P2P Foundation: Social Innovation
January 1st, 2007P2P Foundation posted some thoughts similar to my earlier post.
Michel Bauwens lays out three scenarios for social innovation:
- Allow some user innovation to externalize costs (Dell, Ikea)
- Profit off a platform for cooperation and user-created content (Amazon, Ebay)
- “Autonomous Product” minus the corporation (Wikipedia)
The third group, the only one that means a significant change from status quo, will sometimes use a corporation but it will likely be non-profit and serve a different purpose than the other two:
The role of the corporation in this environment is significantly different. Peer production groups often used the legal format of non-profit foundations, so-called ‘for-benefit’ organizations, to manage those parts of their production process which needs capital (usually a core team and some technical infrasctructure consisting of servers etc…).
He identifies three crucial processes for the third type of production:
- The raw material for its production must be freely available…
He does not list it explicitly, but I would assume this includes free and open access to networks and communication infrastructure. - Paradigm of participation
His example: the “principles of equipotentiality and anti-credentialism” - Avoiding the private appropriation of the common effort.
He indicates that this involves using legal means to secure the “Commons” for the public domain.
The processes he says are “cyclical,” and it is easy for me to see that the first two points are crucial to building the popular force to secure these democratic institutions (the third process).