Peer Producers new site explained

[PHOEBE MOORE]

The Peer Producers Association is a new site created by Alex Rollins to invite project proposals whose members are committed to peer to peer production activities. I plan to upload the much-discussed Framework Project 7 suggestions from the Oekonux conference last week to the site, after a few more elaborations to the document I am working on. Look for this add by Friday, at which point we could take the ideas to the table and start peer-producing, if you will.

This site was launched as a follow-up to the Peer Production track at the Oekonux conference at Manchester University in Spring 2009.

This is not the same as something Athina K has proposed, which is to have a physical location for the Peer to Peer Researchers' Association at Hull University, which can of course be discussed on the site as well if people are interested.

The now-existing site has been created for the purpose of providing the following:

Networking Peer Producers
Furthering research and application in Peer Production and Peer to Peer methods and practices
Refining and publishing the operating tenets of Peer Production

On this site you can:

Create links for the link directory
Create tenets for review and ranking by the community
Learn about events and opportunities within the evolving network

Hope that helps, :-) Phoebe

[athina.k]

More about the P2P research group

The fact that the P2P research group will be located 'administratively' in Hull does not exclude anyone form participating, for instance, just as the fact that the P2P Foundation is based in Amsterdam does not seem to have any ill effects. What will be discussed in November conference is the introduction of democratic procedures for the resources, everyone can contribute equally and air their opinion there, aiming for p2p freedom for the research and publications.

The form created by me, is again to clarify, for collecting a snapshot to map what people are doing, please if you are not interested in that kind of feedback, just send me name and web link/page to your work at [e-mail]

[Michel Bauwens]

sorry for the typos, I am in a rush

[Michel Bauwens]

This may indeed be confusing to people, but as Alex says, there are 2 projects, related but not the same. The peer producers group is an informal group created at Oekonux 4, which aims to aim funding from the EU, and will be governed by consent, and if I understood it correctly, peer vetting of new members (which doesn't preclude any open discussion on these pages). On the other hand, the P2P Research Group is an outgrowth of the 2nd P2P Foundation meet up which has organized in Nottingham in November 2007, where Athina agreed to host the association and find funding for it, but it got delayed until now. This association is open to all, and will be a vehicle not just for FP7 funding, but to profile and network all researchers involved in p2p. It will not be governed by consent, but by formal legal rules pertaining to association on the one hand (for the financial resources), will help members and non-members find financing for research, and help network and publish research.

Athina, perhaps, because I'm out of time, you can publish the points I just sent to Phoebe about the same topic.

Thanks Alex for your engagement in this group, and to Phoebe to have made it real through these pages!!

And thanks Athina for also finally realizing my dream of a formal association,

Michel

[athina.k]

also just to say where i a coming from here, all successful open source was based on one person initially doing some work and others coming in to contribute later.

i am starting things and i want contributions of ideas, but it is faster to get funding and strat off, and then for everyone else to come and build on that.

this is how i see it.
cheers

athina

[athina.k]

hi alex thank you for your contribution to this, very constructive.......

i am looking for an initial mapping of who is interested and who they are, what the wish for, so we can have a platform to work from to discuss things in november face-to-face and create a steering core group to distrubute responsibilities, all peer researchers interested in this are by default included in that process.

About your comment on leadership, autonomy and horizontality are to be treasured, but autonomy does not mean doing 'nothing' and 'no one' as your answers indicate, that is nihilism in my reading of your response, it means responsibility and some form of network organization to avoid power vacuums and cryptohierarchies.

Now, making smart comments seems your specialty and hats off to that, lost of fun, nevertheless, if you are seriously interested in this, I welcome further comments from you in more detail of what you propose instead. Unless having a serious proposal means leading in your book.......

thanks
athina

[Alex Rollin]

Hello, I made my response to Athina's survey here: http://docs.google.com/Edit?docID=afh6g5mdtgt8_490d6x9h8g4

I'd like to see responses from others as well. If you would like to fill out the document in public then please feel free to use a copy of this blank survey here.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=afh6g5mdtgt8_488dxm693cv (Select File->New Copy)
This was...distributed by Athina.

[PHOEBE MOORE]

Why don't you post the document on the Peer Producers Association as well, Athina, then we have a specific place to hold this discussion? That is the intended function of the site, as separate from this particular network site. Thanks.

[athina.k]

Hi Everyone

I hope you got this message form Michel, I am reposting in any caseP2PResearch Group.doc here:

The P2P Foundation in collaboration with the University of Hull are creating a P2PResearch Group (P2PRG) with a physical base in Hull, in order to initiate a material equivalent to the various virtual networks we are all part of. Some of the goals of the group are to attract funding to improve already existent infrastructures, create more material and immaterial networks and hubs and capture funding for research, conferences and workshops. A conference scheduled for November will also produce a direct and transparent steering committee to oversee the various activities of the group. Therefore, it would be particularly helpful, if everyone, who is interested in participating, fills as much information as they can, in the document attached, and email it to Athina at [e-mail] [i uploaded the doc here]

[PHOEBE MOORE]

More than proposals and agreements, I will share my contribution to this activity so far. 1. to suggest possibilities for funding of peer to peer projects, i.e. FP7: the new list of funding categories has not been released so this is something to keep on the backburner for now, though I am also willing to look into other funding sources if people tell me what they need funding for. 2. to meet with group of people at Oekonux to talk about possible collaborations across projects, which is a big interest for FP7 3. to discuss the need for a governance document for anything established from now onwards. In the world of peer to peer software development, contributors usually do this before pursuing collaboration, to avoid misunderstandings of procedure and decide how to manage possible forks. The governance document has been sent as a google doc, have you seen it?

[Franz Nahrada]

Yes, but my question was simply: what was the rage of things proposed and agreed? From Comic book to award....