P2P lecture in Champaign, ILLINOIS: Part of the P2P OBAMA TOUR 2008

[Michel Bauwens]

(please note I'll be in chicago 16 to 20, and in New York 22-23 November as well)


THEME: Network Civilization:Peer-to-Peer and the Rise of Green Capitalism


Via Daniel Araya, daniel AT levelsixmedia.com, co-organizer of the p2p obama tour 2008

Thanks for forwarding to US friends,



Global Studies in Education

On-Campus Seminar Series

Network Civilization:Peer-to-Peer and

the Rise of Green Capitalism

Friday, November 21

12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

College of Education, Room 42 A

Michel Bauwens

Michel Bauwens 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 ananalyst for the United States Information Agency,knowledge manager for British Petroleum,eBusiness Strategy Manager for Belgacom, as wellas 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). He currently lives with his family in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Abstract

Just as the three quarters of oil engineers now agree that Peak Oil is in sight within the next decade (after that, oil production can only decline), can we also posit that we may have reached a moment of Peak Hierarchy, a moment in history in which it is no longer large centralized organizations that are most efficient or productive, but rather those that are organized as distributed networks and can draw on peer producing communities?

This is the thesis explored by the P2PFoundation, a global network of researchers investigating the emergence of peer production, governance and property, showing how this new 'hyperproductive' mode of producing value is out-competing and out-collaborating traditional organizations. Such a change will have huge implications for society, business, and education. The election victory of Barack Obama, and his program of green capitalism, opens up, because it cannot succeed without huge strides in participation, the possibility of a 'high road' transition towards a peer to peer society, based on the voluntary aggregation of productive communities united around the creation of common value.

How would our society function, if Linux and Wikipedia were not just emergent, but the model of a new type of institutions residing in the core of our economy and politics?

Global Studies in Education Seminar Series

The Global Studies in Education Seminar Series is intended to provide opportunities for informal presentations of master and doctoral students’ work in their own area of interest related to globalization and education issues. Since these seminars purport to discuss work in progress, a chance for peer feedback will be possible for each presenter. The series will be held each week on Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in the College of Education Bldg. 1310 S. 6thSt., Champaign, IL.

This seminar is sponsored by the Global Studies in Education On-Campus Program. Please contact Gabriela Walker ([e-mail]) if you would like to present your work or be on the mailing list. (If you received this announcement through one of the list-servs, then you are on the mailing list.If you received this announcement as a forward from a friend, then please let me know if you want to keep receiving updates about the GSE seminar series.)