The selection of the designers was made by members of the local community, informed by the following criteria:

• Does the solution fit with the values and principles of small-scale farming systems?
• Is the solution developed according to expressed user needs?
• Is the solution easily reproduced and adaptable?

The selected designers who will lead the manufacturing of 4 prototypes during the workshop are:

• Andrè Rocha, Adjunct Professor at ESELx-IPL and a senior product and interaction designer.
• Aurèle Macé, Assistant Researcher in the Sony CSL Sustainability team with a focus on open-source robotic systems.
• Iason Pantazis, Architect and co-founder of Fab Lab Ioannina.
• Lakis Ioannou, Maker and beekeeper.

We wish to thank all applicants for their contributions. The workshop will take place from June 5 to June 9 at our rural makerspace “Tzoumakers” in Kalentzi, NW Greece. It will be open for everyone so we hope you join us!

This event is organised in the context of the Distributed Design Market Platform Creative Europe project.

The post Open source agriculture workshop: Announcing the results of the Open Call for Ideas appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Announcing Popping Bubbles workshop series and our first online Open Space event, part 2 (part 1, part 3)

REconomy practitioners is virtual community of practice (CoP) of and for regenerative entrepreneurs and community organisers. We care about planetary health and regeneration.

We are all over the world.

We do stuff where we live, and we connect translocally, transnationally and globally to benefit from peer-to-peer support, social learning and coordinated action. We do that primarily virtually, travelling to meet only when really necessary or when possible (most of the time we don’t have budgets to travel anyway, and if we would have that we would prefer to spend the money for something more useful). That’s also one more way to reduce our personal carbon footprint — we like to make that point to ourselves and others.

After emerging as transnationally distributed project team within Transition movement (in 2013, our timeline is shared here) we recently kicked off our own transition towards self-organised community of practice. To keep being useful for our members and the Earth we NOW need to do two things: we need to move on with the process of commoning and we need to do some good ol’ bootstrapping to finance our 2019 activities.

What do I mean by commoning?

Some of us understand commoning as something obvious and natural, and some of us are still rather confused about how this is done in business, or in our virtual community of practice. Recent TEDxTalk by Samantha Slade, co-founder of Percolab, might clarify some practicalities.

In our context commoning is this: whatever is done in our virtual community of practice belongs to humanity and life on Earth as a whole. It does not belong to any of us individually or to any of legal entities we are associated with. We are evolving our virtual community of practice as digital commons, in a way — because online platforms and tools we use are not commons, our network is —but that is so only if we keep having conversations that build our relationships of learning and action.

Now… whatever we do is created by somebody’s individual or by team contributions, and facilitating virtual community of practice requires quite a lot of skills and time, both with backend and frontend tasks (above the line, below the line — use whatever jargon works for you). The simple truth is: to achieve anything meaningful in the context of our work (planet Earth ecosystem regeneration during times of climate tragedy, remember?) a coordinated, sustained, daily team effort is needed. To move forward we need to create and fund this team (myself included). Monthly budget of €1,250 seems to be good starting point and we don’t want chicken or egg situation: once funds are in place, we move on. Some grants or awards for what we do might manifest eventually, but we are not in a position to rely on that. As self-organised and high-trust network for systemic change we better rely on ourselves.

And we are quite good at bootstrapping 

Bootstrapping is native to REconomy approach — as it really is for every true entrepreneur. Different languages have different words for that (anybody knows what stands for bootsrapping in French or Swedish?).

REconomy enterprises are normally community-led and often started with community-only support (which is not exactly the same as crowdsourcing, because community is not a crowd, and not exactly the same as tripple F financing because no fools are involved and everything is very deliberate). There is evolving practice among REconomy practitioners of convening Local Entrepreneur Forums where Community of Dragons is looking into ways to support new regenerative enterprises locally. We now need to replicate that for our virtual community of practice, using a medium that enables transnational collaboration — fiat currency (Euro in our case), here:

If what I wrote above makes sense, here is my invitation to you:

• visit our Open Collective page and set up your recurring monthly donation: to reach our bootstrapping budget of €15,000 per year we need 250 monthly donations of €5 or more; you can start supporting REconomy commons personally or as an organisation (there are other ways to contribute, of course, but what we need now is regular monthly income)
• if you have not done that already, join REconomy practitioners on online platform of your choice and meet with us on video soon, see here. Our video calls are meant to be shared experience that we don’t record (we don’t want to make a “content” to be “consumed” later… normally never). Next three REconomy online events are scheduled: for 25 October with Beatrice Ungard, for 15 November with Alanna Irving and for 6 December 2018 with Daniel Christian Wahl. I hope to meet you there.
• Join us on Thursday, 15 November 2018 at 9am GMT / 10:00 CET / 5pm SGT / 10pm NZDT for 2-hour online workshop on Full Circle Leadership with Alanna Irving. Attending our video conferences is the best way to connect and meet with REconomistas and Transitioners worldwide.

