Social p2p
Social peer-to-peer processes are interactions with a peer-to-peer dynamic. In this context, these peers are humans, or avatars of these humans, digital agents, AI.
The concept has inspired new structures and philosophies in many areas of human interaction. P2P human dynamic affords a critical look at current authoritarian and centralized social structures. Peer-to-peer is also a political and social program for those who believe that in many cases, peer-to-peer modes are a preferable option.
P2P is a specific form of relational dynamic, based on the assumed equipotency of its participants, organized through the free cooperation of equals in view of the performance of a common task, for the creation of a common good, with forms of decision making and autonomy that are widely distributed throughout the network.
There are several fundamental aspects of social P2P processes:
- peer governance - production or project is governed by the community of producers themselves, not by market allocation or corporate hierarchy;
- peer property - assets and processes are freely accessible on a universal basis; new modes of property are implemented, which are not exclusive, though recognize individual authorship (ex. commons - GNU General Public License or the Creative Commons licenses, nondominium, etc.).
- peer production - the collaborative production is open to participation (more on openness) and use to the widest possible number (as defined by Yochai Benkler, in his essay Coase's Penguin); (more on commons-based peer production)
Characteristics
P2P processes are not structureless but are characterized by dynamic and changing structures that adapt themselves to phase changes, see also stigmergy. Its rules are not derived from external authority, as in hierarchical systems, but are generated from within. It does not deny ‘authority’, but only fixed forced hierarchy, and therefore accepts authority based on expertise, initiation of the project, etc. P2P may be the first true meritocracy (ex. Bitcoin if governed by miners, in proportion to their computing power). P2P eliminates most, if not all, barriers to entry (see more on permissionless or openness). The threshold for participation is kept as low as possible. Equipotency means that there is no prior formal filtering for participation, but rather that it is the immediate practice of cooperation which determines the expertise and level of participation. Communication is not top-down and based on strictly defined reporting rules, but feedback is systemic, integrated into the protocol of the cooperative system. Techniques of 'participation capture' and other social accounting make automatic cooperation the default scheme of the project. Personal identity becomes partly generated by the contribution to the common project or vernture. P2P characteristics have been studied by Howard Rheingold et al.'s Cooperation Project.
P2P is a network, not a linear or 'pyramidal' hierarchy (though it may have elements of it); it is 'decentralized'; intelligence is not located at any centre, but everywhere within the system. Assumed equipotency means that P2P systems start from the premise that ‘it doesn’t know where the needed resource will be located’, it assumes that ‘everybody’ can collaboarte, and does not use formal rules in advance to determine its participating peers. Participants are expected to self-select the module that corresponds best to their expertise. Equipotency, i.e. the capacity to collaboarte, is verified in the process of cooperation itself. Validation of knowledge, acceptance of processes, are determined by the collective through the use of digital rules which are embedded in the project's basic protocol. Collaboration must be free, not forced. It exists to produce something. It enables the widest possible participation. These are a number of characteristics that we can use to describe P2P systems ‘in general’, and in particular as it emerges in the human lifeworld. Whereas participants in hierarchical systems are subject to the panoptism of the select few who control the vast majority, in P2P systems, participants have access to holoptism, the ability for any participant to see the whole.
Infrastructure
The first requirement to facilitate the emergence of peer-to-peer processes at large scale is the existence of a technological infrastructure that enables distributed access to resources. Individual computers that enable a universal machine capable of executing any logical task are a form of distributed fixed production assets, available at low cost to many producers. The internet, as a point to point network, was specifically designed for participation by the edges (computer users) without the use of obligatory hubs. Although it is not fully in the hands of its participants, the internet is controlled through distributed governance, and outside the complete hegemony of particular private or state actors. The Internet's hierarchical elements, such as the stacked Internet protocol suite and Domain Name System (DNS), do not deter participation. Viral communicators, or meshworks, are a logical extension of the internet. With this methodology, devices create their own networks through the use of excess capacity, bypassing the need for a pre-existing infrastructure. Wireless community networks, Open Spectrum advocacy, file-serving television, and alternative meshwork-based telecommunication infrastructures are exemplary of this trend.
The second requirement is alternative information and communication systems which allow for autonomous communication between cooperating agents. The web (in particular the Writeable Web and the Web 2.0 that is in the process of being established) allows for the universal autonomous production, dissemination, and 'consumption' of written material while the associated podcasting and webcasting developments create an 'alternative information and communication infrastructure' for audio and audiovisual creation. The existence of such an infrastructure enables autonomous content production that may be distributed without the intermediary of the classic publishing and broadcasting media (though new forms of mediation may arise).[6]
The third requirement is the existence of a 'software' infrastructure for autonomous global collaboartion. A growing number of collaborative tools, such as blogs and wikis, embedded in social networking software facilitate the creation of trust and social influence, making it possible to create global groups that can collaboarte without the intermediary of manufacturing or distribution by for-profit enterprises.
The fourth requirement is a legal infrastructure that enables collaboration and protects it from private or public/state appropriation. The General Public License (which prohibits the appropriation of software code), the related Open Source Initiative, and certain versions of the Creative Commons license fulfill this role. They enable the protection of commonons and use viral characteristics to spread. GPL and related material can only be used in projects that in turn put their adapted source code in the public domain.
The fifth requirement is cultural. The diffusion of mass intellectuality, (i.e. the distribution of human intelligence) and associated changes in ways of feeling and being (ontology), ways of knowing (epistemology) and value constellations (axiology) have been instrumental in creating the type of collaborative individualism needed to sustain an ethos which can enable P2P projects.