research_Process_Protocol_Project

A "Request for Comments" project at the P2P Foundation Wiki. The final form of this P2P research initiative should itself be the result of a P2P production process.

Research Initiatives and Labs

P2P Lab

http://www.p2plab.gr/en/

A P2P Foundation and Ragnar Nurkse School spin-off, the P2P Lab is a media lab interested in interdisciplinary research on free/open source technologies and practices.

Mission:

• Strive for integrative insights on open technologies and peer-to-peer practices.
• Provide consultancy support to organisations and institutions regarding open technologies and relevant socio-economic trends.
• Produce innovative, global techno-economic solutions to local problems.
• Write, edit and publish articles, reports and books.
• Organise open events for reflection and action and educate people about critical and creative tools for society-changing.

Free Technology Guild

http://campus.ftacademy.org/wiki/index.php/Free_Technology_Guild

Led by Joe Corneli, this project explores new ways to secure funding for research and a new "wiki way" of doing research. The guild aims to be a project incubator for technical projects that can benefit from working together.

Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship

https://ronininstitute.org/

An organization supporting independent scholars outside traditional academic institutions.

Listen to: Jon Wilkins on Organizing Independent Scholars with the Ronin Institute.

Hack Your PhD

http://www.hackyourphd.org/

Launched in October 2012 by Célya Gruson-Daniel, this initiative brings together a diverse community of doctoral researchers, designers and social entrepreneurs around the issues of Open Science and Open Knowledge.

Activities: Setting up workshops ("hackatons") to experiment with open science initiatives while educating the public on this issue. The project aims to show that new ways of doing research exist and can benefit both research itself and the relationship between science and society.

Alt-Academy

http://alt-academy.org/

A grass-roots, bottom-up, publish-then-filter approach to community-building and networked scholarly communication.

Projects Seeking Input or Funding

Space Federation Research Project

James Carlson's research project suggestion in relation to Space Federation:

"The School Factory's Space Federation, a US-based network of p2p spaces, would appreciate direction on this. What methods for measuring and collecting data, even a survey for spaces to assess community capacity, equipment, footage, economics, could we support? We would happily share any results we can collect and our drafts of these concepts."

Change Academic Research Forever

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/10270-change-academic-research-forever

Led by Michael Lissack, this project aims to build a one-click button to help researchers find one another based on what they read and search.

Description: "We want to enable researchers to find out 'who should I talk to?' with merely a click of a mouse instead of a many hour slug through keywords and Google. We have the raw ingredients but we need to build the button. It will be based on the 'what should I read?' button which already exists in the ISCE Library."

Demo: http://isce-library.net (login as user: demo1@isce.edu, password: Library)

Peer Review Initiatives

Review Commons

https://www.reviewcommons.org/

A platform for journal-independent portable peer review.

As described by Veronique Kiermer: "Journal-independent portable review has the potential to accelerate and streamline the process of publishing. Authors can use their peer reviews to inform their journal selection and find the best fit for their work from the start. Because the reviews carry over to any affiliate journal, it will also reduce re-reviewing at multiple journals that currently imposes a large burden of duplicated activities across the scientific community (estimated at millions of hours of reviewer time each year)."

Quotes

"In traditional research on people, the roles of researcher and subject are mutually exclusive. The researcher only contributes the thinking that goes into the project, and the subjects only contribute the action to be studied. In co-operative inquiry these exclusive roles are replaced by a co-operative relationship of bilateral initiative and control, so that all those involved work together as co-researchers and as co-subjects. They both design, manage and draw conclusions from the inquiry, and undergo the experience and action that is being explored. This is not research on people, but research with people."

- John Heron on Cooperative Inquiry

Key Resources

1. the Free Open Source Research Communitycollects research papers on FLOSS, Free Software, Open Source Software
2. Network Research Centers] for Social Network Analysis
3. UIA encyclopedia of world problems and human potential
4. Centre for Research on Networked Learning and Knowledge Building
5. Digital Resistance research is monitored via the iRevolution blog
6. The Center For Internet Research TCFIR is a transdisciplinary research cohort. All P2P members are invited.

Key Articles

• Mieke Bal: Let’s Abolish the Peer-Review System: "In this short commentary, Mieke Bal sets out her ten objections to the peer-review system in academic publishing."

Key Institutions / Movements

Some favourite potential informal research hubs and networks, compiled by Dante Monson:

1. United Diversity
2. The Transitioner
3. The Hub
4. Attainable Utopias

Academic Internet Research Centers

1. The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society [2]
2. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society [3]
3. The Centre for Internet and Society Bangalore [4]
4. The MIT Center for Civic Media [5]
5. The NEXA Center for Internet & Society at Politecnico di Torino [6]
6. The Oxford Internet Institute [7]
7. The Center for Technology & Society at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School [8]
8. The International Society of Blockchain Scholars [9]

P2P Action Research Groups

1. Hackitectura‎ ; Counter Cartographies Collective
2. Precarias a la Deriva
3. Colectivo Situaciones‎

Research on Commons-Based Infrastructuring

• Infra-Demos: [10] "infra-demos is an anthropological project studying the crisis in the existing infrastructural models and the emergence of new participatory ones in Greece.

Resources By Country

Italy

• Marco Giustini recommends: If you're interested in researching about ancient commons' organizations, look for terms "comuna", "comunanza agraria" and "partecipanza agraria" in Italy. Really very interesting field of research! http://www.usicivici.unitn.it/

Key Statistics

• 0.08% of the world population has access to that 90% of research papers (via Eugenio Battaglia)

Key Tools

1. The Digital Research Tools (DiRT) collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively: software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, etc...

1. Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, open source easy-to-use software tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It works as an add on to the free open source Firefox web-browser. Main webpage: http://www.zotero.org/

Endorsements

1. The P2P Foundation is part of 3D Living Innovation consortium, a Living Lab research project created on the initiative of La Fabrique du Futur