Oekonux

URL = http://www.oekonux.org/

Description

"The originally German Oekonux (pronounced "urkonooks") project was founded to research the possibilities of free software to fundamentally change the current political and economic structures.

Oekonux considers that the mode of production of free software represents a new mode of production that has the potential to supersede the capitalist mode of production." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oekonux)

History

George Dafermos:

"The P2PF was not alone in theorizing peer production from a radical perspective at the time. A project that was heavily involved throughout this period in the development of peer production theory was Oekonux. The project was launched in 1999 in Germany by Stefan Merten and a small group of activists and intellectuals who were interested in exploring the subversive potential of this model. Its main thesis was that the development of Linux and F/OSS is prefigurative of a mode of production without the alienation that is characteristic of wage labor, which can transcend capitalism, leading to a free “society beyond labor, money, exchange” (Merten interviewed in Richardson, 2001). In this “GPL society,” there would be no coercion and people would engage in productive projects out of intrinsic motivation: this would allow their “self-unfolding”, while benefiting society as a whole. Based on an analysis of peer production’s transcendent potential that was largely influenced by the work of Karl Marx, Oekonux theorized peer production as a “germ form,” thus hypothesizing that the peer production model could gradually become hegemonic, superseding capitalism (for a more extensive discussion of Oekonux theories, see Merten, 2000, 2009; Merten & Meretz, 2009; Meretz, 2012; Richardson, 2001; Euler, 2016) Oekonux members interacted mainly through two mailing lists: one for German speakers and another for discussions in English. In the beginning, most of the members of the group were from Germany, but because of the open and outward-looking character of the project, that soon changed. From 2001 until 2009, Oekonux organized four important international conferences: in 2001 in Dortmund, in 2002 in Berlin, in 2004 in Vienna and in 2009 in Manchester.10 These conferences were unique in that they were the first (and only) ones to focus exclusively on the exploration of F/OSS and peer production as a mode of production for the transition to post-capitalism. Their unique character attracted thinkers from all over the world, such as Graham Seaman (2003; 2004), Christian Siefkes (2007; 2009), Johan Söderberg (2008), and Raoul Victor (2003; 2004; 2009) who made significant contributions to the project. Michel Bauwens was also involved in the project and as a longtime member of the mailing list, he played an active role in the Oekonux debates. In fact, the ideas of Oekonux resonated so well with his own that in 2009 he co-organized the fourth and final Oekonux conference on “Free Software and Beyond: The World of Peer Production” in Manchester, highlighting the affinity between the theories and aspirations of the P2PF and Oekonux. This synergy between the two projects attracted the interest of many people from the network of the P2PF, thereby helping the propagation of Oekonux theories.

Oekonux after 2010

Unlike the P2PF, which evolved into the most important hub for the theory of peer production, Oekonux did not fare well in this decade. For no particular reason, discussion on its mailing lists had dwindled since the end of the 2000s. And so, by 2013, the project was officially over.22 The radical perspective of its work, however, continued to have a strong influence on researchers and activists engaged in the development of the theory, playing a very important role in the development of other activist-research projects, such as the online Journal of Peer Production (JoPP) which released its inaugural issue in 2011.23 The initiative was proposed at the fourth Oekonux conference in 2009 in Manchester by newcomer Mathieu O’Neil, who was inspired by the conference, and was supported by Athina Karatzogianni, Michel Bauwens, George Dafermos, Stefan Merten, Christian Siefkes, and Johan Söderberg (later joined by Nathaniel Tkacz and Maurizio Teli). This group of people had met each other through Oekonux and were, to various degrees, attuned to its theories (O'Neil, 2012a). This was a key event in the propagation of peer production as an object of interest: since 2011 when the inaugural issue came out, no other scientific periodical has featured as many theoretical and empirical investigations of peer production as the JoPP.

In the beginning, the journal was closely associated to Oekonux, with the journal website and mailing list hosted on the Oekonux server.

However, in 2012, “a series of serious disagreements” between lead editor Mathieu O’Neil and Stefan Merten, who administered the Oekonux infrastructure, “about the way the journal should operate” led O’Neil and some core members of the journal’s editorial board to the decision to “fork” the project (O’Neil, 2012b). In the context of this process, the journal ‘migrated’ to a server run by the P2PF and, in parallel, its name was changed from Critical Studies in Peer Production (CSPP) to the Journal of Peer Production (O’Neil, 2012b). This move was received positively for the most part by the rest of the members of the journal’s editorial group, who gave their support to the new project. A few months later, the Journal of Peer Production (JoPP) released its first issue, and the CSPP release was rebranded as JoPP 1.0. Since then, the JoPP has published twelve other issues that span a wide range of subjects related to peer production. What is more, in contrast to traditional academic journals, the project has been organized in accordance with commons-based peer production principles: JoPP articles are freely shareable, and the original submissions and reviews of scientific articles are also made public. Moreover, the JoPP exemplifies a truly democratic and transparent governance model, based on decision-making through dialogue on the project’s publicly archived mailing list, to which anyone can subscribe." (http://peerproduction.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Chapter-07_Prophets-and-Advocates-of-Peer-Production.pdf)

Discussion

Magnus Lawrie:

"Sharing, and the exchange of ideas, then, exist as both the mode and form of the knowledge economy. Freely distributed immaterial forms (services such as software), embody and perpetuate activity in this domain. The economy of intangible forms derives value from ’immaterial labour’. These are the main subjects of inquiry for Oekonux, a German and English mailing list-based project. Oekonux participants theorize about ’germinating forms of the GPL-society’. The marxist-informed discussion aims to learn the lessons of 20th century revolutionary movements. Stefen Merten, a defining voice in this community, explains this work in a paper, ’Milestones on the way to the GPL-society’. He says, that because of the contradiction between mechanization and profit, capitalism has entered a crisis phase from which it cannot recover. A way is now open for a society modelled on the ’special features’ of GNU/Linux (including therefore, the GPL). Oekonux in 2003, sees that society is moving through the series of initialization procedures before it will reach the run-mode of the GPL-society. In this future society, ”...people will be free to arrange their relations to each other and to things consciously and by free decision” (Merten 2003, p.12)." (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)