Book: RedVolution: El poder del ciudadano conectado. Empodera.org

This book contains both Spanish and English-language essays and interviews.

This is the text we contributed, based on an email interview.

Interview with Michel Bauwens

Tell us a little about you

I’m the founder of the P2P Foundation, a global research collaborative on the collaborative economy and especially, peer production, governance and property, i.e. anything that is related to peer to peer dynamics and the commons as the modality of creating value, through the mutualization of either knowledge or tangible resources. Our motto’s are, ‘together we know everything’, ‘together we have everything’… We create a knowledge commons on the topic, have a nonprofit foundation to manage and fund our infrastructure where possible (p2pfoundation.net), and a p2p coop to found ourselves as individuals. Our coop is modeled as a phyle, a community-oriented enterprise, which sustains our engagement with our commons1. I live in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, with my Thai wife, 2 children and an extended family, which includes 24 cats and five different altars (buddhist, ganesh, protective spirits, forefathers, and more), even though I’m guided a secular spirituality myself.

What is empowerment for you?

We honour the principle of equipotentiality, i.e. to design social systems that harmonize individual and collective interest, and let anyone contribute to the commons of their choice, and make a living from it. There is always something in which you are better than another person, and which you can most usefully contribute to a common project which creates value for humanity. I believe that self-actualisation always has a ‘horizontal’ component, it’s not something that you do on our own, but in alignment with others. Each of us can realize ourselves through our connection with others, and the best way is to follow the emergent self-unfolding of a person who has to freedom of his own pursuits, yet can find a collective context in which this pursuit is a gift to others.

Continue reading “Michel Bauwens: Interview on Empowering Citizens with ICT”

Phi Beta Iota:  Peer to Peer (P2P) is the foundation for Panarchy, and Open Source Everything is the method.  P2P includes one to many and many to one as well as ever-changing mixtures of grids of interest and influence.  Above all it is about the primacy of the individual over the institution.

As of 2 July 2012:

2012

April 2012

1. Bernard Lietaer and Stephen Belgin. New Money for a New World. 2012
2. Law of the Ecological Commons David Bollier.
3. Faith of the Faithless. Simon Critchley, How Politics is Rooted in the Spiritual
4. Occupy World Street
5. Raúl Zibechi. Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces. AK Press, 2010.
6. After the Future
7. Sharing for Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society. Feasta, 2012
8. Networks Without a Cause, A Critique of Social Media. by Geert Lovink. Polity Press, 2012
9. Doing Good Things Better. Brian Martin. Irene Publishing, 2011
10. Future Learning Spaces
11. Richard Sennett. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation. Yale University Press, 2012.
12. Foundations of a Love Economy
13. Networked: The New Social Operating System
14. The End of Leadership

May 2012

1. Digital Public Domain
2. Ethics for the Information Age (5th Edition)
3. Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think
4. Digital Vertigo
5. Misunderstanding the Internet
6. Open Source Intelligence in a Networked World. by Anthony Olcott
7. The Neighborhood in the Internet: Design Research Projects in Community Informatics

 

1. Cloud Time
2. Green Governance, Human Rights, and the Commons

June 2012

1. Towards Peer Production in Public Services
2. Occupy This
3. Case for Copyright Reform
4. Money and Sustainability
5. Life Changing
6. Occupy Consciousness: Essays on the Global Insurrection. Evolver, 2012. [1]
7. Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems. Byh John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. Basic Books, 2012
8. Promise of Regional Currencies
9. Divine Right of Capital
10. Zapotec Science
11. Economic Democracy in the Network Century
12. Redvolution, see also the excerpts

To Do:

1. Open-Source Everything Manifesto
2. Media Ecosystem
3. Intention Economy, only: [2]
4. The Organic Internet. May First / People Link. [3]
5. Paul Mason's “Why it’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions” (Verso)
6. Energy and the Wealth of Nations
7. Emergent Ownership Revolution
8. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy

NOT READY

1. Carta de los Comunes – Not enought english material
2. Getting Results from Crowds – Not enought material
3. Theft Law in the Information Age – Not yet published
4. From Goods to a Good Life – Not yet published