Photo by N1NJ4

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The P2P Lab is happy to announce the launch of

“The cultiMake project: Crowdsourcing open source agricultural solutions”,

celebrating the gathering of designers, makers and farmers who are adapting to the digitised world.

Where: Habibi.Works, Ioannina (Greece)

When: From Monday, July 30th to Friday, August 3rd.

Currently, the P2P Lab aims to create awareness and promote an emerging collaborative productive model of agriculture, based on the conjunction of commons-based peer production with desktop manufacturing. Agriculture is a key activity in the peripheral and less-developed regions of the EU and a crucial productive sector. It is a field in which ready-to-apply open source hardware and software solutions have already been produced and, thus, can be implemented and improved. Considering the fragmentation of the existing abundant open source projects in relation to agriculture, the replication, sharing and improvement of solutions is hindered.

To facilitate interaction and create feedback loops among makers, designers and farmers, the P2P Lab is organising this 5-day event in Ioannina (Greece). The event will be hosted at Habibi.Works, a makerspace for asylum seekers and Greek locals in Katsikas (Ioannina), managed by the German NGO Soup and Socks e.V. Since 2016, Habibi.Works is operating eight workshop areas which serve as platforms for mutual education, empowerment and encounter.

The main aim is to familiarise the local community with open source technologies developed within the EU and, ideally, connect hubs (e.g. Fab Labs) that provide technical infrastructures for development. This may create a network of open source software/hardware communities and local farmers that overcome barriers through knowledge diffusion and collaboration for their mutual benefit.

During the workshop, four solutions related to agriculture will be manufactured. After publishing an open call and receiving several applications, the local community selected the following designers to lead the manufacturing of the prototypes:

• André Rocha, Adjunct Professor at ESELx – IPL and a Senior Product and Interaction designer.
• Angelos Pappas, Software developer and activist.
• Jonathan Minchin, Coordinator of the Green Fab Lab at Valldaura Labs, IAAC Campus in Barcelona.
• Trifonas Papaioannou, Maker and beekeeper.

The selection of the designers was informed by the following criteria:

• Does the solution create value for small-scale farmers and society?
• Does the solution express empathy to user needs?
• Is the solution visionary and paves the way for others?

The workshop will be open for everyone so we hope you join us there.

For queries, you may contact us at research@p2pfoundation.net

This event is organised in the context of the Distributed Design Market Platform Creative Europe project.

Organised by

Supported by

Photo by efou222

The post cultiMake: Crowdsourcing open source agricultural solutions [Open Event] appeared first on P2P Foundation.

The selection of the designers was made by members of the local community, informed by the following criteria:

• Does the solution create value for small-scale farmers and society?
• Does the solution express empathy to user needs?
• Is the solution visionary and paves the way for others?

The selected designers who will lead the manufacturing of 4 prototypes during the workshop are:

• André Rocha, Adjunct Professor at ESELx – IPL and a Senior Product and Interaction designer.
• Angelos Pappas, Software developer and activist.
• Jonathan Minchin, Coordinator of the Green Fab Lab at Valldaura Labs, IAAC Campus in Barcelona.
• Trifonas Papaioannou, Maker and beekeeper.

We wish to thank all applicants for their contributions. The workshop will take place from July 30 to August 03 at Habibi.Works. It will be open for everyone so we hope you join us there.

We firmly believe in the power of collective creativity.

The post CultiMake: Announcing the Results of the Open Call for Ideas appeared first on P2P Foundation.

It is such a crucial time in human history. It feels as if we are capable of transforming our world, and at the same time we are at the edge of the abyss. In my analysis, governance is at the heart of the great challenges we face – whether or not our societies can protect and create that which we mutually depend on for our survival and wellbeing, our multifaceted commons. We are at a crossroads. Will we live in a world of oligarchs, where antiquated systems, monied interests, elites and corruption undermine our capacity for wise and effective social navigation? Or will the aspirations for distributed, participatory and contributory decision-making create a world of deep democracy and transparency where citizens have real lateral power in forging equitable and sustainable pathways?

Some of my initial ideas on this were put together in this book chapter on the Futures of Governance. Overtime with others I’ve begun to formulate some more general ideas for how governance works across commoning activities, such as through a recent paper co-authored with Michel Bauwens on an Ecology of the Commons.

This is a shared journey and an ongoing exploration for all of us in this movement. Together with Dr. Michelle Maloney, founder of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance and the New Economy Network Australia (NENA), we have developed this one day course called “Transforming Governance for People and Planet” as both an introduction to thinking about the futures of governance and democracy, and as an opportunity to work on synthesis. How do we make sense of the many contexts, threads, innovations in a way that can provide orientation and empowerment in terms of how we see ourselves, individually and collectively, as agents of change?

