Re: [ox-en] Re: Importance of price
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:46:04 +0100
Hi Michael!
Last week (8 days ago) Michael Bauwens wrote:
If you get specific payment for peer production, then it is no
longer peer production, this is not just 'some' danger, but actually
fatal (though of course it can be free software as property format)
Thanks for being so clear :-) . I indeed thought about whether peer
production relates *only* to doubly Free Software. If I read you
correctly you would say so.
A macro-solution is the provision of a generalized nonconditional
income which allows peer production to occur
Yes. (Though I'd say it's purely theoretical for a couple of reasons.)
Microsolution is companies hiring peer producers but paying them
unconditionally, so that peer production can occur
That is what happening to some of the most visible Free Software
producers. Alan Cox - one of the very well-known Linux kernel hackers
- said this years ago when he was paid by RedHat.
This is also what is happening in cases where companies accept that
their employees work for Free Software projects which are not part of
the core business of that company but nonetheless useful.
Infrastructure software of any kind is a good example of this. I know
that MoinMoin has been developed partly on such a base.
However, I don't know whether this type of support can be generalized
somehow. In software it is rather common that you have a separation
between business projects and other projects.
Companies can also provide 'benefit-sharing' to support the 'general
infrastructure' of the commons on which they depend.
I'm not sure whether I understand 100% what you mean by
benefit-sharing but I could imagine that (commercial) Linux
distributors for instance did this for a rather long time.
Grüße
Stefan
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de