I’m interested in whether the things we’ve learned from social media over the last few years can play a role in lessening the hardship of this recession and shaping the world which comes out the other side.

Dougald Hine re-formulated some of his propositions in the context of the weekend demonstrations in London last weekend.

The main aim is to overcome the hard distinctions between employment and unemployment:

“What follows is not a road-map for how social media and collaborative culture can be applied to the recession, but a collection of ideas which have come out of conversations over the last few weeks.

(1) Tools for all, not just the unemployed

This is really a design principle, rather than a specific idea. If, as I’ve suggested, the needs of the unemployed tend to be acute versions of needs that apply to a broader range of people, it should be possible to design tools and services which are open to all, but have particular value to those with more time and less money. If, on the other hand, these are walled off as exclusively for the unemployed, this will reinforce social exclusion. Worse, it will stifle creativity by artificially limiting the range of possible interactions and connections.

(The value of this approach towards open access is something I learned first-hand over several years hanging out at Access Space in Sheffield, the UK’s longest-running internet learning centre. Everyone who uses the space is there because they walked in off the street, and as a (then) BBC journalist, I found myself learning to build my own website alongside guys who in some cases had been on the dole for much of their adult lives, and for whom the space offered a route to starting a business, getting a skilled job, or getting funding for their creative activities.)

(2) User-generated resource maps

At the level of practical and financial needs, being unemployed means losing access to the market as a source of resources. Freecycle and LiftShare have shown how useful the internet can be for connecting people to free resources – and creating social interactions in the real world along the way. An online platform for sharing information about all kinds of free or cheap resources could give people a way to help each other and themselves – and would be useful to anyone looking to reduce their cost of living.

(3) Free internet access for the unemployed?

The government is already preparing a national programme of free computers and broadband access for low income families with school-age children. This recognition of internet access as an essential service for learners should be extended to those who are out of work. Shouldn’t the government pick up the bill for your internet connection while you’re on the dole, to avoid pushing you over the digital divide?

(4) Collaborative spaces in the real world

If we want to soften the distinction between employment and unemployment, one of the most effect means would be the spread of real world spaces which reflect the collaborative values of social media. What I have in mind are places where learning, making, collaborating, hanging out and starting new projects happen alongside one another. Examples already exist:

* Media labs on the model of Access Space or the Brasilian Pontos de Cultura programme, which has applied this approach on a national scale
* Coworking spaces and social media cafes (like London’s Tuttle Club)
* Fab Labs for manufacturing, as already exist from Iceland to Afghanistan
* studio spaces like TenantSpin, the micro-TV station in Liverpool based in a flat in a towerblock – and like many other examples in the world of Community Media

Again, if these spaces are to work, access to them should be open, not restricted to the unemployed. (If, as some are predicting, we see the return of the three day week, the value of spaces like this open to all becomes even more obvious.) In order for this to work, such spaces would need to be organised with the understanding that hanging out can be as valuable as more visibly productive activities – both because of the resilience that comes from building social connections, and because of the potential for information sharing and the sparking of new projects. There would also be a need for incubator spaces for projects that emerge from these spaces and are ready to move to the next level.”