Can we also learn something about the politics of this new mode of value creation, something that would be useful not just for these particular communities, but to society in general? Is there perhaps a new model of power and democracy co-evolving out of these new social practices, that may be an answer to the contemporary crisis of democracy? My answer will be an emphatic yes, and stronger yet, I will argue that we are witnessing a new model for the state. A 'P2P' state, if you will.

This year, the crop of books on Peer-to-Peer related themes has been so overwhelming that I find it impossible to limit myself to the classic list of just ten books. I therefore have organized the list as a series of 10 clustered themes.

We mistakenly think nature is infinite, and that scarcity should be a source of profit. We need to combine a recognition of the real scarcity of physical goods with the real abundance of immaterial goods to generate a new and sustainable civilization based on peer to peer principles.

Open content encourages participatory social design and new alliances between technology and traditional practices toward a steady-state economy that can bypass the destructive practices of industrial-era modernism.