The creation of ‘immaterial value’ is co-dependent and can co-exist with the sphere of material value creation by Michel Bauwens |
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Immaterial production deals with non-rival or even anti-rival goods that can be produced through the self-assemblage of interconnected brains, the result of which can then be made ‘universally available’. This works without any problem for software and what is generally called ‘content’.
But, what about immaterial value that is intrinsically interconnected to physical products, which are often ‘rival’ and in any case need systematic cost-recovery mechanisms? Any physical production of course has design aspects which can be produced through peer production, i.e. through open design communities that make their innovations universally accessible, just as software or content is.
But where as non-rival production is compatible with the non-reciprocal mode of peer production (i.e. voluntary participation), this will usually not be the case for physical production, and therefore, at this stage, reciprocal or market-based mechanisms are needed. Of course, it is theoretically possible to assume that material goods be produced and used according to ‘communist’ principle, but I believe this is not the order of the day in the short term, and perhaps not even in the long term, because of our newfound sensitivity to the limitations of our natural world.
We therefore need to imagine mechanisms that combine:
1) non-reciprocal peer production of designs for immaterial production
2) a separate system for physical production that relies, cooperates and supports open design communities
Eric von Hippel has already described the emergence of such processes of built-only capitalism in his book, Democratizing Innovation and the P2P Foundation monitors this emergence closely as well.
The relation between such corporate entities, and the open design communities could be ideally modeled on the benefit-sharing practices that are characteristic of businesses operating around the Linux commons. Better yet, we can imagine different formal governance models for such entities, such as cooperatives.
We are now at the phase of emergence of peer production, and even more so at the level of open design communities, but nevertheless, this is the key issue of social transformation. Any transformation to the dominance of a dual format that combines open design communities with a more just and equitable format for physical production will be depending, not just on political and social struggles and the social balance of power, but also on a number of objective trends. We believe that the same trends which have led to the distribution of computer power, are starting to manifest themselves as a general characteristic of the means of production. We believe that economies of scale will be replaced by economies of scope through the hyper-productivity of the collective learning derivative of open design communities. Just as the cost of energy and raw materials may be expected to rise, so may the cost of capital goods be expected to diminish dramatically in the coming decades, giving rise to the development of cheaper and modular production machinery, that can co-exist with both globalized coordination and relocalized production.
This will mean that the self-assemblage of immaterial resources can be matched by self-assemblage of physical production resources, but nevertheless, at this stage, we see a dual regime as inevitable because of the issues of cost-recovery in the physical sphere.
It is important to consider the mutual interdependence of the immaterial and material spheres of production, not only in a hypothetical future of reorganization of the mode of production, but today, through the already existing interplay between peer production and capitalism.
Peer production is a mode of voluntary contribution that is dependent on the existing surplus of the current political economy. It is only viable because the current system has created sufficient interstices where people can operate outside of the commodity and wage logic, but only as an ‘aspect of their lives’.
But the opposite is just as true: innovation is becoming increasingly social, a function of the general intellect, an emergent property of the networks of cooperation in which most of us (and not just in western countries) are increasingly inserted. This means that capitalism is increasingly dependent on the value creation and innovation that are the positive externalities of social cooperation
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I’ve talked with Eric von Hippel at my old school MIT a number of times about lead-user (and now Democratic)innovation, making the point that he and others only study manufacturing industries and physical goods. In fact, I believe, lead-user innovation is much more prevalent with experiences! But no one is studying that.
Democratic and/or distributed innovation is beginning to be discussed in the museum/library sector here in Australia. A couple of years ago we had a go at developing design methods to produce cultural interactive experiences. It turned out to be interesting exercise in how instituions regard design processes.
I’m interested in how you see the authenticity arguement that you pose in your most recent book connect with the types of cultural experiences that are being created in museums/libraries. It would seem that this space draws together the ‘real’ with the design and innovation issues in an unprecedented way.
I’ve written a post on our blog if you’re interested http://nlablog.wordpress.com
Thank you for your posting Michel. It is both thought-provoking and timely. I wonder whether part of the issue stems with the process by which design is taught, ie: object/service focused, discipline specific. When we begin to discuss design processes using notions of distributed innovation, design educators (at least here in Australia) really do falter. The connection between designing experiences and new innovation systems are also unclear at the moment. The creative industries paradigm which is what we work within pays little regard to design in the first instance, let alone the ability to extend demand-side experiences into an economic innovation model. I’ll keep searching for research partners on this side of the world who have the foresight to understand the implications of the work that your research program undertakes!
Thanks for both comments.
Angelino: Are you aware of the work by Enzo Mancini, in for you far away Turin. So far it seems to me that he is one of the design teachers who really gets it … He might have contacts in Australia?
Question to Joe: would you have any refererence to co-designing experiences? I must admit it’s also a weak spot in my own research, but see http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Design for many examples of co-design and co-creation.
Michel