[ICTs-and-Society] Sustainable Internet Communities as alternative to the capitalist Internet and capitalist ICTs?

[Louis Suárez-Potts]

A quick reply just prior to my going off to make a plebe dinner :-)



On 20 January 2012 02:28, Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at> wrote:
> ICTs and society in times of capitalism and capitalist crisis pose a lot of
> interest questions.

It's a mistake to think of it in terms of yet another late capitalist
machination. It's not about capitalism. It's more about neoliberalism
and its analogues, which obtain as much for non-capitalistic
interventions as for, as in each case the tactic is to create a
bounded market and determined ecosystem, and effectively limit
alterity.

So my point is not to be hostile to capitalism or wield the branding
iron so freely but to emphasize the importance of a community (or
commons) logic and logistics. There are practical differences here.
Capitalism is often mistakenly identified with the market, and it's
not that. And further, the anti-capitalism options are often
identified with anti-property and anti-individuality, when, again,
that's not the desire or logical claim at stake.

My interest is actually in ensuring that any sustainable comment
effort be open to making a business of its work: that this element,
that what it does can have a monetisable or some other identifiable
value. ("Some other" could simply be that the members of a given
community doing X are valued and given a sort of community credit for
their work: Eg, proofreading legal documents is actually a necessary
thing, though it's perfectly awful work--and one could earn academic
points, say, as part payment for the work, if one were so interested.)

A *non*sustainable community is one that predicates its existence on
the kindness of strangers: on altruism and by and large coercive
morality. That really doesn't work, or if it does work, it does so for
a generation or so, and that, to me, is non-sustainable. What does
work is a participatory community of peers working together because
they desire to, and the community breeds desire, as it is fun to be
there and those there are envied; and the work done has value both
because of its glamour (like the Apple products) and because of  their
use or exchange value to and for the community.

cheers,
Louis