Seminar Content

Peer to Peer: a new economy and civilisation

Peer to peer is much more than just the sharing of music and film by contemporary teenagers— it is in fact a new relational dynamic, enabled by P2P-based infrastructures and organisational techniques, which fundamentally changes the dynamic between institutions and the peer-enabled individuals. No longer are institutions (companies, governments, NGOs, mass media) communicating with isolated individuals, but it is now the individuals who, assisted by their peers, approach the institutional world from a totally different perspective (pull and intention economy).

Far from limited to the co-creation of value with corporations and media (think crowd sourcing and citizen journalism), it is creating a whole new set of social processes such as peer production (think Linux and Wikipedia), peer governance (how are these projects managed without pre-established hierarchy?), and peer property (a new set of licenses that protects the common production).

Some of the following general questions will be addressed:

What is the logic of this peer to peer dynamic, and what can we say so far about how companies and institutions are adapting to its challenge?

How can we interpret Web 2.0 developments and the future of computing in the light of these developments?

What are the political and social consequences of a peer-enabled civil society?

Seminar Methodology

Presentations are alternated with small group sessions. Peer to peer facilitation will be used for the sharing of collective insights of the audience itself.

Seminar Aims

1) to provide insight into P2P trends as they impact on technological infrastructure, the ability for bottom-up creation of social innovation, and its expressions and implications. Attendees will become familiar with the trends and concepts used in this emergent new field.

2) To understand the main ways in which business and organizations have adapted to the new realities

3) Have a basic familiarity of the tools used to keep updated with such developments

4) Learn from their peers how they have reacted to the challenge in their area of activity

5) Starting an initial personal inquiry into how it affects their own context

Seminar Formulas

One day, half a day, 90 minute lecture with discussion.

Seminar Fees

EUR 1,500 per day, EUR 750 half-day seminars, EUR 250 for shorter lectures. Travel expenses must be included, as well as the hotel expenses before and after the conference. The organizers are asked to handle these logistics.

Infrastructure requirements: PC with ADSL connection and multimedia capabilities for PPT presentation; eventually an assistant facilitator for the workshop sessions.

The Speaker

Michel Bauwens was one of the internet pioneers in his home country of Belgium, where he created two startups (e-Com and KyberCo) respectively involved in the fields of intranet/extranet and interactive marketing. He was also the eBusiness Strategy Director for the country’s leading telecommunications company Belgacom as well as European Director of Thought Leadership for the worldwide webconsultancy USWeb/CKS-MarchFIRST. Prior to his involment in the internet he was information analyst, and knowledge manager for BP. Along the way, he has taught post-graduate MBA courses, been editor in chief of a magazine (Wave), co-produced a 3-hour TV documentary (TechnoCalyps), and co-edited two French-language volumes on the anthropology of digital society.

In 2003, he moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is surrounded by 60% of the world population in a 1,500 miles radius, and started the Foundation for P2P Alternatives to research, document and promote such practices as peer production and peer governance. He is part of the handful of experts worldwide to study P2P processes, but uniquely combines it with a wide-ranging experience in the business world.

Seminars by Michel Bauwens

Contents