Commons Collaborative Economies:

Policies, Technologies and City for the People

An encounter which aims to highlight the relevance of the commons-oriented approach of peer production and collaborative economy, while proposing public policies and providing technical guidelines to build platforms for collaborative communities.

Departing diagnostic & direction

In the last two decades we have seen the emergence of Internet-enabled collaborative communities building shared and common resources. Commons-based Peer Production is rapidly growing, not just for the disruptive and very successful cases of software (with free and open software) and encyclopedias (Wikipedia) but also for information (OpenStreetMap, Wikihow), hardware (FabLabs, Open Source Ecology), accommodation (Couchsurfing) and currency (local coins).

More recently, we have also seen the emergence and growth of hybrid models which retain some similar organizational logic, such as being based on collaborative principles, but privatizing others. This is the case in corporate-based peer production such as Uber or Airbnb. Are they truly colaborative economies? This issue opens up a series of debates and opportunities about how to retain the commons and socially transformative dimension in the collaborative economy through the recognition of the distinctive values of these modes of production, beyond value approaches which focus on monetization, and new forms of open/peer/platform cooperativism. However, public debate mainly focuses on the controversies around large corporations entering the collaborative economy. Thus, the public is mostly aware of peer production through these few large corporations. There is a growing need to organize and raise the visibility of the commons and socially-oriented model, and to address which are the conditions that should be present in order to characterise an economy or enterprise as “collaborative”.

Additionally, recent technological developments, such as emergent blockchain technologies, have opened up new avenues of commons production, management and distribution through more decentralized governance structures, which also open up very promising avenues for the evolution of the collaborative economy.

The more important commons-based peer production becomes, the more that controversies emerge, attracting the interest of public administrations. Still, it remains largely unclear what the role of public administrations might be, which Public-Commons partnerships could be established, and what policy approach could be the most productive and beneficial.

GOALS

The event has three main goals:

1. Highlight the relevance of the commons-oriented model within the collaborative economy, and project internationally the relevance of commons – oriented production in Barcelona and Catalonia.  
2. Build policy recommendations for the public administrations, specifically to be sent to the Plan of Municipal Action (PAM) for the next 4 years of the Barcelona City Council, and the consultation process of the European Commission, on public policies of promotion and regulation of the collaborative economy and the model of city.
3. Provide technical guidelines to build free and open software and decentralized technologies for collaborative communities.

The encounter will mix plenaries with unconference / open space working groups to achieve the targeted outcomes. Participants will have the chance to suggest other activities.

PREVIOUS

The event will follow up on the previous workshop FLOSS4P2P, this time expanding the focus to policy. It will provide an opportunity for policy people to interact with the technical teams of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) platforms for commons-based peer production communities, and to get a “deep dive” into how to promote the commons approach to collaborative economy from institutions.

The event has three main goals:

1. Highlight the relevance of the commons-oriented model within the collaborative economy, and project internationally the relevance of commons – oriented production in Barcelona and Catalonia.  
2. Build policy recommendations for public administrations, specifically to be sent to the Plan of Municipal Action (PAM) for the next 4 years of the Barcelona City Council, and the consultation process of the European Commission, on public policies of promotion and regulation of the collaborative economy and the model of city.
3. Provide technical guidelines to build free and open software and decentralized technologies for collaborative communities.

TOPICS

Policy:

• Good experiences and policy recommendations for commons-oriented peer production and collaborative economy
• Cities and commons
• Value and commons-oriented peer production and collaborative economy

Areas of collaborative economy:

• Open knowledge
• Industrial Commons and open design
• Digital DIY
• Internet of Things
• Open Source Hardware
• Peer cooperativism
• Feministing collaborative economy
• Circular Economy

Tech:

• Decentralized technologies and blockchain
• Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) platforms for communities in the collaborative economy
• FLOSS proposals for boosting commons communities participation, growth and resilience (e.g. architectures, reward models)
• Methodologies to integrate stakeholders in the development of platforms for communities (design thinking, agile, lean)
• FLOSS alternatives to “walled gardens” (in communication or collaboration), especially if decentralized