FLOK

FLOK Society is a highly ambitious project in Ecuador, to create a peer-2-peer society.

FLOK, Free Libre Open Knowledge, an Open Commons based society, the opposite of privatised knowledge, protected by patents and copyright.

Intellectual property rights, patents, copyright, stiffles innovation. If knowledge is shared, we accelerate innovation.

It is the users who create the value of facebook, with no users, we have an empty walled garden, with no value. But even though users happily create the content, and do so freely, it is facebook that capitalises on that value.

It is not only facebook, TripAdvisor would have no value, were it not for the reviewers, who freely contribute their reviews.

A corporate platform captures the value of the contributors.

Crowd working, the users bid down the value of their labour, it is a race to the bottom. In US now down to $2 per hour (way below the minimum wage).

Uber operates outside the regulated sector, wages of taxi drivers driven down, Uber creams off the profits.

Bandcamp, the site facilitates sharing, users can download content and pay contributors if they wish.

Facebook, there is interaction between users, the information content created by their interaction is creamed off and sold by facebook.

With bandcamp there is interaction, the site facilitates interaction, but it also facilitates a mechanism for creators of content to be paid, with bandcamp taking a small cut for the service it provides.

Value is created in the commons.

Open Source Software, people freely create and contribute, no one is forced to, all benefit from Open Source Software which is freely shared, ie it is placed in the digital commons.

To stop global corporations from draining the commons, we would have to have a licence, whereby contributors to the common can freely share and benefit, but those doing so for profit, would have to pay. Global corporations can also innovate and contribute there is though the danger, they innovate for their own narrow benefit, for example to maximise market share, rather than for societal need.

• Co-ops – sharing – commons

Tags: commons, Ecuador, FLOK, FLOK Society, Free Libre Open Knowledge, Michel Bauwens, Open Commons, peer-2-peer society