So in the course we will explore the outline of shifts taking place from a global perspective, current challenges, and the many new innovations, experiments and pathways that are harbingers of change. From the community meeting to the office and work environment, to our local municipal, state and federal systems, and to the global system, we know the context has shifted and the stage has been set for dramatic changes. We will ask the question to participants, at what scale and where do we want to play? The course will provide an overview of the big trends in governance and provide ways in which participants can consider how they want to participate and shape the future. The course intents to bring forth ideas for transforming governance in plain language, with strategies that anyone can use to empower themselves and their communities.

This workshop will present and explore:

• the idea of the “commons” as a framework for rethinking governance;
• how the commons framework provides answers to the critical challenges we face in areas such as: resource management, ecological protection / rights of nature, addressing oligarchy, protecting digital / knowledge commons, humanising and democratising our work and community life, etc;
• an overview of critical historical shifts that bring into relief the great transitions we are experiencing in the early 21st century;
• examples from around the world that demonstrate transformations in governance, and which point to new futures – the many new innovations, experiments and pathways that are emerging around the world in response to our challenges;
• a deep questioning of when our democracies protect and build the commons, and when they undermine them, and what strategies we might take as societies to ensure healthy democracies that protect and build our commons.

Specific topics that will be covered include:

• bioregional governance
• commons governance
• workplace democracy and decentralised decision making
• liquid democracy (and other e-democracy systems)
• rights of nature / Earth jurisprudence
• urban collaborative governance
• peer to peer / digital commons governance
• participatory and contributory democracy
• overcoming the challenges of oligarchy / plutocracy
• global / planetary governance
• anticipatory governance

The workshop will be run as a mix of presentations, audio-visual content, interactive discussions, games and self-guided reflection.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have a general understanding of the big shifts and issues in governance, and the ways in which they can participate in our great transitions and in shaping the future.

For those interested in registering info is HERE

* Several scholarships are available for students and others who wish to attend. Contact us for details.

For more information: Jose Ramos – jose@actionforesight.net

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP PRESENTERS

• Dr. Jose Ramos, writer, futurist and director of Action Foresight, brings over 15 years’ experience writing about cultural, political and economic change and designing, teaching and facilitating courses on social change, strategic foresight, commons governance and socio-political transformation.
• Dr Michelle Maloney, lawyer and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) has been working for 25 years at the intersection of ecological and social justice, and is passionate about building Earth centred law, governance and ethics.

The post Transforming Governance for People and Planet appeared first on P2P Foundation.

This call was originally published here.

Photo by blavandmaster

The post Tutoring design students to create urban havens in the city of Ghent appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Introduction

After Bitcoin forked, and remains in tatters, it is now blockchain technology that ignites visions of de-regulated and decentralized organization, all the while it is simultaneously being sanitized by commercial banks. Meanwhile the sharing and “service” economy lost its innocuous veneer and streaming services have failed and continue to fold the music industry. Despite the escalation of crowd-funding into crowd-equity and platform co-operatives, artists and designers struggle to financially support themselves. Meanwhile, the financial mediators of the previous centuries continue to drag themselves onward into global debt.

We are failing better, nonetheless. Worker’s unions are on the rise and numerous collectives are working together to collectively insure their own wellbeing and build alternative models of social governance. The aspirations of grassroots organizations such as Diem25, that promise to liberate social democracy from the stronghold of global finance, are gaining momentum across Europe. People’s parties such as Podemos and 15M even neared an electoral majority. This momentum has thrust radical economic alternatives into the central stage and governments around Europe have begun experimenting with progressive policies such as a living working wage and a universal basic income.

The search for economic forms of governance in the service of the commons remains urgent. Issues of trust, scale, distribution and ownership remain at the core of developing alternative models of economic exchange and governance and need to be addressed. Let’s prefabricate a perfect storm of untimely thinking and experimental engineering in order to interfere directly into hard-core social and economic issues.

Program

Session 1: Global Finance: Failing Better?

Beyond the culture of celebs, what comes after Ewald Engelen, Thomas Piketty, Yanis Varoufakis and David Graeber? How can we build bridges between economists and their critique of global finance, neo-liberal policies, financialization, shrinking middle classes and the ever-growing gap between rich and poor? Can we address the gap between the best selling financial book of the year and grass-roots social resistance?

‘Global Finance: Failing Better?’ addresses the need for a multitude of critical strategies that go beyond analysis and step up the game into action. As scores of citizens amass in public squares as part of Nuit Debout or campaign for political reform with people’s parties such as Podemos or the Five Star Movement, will the original underlying critique against global finance retain its sense of urgency? How has popular economic critique propelled or even overshot its evaluation of the financial crisis? Can popular economic literature engage directly with the current social movements to become, more than just a conversation piece, but a potential manual to reroute the austerity economy.

