[FM Discuss] Muddling the Middleman

[mark]

Hi Michael. This is really interesting.

On 01/02/10 04:19, Michael Mandiberg wrote:
> Having just come out of the Collaborative Futures booksprint, one of the
> things we talked a lot about was setting up terms. We have set up terms.
> The books are GPL/CC-BY-SA, right?  So this is covered. Give
> attribution, share alike, and you are in the clear.

I agree. You're in the clear if you follow the license. The license
tells you exactly what you can do but not what's the best thing to do,
which is what I'm thinking about.

> Regarding whether selling something is DIY... that seems to be one of
> the key components of DIY.

This is where I disagree. The DIY culture that I'm part of is based on
people doing things not for money (unless there's no option), but
because we believe in what we're doing for it's own sake. It's based on
volunteering, gift economies, mutual aid and a desire to make the world
a better place.

> yes, barter is awesome. but
> barter actually takes A LOT of work. i have actually bartered for
> massages before. but, a websites worth of massages is A LOT of massages
> - i was doing 90mins a week for months...  conversely, a printed book's
> worth of massages is prob only 15 minutes of massage time...

I think that you're misunderstanding barter if you've already set a rate
of exchange in your mind. This is actually the point of why barter is
better; the things exchanged have their value judged by the people
concerned, not by "the market" which puts different values on people's
labour according to their social status. This leads towards fewer
opportunities for accumulation, hence less inequality.

> engaging in
> the exchange of capital is a dirty dirty business that we all are
> complicit in, unless we are freegans, or live off the land off the grid
> (in which case we are highly unlikely to have internet access).

There are plenty of people living off-grid accessing the net in all
sorts of ingenious ways. Community wireless networks, shared bandwidth,
recycled computers, sustainable energy - all free to the thoughtful user.

> Lets be
> realistic about this. Free Software and Free Culture is great, but not
> just b/c it is free. Free is easy when things are perfectly reproducible
> at "no cost" to the user, but printed books are not.  And "no cost" is a
> misnomer. How much did you computer cost?  how much is your internet
> connection? who is paying for the bandwidth.  someone is...

The computer I'm typing this on was made from other people's waste that
would otherwise have to be disposed of. The concept of cost is one that
assumes a particular set of morals around ownership - i.e. that
everything is someone's property and must be paid for - there are other
views. Like the view that networks represent a Common.

> and to frame it an entirely different way, i am considering printing a
> run of 100 of the Collaborative Futures books, here in NYC. It is
> senseless for Stephen Kovats to bring them over for the March 4th launch
> here at Eyebeam, and and people want the dead tree version. I want to
> teach it in my class this semester, as does Mushon.

It would certainly be daft to ship some heavy goods that could be
produced locally. Better still, I know that in NYC you have printers who
will do it on recycled paper using biodegradable ink, so you can
minimise the damage you do to the planet further still

> For every person that wlll read the book, 1000 will go to the website. 
> Or maybe more. but the people who want to read the book should not be
> neglected, nor should it be discounted that they are often the
> influencers. The professors. The people that will review the book. The
> people that will really appreciate that they are holding an artifact in
> their hands. An artifact of a process, but a useful artifact nonetheless.

This is a good point. We love artifacts, even if they're out of date as
soon as they're printed. I wouldn't be separated from my vinyl LP
collection for all the Ipods in China. All of the printed material I've
been involved in producing has been given away for free, having been
paid for by donations (gift economy again). I don't know if this is a
realistic option for you, but you should think about it. Are there
people who have some spare cash that would want to help you to make this
happen because they believe in it?

Cheers,
Mark

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