[Open Design + Hardware] Infrastructuring the Commons

Fri Nov 8 06:48:48 UTC 2013

Hi all, 

I attended such an interesting seminar yesterday in our university: 
Infrastructuring the Commons, organized by ARKI research group in MediaLab (Aalto Uni). 

See 
co-p2p.mlog.taik.fi/2013/10/07/charlotte-hess-on-crafting-new-commons/
and 
www.facebook.com/events/169643733237618

It was livestreamed so presumably the webcast should be available - though I can't find the link now on Bambuser. (If you're interested, remind me later and I'll check it.) 
If I had thought of it earlier I could have posted the livestream link. Next time!

I finally met Anna Seravalli there too after all these email exchanges! Hope you had a pleasant trip back to Mälmö, Anna! 

There were a few things that I found important to remember - things I think we all know but sometimes they seem to get lost in the discussion - in our need to promote certain values that are marginalized in the dominant paradigm. 
In our workshop session on Cultural Commons, for example, we were discussing the keywords OPEN and COMMONS - and I was reminded that 'open' is more complex and nuanced than just always open for everyone all the time. Open for whom and when? P2P communities are still opt-in communities, members make a conscious choice to join, and we don't ALWAYS need to lower the threshold for entry. 
Tied in with that was the point a friend keeps emphasizing to me - that participatory processes do not need to mean that professional judgment, robust evaluation and quality need to go out the window.  

Finally, also in our workshop session, we were talking about the differences between two significant types of commons as described by Charlotte Hess in her presentation: 
Global Commons (natural resources) 		Knowledge Commons
-depletable								-generative, regenerative
--> scarcity								--> abundance

… and because we were especially talking about material culture related issues, Erling asked if we can actually consider a practice as contributing to a 'cultural commons' or knowledge commons if it clearly threatens environmental sustainability and the 'global commons'.

Food for thought for the weekend. 

Cheers
Cindy in Helsinki 