Blog Posting #3
Are there certain products or services that just CAN NOT be generated with Commons-Based Peer Production methodologies? Why or why not?
Commons-Based Peer Production is a networked environment that incorporates social media. This new mode of production disperses decision-making, is collaborative, and is in the public domain so anyone can produce or distribute the product or service. This type of production is based on sharing resources, among individuals that may or may not be connected. Open source, is an approach to software development that depends on many individuals contributing to a common project who share their respective contributions without any single person owning the rights to the project or controlling the project. Examples of common based peer productions that have been highly successful include:
- Linux, a computer operating system
- Slashdot, a news and announcements website
- Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia
- Distributed Proofreaders, which proof reads public domain etexts for publication on Project Gutenberg
- SETI@home, a project which searches for extra terrestrial life
- Kuro5hin, a discussion site for technology and culture
- Clickworkers, a citizen science program
- Sourceforge, a software development organization
- RepRap Project, a project to create an open-source self-copying 3D printer.
- Pirate Bay, a shared index of bittorrents (under legal scrutiny in Sweden as of February 2009)
- OpenStreetMap, a free map of the world
- Appropedia, a project for development of Open Source Appropriate Technology
- Open Source Ecology, an agricultural technology development group
- WikiChains, a project to describe the commodity chains of everyday products
- OLPCO2e.org
- OpenCommunityCamp.org
While Common based peer productions are great for sharing information I cannot see how it would be successful in physical products as they have to have a manufacturer and someone to invest money in the creation.
There is a separation between the immaterial and material world.
For any immaterial project, as long as there is a general infrastructure for the cooperation, and open and free input by anyone that wishes to contribute, then an immaterial product can be created and shared.
To produce a physical products in the material world, there are the inevitable production costs needed to create the products, and there also needs to be cost recovery. The products are in possession of one individual, they are more difficult to share, and also, once they are used up, they have to be replenished.
Because of this essential difference, we can see that the same process cannot be used for both aspects of the production of immaterial and material products.
Bazzano, D. (2009, March 6). How peer production and the economic p2p model can subvert the world of physical production. Retrieved from http://www.blogger.com/goog_1110331174
Cristie, J. (2010). Social media and the economy. Retrieved from https://connect.mycampus.ca/webct/urw/lc4130011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
Wikipedia. (2010). Commons-based peer production. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons-based_peer_production
