Letter from Lhasa, number 228. (Hancock 2009): Achieving Impossible Things with Free Culture and Commons-Based Enterprise
by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi
Hancock, T., Achieving Impossible Things with Free Culture and Commons-Based Enterprise, Free Software Magazine Press, 2009.
(Hancock 2009).
Terry Hancock
This work is about the paradigm of the common-based enterprise making the impossible possible and making the common-based enterprise competitive with the corporate enterprise paradigm.
“So, not only does free software represent a vast amount of effort, but it is apparently very well-engineered and efficient effort leading to an even higher use value than equivalent proprietary products! Not only can free software manage large, complex projects, but it appears to do it better than proprietary methods.” (Hancock 2009, p. 17).
Wikipedia is not inferior to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and it is accessible in a lot of different languages. Wikipedia is certainly more flexible because errors and mistakes can be rapidly fixed. Project Gutenberg is a growing reality, although if one wants recently published books one have to exploit the pirate area.
Free art and music...
“In 2002, Larry Lessig founded the Creative Commons (CC) to solve artistic licensing problems with a modular system of licenses designed to accommodate the needs of creators of "creative" — or more accurately, "aesthetic" — works. Since then, the mission of the Creative Commons has been to simplify the existing network of use cases by defining a finite set of license modules, and then combining those into generally useful licenses for all kinds of media.” (Hancock 2009, p. 33-34).
The http://www.blender.org and its free program permit sophisticated #D animations.
Open hardware, cars included...
“Although it is clear that open hardware has some special challenges, real projects succeed at overcoming them, and open hardware is clearly a growing phenomenon. The strongest areas have understandably been in the area of computer hardware, but there's no fundamental limit to what can be created by commons-based communities using free-licensed hardware designs. The same bazaar development rules apply to hardware as for software: both provide a smoother environment for collaboration on truly innovative designs.” (Hancock 2009, p. 69).
All that, and further projects, makes possible closing the digital divide.
A new paradigm...
“I've presented the empirical case for debunking six major myths on which our existing model of "intellectual property" and our existing belief that free development can only be a niche phenomenon are based:
“• "Free development is only adequate for small scale projects"
“• "Commons-based projects can't possibly compete with what corporations can do"
“• "The service model limits free production to utilitarian, not aesthetic, works (so it can't work for art or music)"
“• "Sometimes projects have to have money, and commons-based projects can't raise it"
“• "Free development only works for pure information projects — so it can't work for hardware"
“• "There simply aren't enough willing developers to do free development, and it only helps a tiny, privileged few"
“Or, to invert, I've presented the empirical case for six "impossibilities" produced by peer production, in defiance of prior economic theory:
“•Massive information products can be built using commons-based production
“• In many cases, these products are larger than comparable corporate- or government-backed enterprises
“•There is essentially no area of human endeavor that is off-limits to peer production, including software, science, technology, and art
“•There are proven methods for peer communities to raise capital when it is needed
“• Even for material production, design data can be developed by commons-based enterprises
“• Already, peer production communities are large and powerful, but they are likely to increase by an order of magnitude in the coming decade, certainly by mid-century as the technology is made available to more and more people (a project which is important to many free culture proponents)
“Now what? If we've crossed into the looking glass world where these six impossible things can be proven possible, then what shall we have for breakfast? Clearly we are looking at a new paradigm, but the next problem is to understand how that paradigm works and how best to make use of it.”
(Hancock 2009, p. 83-84).
What now follow is a long series of useful advices and hypothesis for finding one’s own way inside this free and communitarian world while contributing to it.
Hancock, T., Achieving Impossible Things with Free Culture and Commons-Based Enterprise, Free Software Magazine Press, 2009.
