Definition of peer production (was: Re: [ox-en] Peer-to-peer Electricity and p2p theory [u])
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 08:42:22 +0200
Hi Michael!
2 weeks (18 days) ago Michael Bouwens wrote:
I would like to offer my own definition:
- when do you have peer production?
Am I right when I think that `peer production' is the term you use to
describe modes of production similar to those seen in Free Software?
If so only in Double Free Software or in Single Free Software also?
May be this is a term which could be adopted here.
if the production takes the form of free cooperation
What is a free cooperation? If partners are not forced to cooperate by
alienated/external reasons? So Simple Free Software would not fall in
this category then because cooperation partners are structurally
forced by money.
and has a number of precise characteristics
(holoptism, anti-credentialism, etc..)
Could you please list these characteristics and describe them a bit? I
can not imagine what holoptism means for instance.
with the aim to
achieve maximum participation of equipotential
producers
This is what puzzles me a bit. In Free Software it is usually not the
aim of a project to maximize participation. Often some participation
is seen as useful probably but participation is not an aim in the
sense of an end in itself. I guess we need to be more precise here.
Also I'm somewhat sceptical about the equipotential. It's probably
true that bright contributors are welcomed but on the other hand there
usually is a governance structure where not everybody has the same
rights. Also equipotential only makes sense in an abstract way because
the potential of a web designer can not be compared to a programmer
for instance.
if the production is managed through peer governance,
not through market allocation or corporate hierarchy
Would it be possible to abstract this to something like alienated
forces or may be forces external to the project and its goals?
if the result of the production is universally
available as use value (universal common property) and
it is here that the requirements of free software come
in
Yes.
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
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