Achtung – fällt aus!

Vortrag von Michel Bauwens „From Open Business Models to a Commons-Orientated Economy“ am Dienstag, 05.07.2011, um 18 Uhr im Seminarraum der Medienwissenschaft E2.339

Commons-based peer production, as the generalization of the free software mode of production identified by Yochai Benkler, has steadily moved from open knowledge and software, to shared design practices that directly impact material production. In this process, a institutional solidification has been created that offers a template for "open business models", that are slowly eating their way in the world of commerce. But the implications of this powerful trend, now responsible for 1/6th of U.S. GDP, are also increasingly social and political, as they question the traditional mechanisms of for-profit companies and point to various alternative models. Hence, in a conjuncture in which the neoliberal model seems to fail more and more people peer production becomes a political topic, a call for a different political economy.

Michel Bauwens (Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives – Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam) is an active writer, researcher and conference speaker on the subject of technology, culture and business innovation. He is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. He has been an analyst for the United States Information Agency, knowledge manager for British Petroleum, eBusiness Strategy Manager for Belgacom, as well as an internet entrepreneur in his home country of Belgium. He has co-produced the 3-hour TV documentary Technocalyps with Frank Theys, and co-edited the two-volume book on anthropology of digital society with Salvino Salvaggio. Michel is currently Primavera Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and external expert at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (2008). Michel currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand, assisting Richard Hames with the development of the Asian Foresight Institute. In Thailand, he has taught at Payap University, CMU, and Dhurakij Pandit University's International College. He is a founding member of the Commons Strategies Group.