From Exchange to Contributions

Book: Christian Siefkes. From Exchange to Contributions: Generalizing Peer Production into the Physical World. 2007

URL = http://www.peerconomy.org/text/peer-economy.pdf

Introduction

From the author:

The big text I was working on for the last nine months is ready. It is about the question of the potential of peer production — the way free software is produced. We know that this new mode of production is of great importance in regard to free software — success stories like GNU/Linux, Apache or Wikipedia speak for themselves.

However, is this mode of production only relevant for information goods? Or is there a potential for more, maybe a revolution of the entire sphere of production?

The results of my considerations are now published under the title “From Exchange to Contributions: Generalizing Peer Production into the Physical World”. Initially it was intended to be a long article, but due to the complexity of the topic it became a book!

The entire text of the book can be downloaded as a PDF (125 pages). A smaller 2-up version (two pages on one, 62 pages) is also available, on letter or A4 paper.

The text can be modified and copied under the conditions of the Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlike-Licence.

A paperback print shall be released in a few days and will cost 9 euros — recommendable for all, who want to do their eyes, their printer, or simply me a favor:-)

I will be happy about feedback, critics, and inspired debates. If my book leads to a reflection that a post-capitalist economy is no longer as utopian as might seem, then its ends are achieved.

Summary

A new mode of production has emerged in the areas of software and content production. This mode, which is based on sharing and cooperation, has spawned whole mature operating systems such as GNU/Linux as well as innumerable other free software applications; giant knowledge bases such as the Wikipedia; a large free culture movement; and a new, wholly decentralized medium for spreading, analyzing and discussing news and knowledge, the so-called blogosphere.

So far, this new mode of production--peer production--has been limited to certain niches of production, such as information goods. This book discusses whether this limitation is necessary or whether the potential of peer production extends farther. In other words: Is a society possible in which peer production is the primary mode of production? If so, how could such a society be organized?

Is a society possible where production is driven by demand and not by profit? Where there is no need to sell anything and hence no unemployment? Where competition is more a game than a struggle for survival? Where there is no distinction between people with capital and those without? A society where it would be silly to keep your ideas and knowledge secret instead of sharing them; and where scarcity is no longer a precondition of economic success, but a problem to be worked around?

It is, and this book describes how.