On stewardship of P2P Facebook Groups
David Potocnik for Michel Bauwens
As posted:
1) on the P2P/Commons politics and policy group →here (2020-09-12)
2) on Twitter, here
3) on the P2P Left group → here
4) on the main P2P group → here (2020-09-13)
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[#meta #governance] I will be brief.
Michel Bauwens I believe the relevance, diversity, and congeniality of the P2P groups which you are administering has again reached a low-point. The current and deteriorating situation with you as a BDFL ("benevolent dictator for life", in free software terms) comes short of the "P2P" title.
I am inviting solutions but accuse you in calm
[↓1] of, in combination with your position of power per your de facto autocracy (you are the sole administrator), [↓2] your commonly toxic and divisive red-pilled posts are continuously purging people by attrition
[↓3] of not recognizing (neither problematising - especially in a P2P group) that it is irresponsible and dishonorable for an admin to keep a mandate without clear consensus
[↓4] of not recognizing the groups are in trouble, seeking an ends-oriented conversation about resolving this
I speak only for myself, but invite support. That said I recognize a significant fraction of a historic P2P unity had already deserted this space. I again invite lurkers to express, as well, but [↓5] representation is lost and not just every emboldened howling wolf, but also the administrator as a protector of decency, must recognize that.
At this point I am challenging you personally Michel Bauwens to [↓6] acknowledge that the group & indeed the term "P2P" - both as a field of research and practice, and its presence and reputation in the public sphere - has been built as a collaborative undertaking and is a commons!
Following from that: [↓3B] Your special peerage is not natural, all in your position should seek a mandate for stewardship. To say nothing of its effects, the current autocratic governance model of the groups is ill-fitting with conceptual P2P.
(Frankly, this is a lost scholarly and practical opportunity as well, and should be considered as pitiful).
As you are an indisputable P2P scholar and the current administrator, I invite you to [↓7] break the current situation, and trigger a constructive and continuous process of reconfiguring the P2P forums, involving & extending to appropriate stakeholders, considering & adopting appropriate processes. Whatever the outcomes, ensure a mandate for the legitimacy of the stewardship is sought in P2P manner.
Finally I assume we agree that though immediate changes can and need to be made inside this environment, [↓8] there can be no true P2P sociality within Facebook Groups (whatever that could be). I am aware of sporadic lively debates on this, but also of evident lack of effective leadership to bring it to action. This needs to change too - immediately with a sustained collaborative work and experimentation, and in mid-term with a full migration away from this rabidly non-P2P space.
TLDR: I propose you need to acknowledge you are not consensually recognized as benevolent anymore, resign to a transitional role, and help peers figure it out. Thank you and please by all means keep participating as a peer.
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Related further reads:
* https://p2p-left.gitlab.io/statement/ P2P Left Statement - Dissasociation from Michel Bauwens and P2P Foundation: March 2021
* https://c4ss.org/content/52344 (Kevin Carson/C4SS ~ 2019-08-19)
* https://gist.github.com/wolfhesse/ae607b5cd7d140dd445150fca590a470
* https://roarmag.org/essays/peer-to-peer-bauwens-kostakis/
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