View source for Appendix 3: The P2P Meme Map

'''Appendix 3: The P2P Meme Map'''

('''read the table from the bottom u'''p)

Compiled by Michel Bauwens, June 30, 2005

The following is an attempt to summarize the findings of the P2P research in a compressed manner.

Level one represents the cultural shift in ways of being, feeling and knowing, as well as the new core value constellations that underpin the shift to a peer to peer civilization.

Level two represents the technological distributed computing infrastructure, the P2P media infrastructure which enables many-to-many communication, and the collaborative infrastructure which allows autonomous groups to cooperate on a global scale, outside the bounds of markets and hierarchies.

Level three represents the legal infrastructure. The General Public License (and Open Source initiatives), which creates and expands the P2P technological infrastructure as a public domain Commons; Creative Commons licenses achieve the same effect for content creation. Technological protocols such as TCP/IP insure the participative nature of new technologies, while P2P collectives set their own internally-generated frameworks of cooperation, within the broader framework of Internet-based civility (netiquette). Taking together they create a common property regime of public goods outside the market and the state.

Level 4 represents new social practices that are thoroughly characterized by P2P principles (as distinguished from non-P2P formats enabled by P2P infrastructures). The first strand is represented by 'non-representational politics', politics which refuses representation, as exemplified by the alterglobalisation movement and Social Forums, the coordination format adopted by social movements. Peer production creates collective use value in the form of a Commons, and is exemplified by free software, knowledge collectives such as Wikipedia, collaborative publishing such as Indymedia. Participative spirituality represents a new way of relating to religions, the cosmos, and nature and its beings, refusing authoritarian truths and methods, sometimes practiced in the form of peer circles.

Level 5 are practices that are not full P2P themselves, but are enabled and strengthened by P2P infrastructures: examples are P2P marketplaces which do not create a commons and are run by for-profit enterprises, or who derive substantial value from user-created content ('netarchical' enterprises who enable and exploit participative networks); gift economies or sharing economies (the latter defined by Yochai Benkler), such as local exchange trading systems and local currencies;
 

'''Figure – The P2P Meme Map'''


'''TO READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP!!!'''



1.	Empire/cognitive capitalism rests on distributed networking but instrumentalises it for domination

2.	P2P-based marketplaces and Long Tail economics: eBay, Zopa, self-publishing; supply and demand meat each other through the internet; creating millions of sustainable micro-markets

3.	Netarchical value creation / for-profit enablement and exploitation of participative networks: positive externalities of P2P create value for new type of businesses: Amazon customer evaluations, Google page ranking based on user linking; user-centric innovation; users create substantial content for the portals

4.	Bottom of the pyramid development schemes (Prahalad); microcredit (collective credit applications); citizen to citizen (edge to edge) development schemes (Jock Gill)

5.	Gift and sharing economy practices are enabled by P2P infrastructures: open money and local currency schemes, local exchange trading systems (LETS); carpooling becomes economical with distributed infrastructures; nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurships are enabled. Lower transactional costs strengthen enable fairer trade and economics


Level 5: P2P-ENABLED PRACTICES


1.A. Non-representational politics: networked alterglobalism, coordination formats for social struggles, conceptual innovation of multitudes (Negri), creation as resistance (Benasayag), revolution without power (Holloway)

=> CREATION OF ABSOLUTE DEMOCRACY MODELS

1.B. Autonomous social and cultural practices: internet-based affinity groups, self-help and mutual support groups, non-expert dominated knowledge creation, validation, and exchange, filesharing; open science projects and open access to scientific publications

=> CREATION OF THE INFORMATION COMMONS

2. Peer production (also called, Commons-Based Peer Production CBPP): Free software and open source software (also called Free/Libre Open Source Software FLOSS): GNU/Linux; Knowledge collectives: Wikipedia, Collaborative Media: Indymedia

=> THIRD MODE OF PRODUCTION CREATES FOR-BENEFIT SECTOR

3. Participatory spirituality: non-representational dialogue of religion, contributory theology, cooperative inquiry practices (John Heron), plural mysticism (Jorge Ferrer), peer circles

=> PLURALISTIC CONTRIBUTORY SPIRITUALITY


NON-REPRESENTATIONAL POLITICS & AUTONOMOUS SOCIAL ORGANISATION // PEER PRODUCTION // PARTICIPATORY SPIRITUALITY



Level 4: DIRECT P2P PRACTICES


1.	New Common Property Regime: General Public License, Open Source Initiative, Creative Commons, Art libre License allow for creation that cannot be privately appropriated

2.	Participative Technological Protocols: TCP/IP protocol for P2P communication, Writeable Web protocols allow self-publishing by everyone, Viral Communicator Meshwork protocols enable network building without infrastructures and backbones: Open Spectrum proposal would create Wireless Commons

3.	Participative Social Protocols: netiquette, project constitutions, social accounting and reputation-based schemes create transparency, participation capture turns self-interest into common resources


NEW COMMON PROPERTY REGIME // PARTICIPATIVE TECHNOLOGICAL PROTOCOLS // PARTICIPATIVE SOCIAL PROTOCOLS


Level 3: P2P LEGAL INFRASTRUCTURE


1.A. Distributed computing infrastructure (hardware): Internet, Grid Computing, Filesharing, Wireless Meshwork, Viral Communicators

1.B. Free Software / Open source software infrastructure: GNU/Linux, OS Desktop applications, OS content management software, OS communication tools

2.	Distributed media infrastructure: Blogging (Writeable Web), Podcasting (audio), Webcasting (broadband audiovisual)

3.	Distributed collaboration infrastructure: Wiki's, social software, groupware

DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING // DISTRIBUTED MEDIA // DISTRIBUTED COLLOBARATION


Level two: P2P TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE


1.	New ways of feeling and being: participative cosmologies, the relational self, cooperative individualism

2.	New ways of knowing: connectivist learning, communal (not institutional) validation of knowledge, transparency (not objectivity)

3.	Primacy of Equality/freedom, the hacker ethic of self-unfolding 'passion-based' cooperation, abundance over scarcity, participation over exclusion, meritocratic servant leadership by example, coordination instead of command and control

4.	Desire for P2P Civilization to be defined by: 1) Absolute Democracy: participation of all extended to all areas of social life, not just politics;  a Pluralist Economy with a strong Commons sector along with a reformed market and state; a Participative Universe based on partnership with nature and its beings


P2P  ONTOLOGY  // P2P  EPISTEMOLOGY // P2P AXIOLOGY

(New ways of feeling and being // New ways of knowing // New core value constellation and aspirations)


Level one: P2P CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS AND VALUE FIELD