Atmospherics from the FLOW P2P Workshop in Cape Town on 11 June 2015

John Ziniades, one of the co-organizers with Anna Cowen, writes:

On Thursday 11 June, Flow Africa hosted a conversation with Michel Bauwens in Cape Town, founder of the P2P Foundation and a leading theorist, writer, researcher and activist around the Commons, Peer Production, Copyfair, Cooperative economics, Distributed manufacture, and the Sharing and Collaborative Economy. The FLOW team first shared the work they have been doing to Foster Local Well-being in both the Bergrivier Region, Western Cape and Kokstad, KwaZulu Natal followed by a brief introduction into the Bergrivier region and its challenges by the municipal manager, Hanlie Linde. Michel then took the room on a mind-expanding journey through P2P and the Commons.

In the afternoon, participants explored how the Bergrivier Municipality, businesses in the region and civil society could partner in new ways, to co-create “commons” assets and opportunities, and address their most pressing social and environmental challenges in the region.

Deep gratitude to Michel for his insights, gift of pattern recognition, and overall generosity of being. Local was “baie lekker” as the workshop participants were treated to freshly braaied Snoek en Patat, kindly sponsored by the Bergrivier Municipality, and prepared by the “Snoek en Patat” team from Goedverwacht. Also grateful to the various table hosts who helped us dive deeper into specific topic areas – education (Louise van Rhyn), local currency (Tim Jenkin and Will Ruddick), food Leonie Joubert and Florian Kroll), water (Shannon Royden-Turner), energy Piet Bacela Bosman), communication (Marion Walton), transportation (Kirsten Wilkins). Thank you also to Steven Harris at the Design Bank, for his impeccable hosting in his venue – “The Bank” and to Irma Wilson and Lorenzo Fioramonti, for their foresight in bringing Michel to South Africa.

This short Youtube clip of the day made by Dominique Vandenhoudt gives you a brief taste of the day.

Watch the video here:

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