Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Strong claims have been made for such developments in terms of
their capacity to offer new forms of cultural and social organization
and subjectivity. A good example of such claims can be found on
the website of the P2P Foundation, founded by Michael Bauwens
with the aim of 'researching, documenting and promoting peer to
peer practices'.
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It 'proposes to be a meeting place for those who can
broadly agree with the certain propositions', which include the
claim 'that technology reflects a change of consciousness towards
participation, and in turn strengthens it'. Bauwens suggests that
'peer to peer relations . . . is a new form of political organizing and
subjectivity, and an alternative for the political/economic order,
which . . . points the way to a variety of dialogical and self-organizing
formats' and 'ushers in a era of 'nonrepresentational democracy',
where an increasing number of people are able to manage their
social and productive life through the use of a variety of auto-
nomous and interdependent networks and peer circles'. Bauwens
also invokes the idea of an 'information commons' and the need
for 'fundamental changes in the intellectual property regime', which
he finds 'reflected in new forms such as the free software move-
ment', whose principles provide for 'models that could be used in
other areas of social and productive life'. By such means Bauwens
wishes to reconnect 'with the older traditions and attempts for a
more cooperative social order, but this time obviates the need for
authoritarianism and centralization'. He suggest that peer to peer
technology has 'the potential of showing that the new egalitarian
digital culture is connected to the older traditions of cooperation
among workers and peasants and to the search for an engaged and
meaningful life as expressed in one's work, which becomes an
expression of individual and collective creativity, rather than as a
salaried means of survival'.
Whether the utopian visions of either Bauwens or those involved
with Wikipedia, FLOSS and Creative Commons are widely shared by
many users of new media is a moot point. For example the social
