<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><META name="Author" content="Novell GroupWise WebAccess"></head><body style='font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; '>Hi All,<br><div>Below is the abstract of an article of mine that is published in the current issue of Capital & Class. </div><br><div>All the best</div><div>Jakob</div><div><br><div>Peer production and</div><div>Marxian communism:</div><div>Contours of a new</div><div>emerging mode of</div><div>production</div><br><div>Jakob Rigi</div><div>Central European University, Budapest</div><br><div>Abstract</div><div>This article argues that communism is currently emerging as a new mode of</div><div>production, namely, peer production (PP), which produces commons instead of</div><div>commodity. In PP, producers produce commons through voluntary participation</div><div>in distributed network-based communities of production. Each volunteer chooses</div><div>the tasks she performs, the amount of time she devotes to the collective production,</div><div>and the place and time of her productive activity. In terms of distribution, the</div><div>digital commons are available for free on the net. The rights to relatively scarce</div><div>commons are still emerging, but they might be relatively restrictive compared with</div><div>rights to digital commons. Analysing this new mode of production, the article</div><div>attempts to show why and how it can replace capitalism.</div><div>Keywords</div><div>Peer production, PP, knowledge, Marxian communism, 3D printing, social</div><div>struggle</div></div><br><div><br><div><br><br>>>> Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at> 08/21/13 1:19 PM >>><br>To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World<br>September 25, 2013<br>02:00pm-04:00pm<br>Room A7.03, Harrow Campus, University of Westminster, Communication and <br>Media Research Institute (CAMRI), Northwick Park tube station <br>(Metropolitan Line)<br>Full information:<br>http://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/a-z/camri/seminars/camri-seminar-calendar/2013/to-the-cloud-big-data-in-a-turbulent-world<br><br>Opening talk of this autumn’s CAMRI Research Seminar Series <br>(announcement of further dates/events will follow)<br><br>Participation<br>Participation is free and everyone is welcome. Please register at latest <br>until 22 September by sending an email to Christian Fuchs: <br>christian.fuchs@uti.at.<br><br>Abstract<br>This presentation offers an account of the political, economic, social <br>and cultural issues emerging from the growth of cloud computing. It <br>starts by situating cloud computing as a major force in the <br>globalisation of informational capitalism and in the advance of a <br>particular way of knowing, what I call digital positivism. It proceeds <br>to examine the origins of cloud computing in the movements that arose in <br>the pre-internet era to create an information utility.<br>The presentation then defines cloud computing, describes its major <br>characteristics, and identifies the leading corporate, and government <br>cloud players. In doing so, it describes the battles for market power <br>among a handful of companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, <br>Facebook, and Rackspace, the rapid and, for some, worrisome, expansion <br>of the government cloud, the internationalisation of cloud computing, <br>and the emergence of bottom-up community cloud projects.<br>Next, it considers how the cloud is being marketed and mythologised <br>through advertising, social media, corporate and government research, <br>industry lobbying, and marketing events. Massive promotion is essential <br>because dark clouds are gathering over the industry including the <br>environmental problems created by data centres; concerns over privacy, <br>security, and surveillance; and labour issues, particularly the impact <br>on IT departments, and more generally on knowledge workers whose jobs <br>are threatened by the cloud. The presentation concludes by offering a <br>technical and a cultural critique of big data, digital positivism, and <br>the cloud’s “way of knowing.”<br><br>Biography<br>Dr Vincent Mosco is Professor Emeritus, Queen's University, Canada. He <br>is formerly Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society and <br>Professor of Sociology. He is author of many works, including The <br>Political Economy of Communication, second edition (Sage, 2009), The <br>Laboring of Communication: Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite <br>(co-authored with Catherine McKercher, Lexington Books, 2008), and The <br>Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2004).<br><br><br>-- <br>Christian Fuchs<br>Professor of Social Media<br>University of Westminster,<br>Communication and Media Research Institute<br>http://fuchs.uti.at, http://www.triple-c.at<br>@fuchschristian<br>+44 (0) 20 7911 5000 ext 67380<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Discussion mailing list<br>Discussion@lists.icts-and-society.net<br>http://lists.icts-and-society.net/listinfo.cgi/discussion-icts-and-society.net<br><br></div></body></html>