Session 2: Big Pocket is Watching You!

The explosion of new forms of alternate currencies and the persistent refusal to do away with physical cash indicates growing public concern over the way in which electronic monetary exchange enables large scale data surveillance. In a world without cash, every payment becomes traceable, allowing for unprecedented amounts of data to be collected on citizens. As more and more shops and retailers in large cities reject cash in favor of electronic money, important issues regarding privacy, data and surveillance become central to the future of money. These concerns echo wider debates around data and surveillance – the Apple vs. FBI backdoor encryption case has highlighted the mounting tensions between commercial and governmental data surveillance. The financial upheaval and internal reconfiguration of monetary transaction provides an optimum moment to discuss the future of money and digital banking.

What alternatives to electronic money can prevent citizen surveillance and inspire radical visions of the future of money?

Session 3: The Music Industry: The Last Dance?

The music industry is still in repair after the initial disruption of digital downloads and streaming sites in the mid 1990s. Traditional rights management laws continue to restrict the creation, distribution and profitability of music. In addition to this, public performances are now monetized with the use of audio recognition technology in music venues, turning bars, clubs and festivals into sites of data-based economic revenue for major publishers and labels.

How does this play in the ever-growing festival and club scene? What is the vision for a global industry that now relies on counting streaming playbacks and selling hand-made band t-shirts? Can the outcry for alternatives be met with distribution platforms that disrupt the dominant players and reach larger audiences? And how is the club scene itself being affected by the ongoing real-estate boom in the metropolitan areas, usually seen as the birthplace of new music currents?

Session 4: When Art Mirrors Marx

Artists are vital to de-constructing how finance and economics have affected our collective imagination, and to re-imagine alternatives. Artists have been monitoring, tracking and intervening into finance to provide new insights and potential escape routes. Moneylab#3 invites artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to present research, experiments and interventions into finance.

‘When Art Mirrors Marx’ presents a selection of artists that invert and disassemble the intrinsic value of art to re-imagine the scope of artistic production and distribution. We present works that reflect on the endemic characteristics of the 21st-century economy, and that initiate alternative value systems, from designing stock trading algorithms, to occupying private banks to eating and digesting of pages from ‘Das Kapital.’ What happens when life imitates finance art? Can artists’ investigations into finance create viable alternatives for the masses?

Session 5: Whose Commons?

‘Whose Commons’ is a timely examination of the commons as ideological battleground. Amidst a fresh wave of digital initiatives that focus on shared collective resources, that range from car-pooling to collective farming, the sharing and social support upheld within the commons has spilled into commercial ventures that see the virtue of the commons as the essence to a better future. As the values of the commons are incorporated, manipulated and brandished by both business models and co-operatives alike, how should we reflect on and manage our relationship to the often-idealized notion of the commons? As businesses and co-operations increasingly advance towards de-centralized, p-2-p business models what are the core values associated with the commons that we want to retain and permeate into wider social movements?

For further information please contact max@networkcultures.org”

Originally published here.

Photo by grace_kat

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18th April 2016
Conference at 9.00–13.30
Workshops (by invitation only) at 15.00–17.00
Venue: Italian Chamber of Deputies, Palazzo Montecitorio, Sala del mappamondo, Piazza di Monte Citorio, 33 Rome, Italy

“Organised on the 18th of April 2016, in Rome, Italy, the Network democracy and new forms of citizen participation event will gather politicians, activists, researchers and academics, civil society organizations, developers and hackers to discuss the future of direct democracy and citizen participation.

It will explore innovative methods and digital tools to strengthen large scale citizen participation in the political process at European level. We will also debate public policies at the municipal, national and European level to transform democratic participation and promote transparency to fight corruption and concentration of power within public institutions.

The debate starts from the assumption that our political institutions are in dire need of being updated as they are out of sync with 21st century technologies, standards and collective aspirations of citizenship. Democratic institutions have not been able to respond and adapt to new instances of participation, transparency and proximity brought by big grassroots democratic movements. This is well represented by the emergence of new citizen-led political movements that are challenging the institutional landscape as Podemos and M5S and that are bringing the question of radical democracy and transparency at the core of the political debate.

The crisis of political representation and legitimacy of existing institutions, the ongoing corruption scandals that reveal the complicity of the major political parties with the private interest of banks and multinationals, and the disaffection of the public with respect to politics can be transformed by formulating new democratic practices that transfer power to the people and use new technology to revolutionize democracy.

The event is bi-lingual with simultaneous translation from English to Italian.”

More details about this event can be found here.

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