Blog Archives

Collaboration is key for changing the light bulb

Posted on 10/03/2016 by Open Thoughts — No Comments ↓

By Diego Isabel, founder, Global Hub for the Common Good.

A social entrepreneur and change-maker, as he defines himself, Diego Isabel sees in the light bulb question a metaphor about the possibility to change a system, the economy, towards a model more centred in the common good. According to him, it’s not going to be easy: there is the need of engaging a diverse amount of peers, and we must achieve a higher degree of collaboration among public and private organisations. Check the short video below for Isabel’s complete reflections on the topic. His contribution was possible in collaboration with the Ouishare Fest Barcelona event.

Tagged with: change, collaboration, common good, companies, economy, peers, policy-making, politicians
Posted in Open Thoughts 2014

Peer power for the advancement of science

Posted on 25/02/2016 by Open Thoughts — No Comments ↓

By Daniel Lombraña, founder and CEO of Scifabric.

In order to change the light bulb we would need more than 30.000 peers actually. All over the world. But let me start from the beginning. Two years ago a PhD student contacted me at a hackathon because he had an idea about how to study and fight light pollution from space.

His idea was incredible: re-using all the photographs taken by astronauts from the International Space Station using only the ones that portrayed cities at night. The problem? All the photos are in archives where there is no order, tag, or search function. In other words, looking only for pictures of cities at night was almost impossible because they were stored mixed together with pictures of cities at day, selfies, the ISS, stars, aurora borealis, the moon, etc.

Tagged with: Alejandro Sánchez, Cities at Night, Crowdcrafting.org, crowdsourcing, hackathon, ISS, light bulb, light pollution, NASA, peer science production, peers, photo archives, photographs, pictures
Posted in Open Thoughts 2014

One white middle-class man

Posted on 10/02/2016 by Open Thoughts — No Comments ↓

By Mayo Fuster, researcher, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3-UOC).

Head of the P2PValue project and faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Mayo Fuster relies on recent data to support her reflections on the main question of this blog. According to her, peer production has still issues to address — for instance, it is not coping very well with gender equity —, but above all the success of the model, which now encompasses more than 30 areas of activity, relies on its increased efficiency. Get Fuster’s complete reflections on the topic in the short video below. Her contribution was recorded at the Ouishare Fest Barcelona event.

Tagged with: activity, collaboration, commons, efficiency, free software, market, P2PValue, peer production, Sourceforge, Wikipedia
Posted in Open Thoughts 2014

Blockchain technology: a new (r)evolution in the digital economy

Posted on 27/01/2016 by Open Thoughts — 1 Comment ↓

By Primavera De Filippi, researcher, Centre d’Études et de Recherches de Science Administrative, CNRS-Université Paris II.

Remember the world, back in the 90’s? Before the Internet had invaded pretty much every aspect of our lives? It was back then quite difficult — if not impossible — to foresee that one day, not too far away, people would be able to communicate directly with one another, that they would be able to broadcast themselves to the world and interact in a peer-to-peer fashion, bypassing most of the intermediaries of that time.

This marked the beginning of a new paradigm shift in the way people communicate — the beginning of a digital revolution characterised by a process of decentralization and disintermediation. With the Internet, traditional media operators, such as publishers and broadcasters, have been progressively displaced by a more distributed network of players, relying on emerging information and communication technologies in order to provide new opportunities for people to receive and impart information.

Providing new sources of trust

Posted on 12/01/2016 by Open Thoughts — No Comments ↓

By Javier Creus, founder of Ideas for Change and Pentagrowth.

An entrepreneur and specialist in collaborative economy, Javier Creus believes it takes more than one to change the light bulb, but gathering around one thousand peers working collaboratively might be enough to achieve a lot of things. According to him, organisations based in peer-to-peer alternatives can lead to new sources of trust and augmented resilience, but they eventually may have to deal with the complexity rise and effort sustaining over time. Watch the short video below to get his complete reflections on the topic. This contribution was possible thanks to the kind collaboration of the Ouishare Fest Barcelona event.

Tagged with: complexity, Goteo, Guifi.net, openness, organization, p2p, peer-to-peer, peers, trust, Wikipedia
Posted in Open Thoughts 2014

Open enterprises: towards a new economic pattern

Posted on 02/12/2015 by Open Thoughts — No Comments ↓

By Marcin Jakubowski, founder and executive director, Open Source Ecology.

Eighty five equals three point five billion. This is a troubling equation representing that 85 of the world’s richest people own as much wealth as the 3.5 billion of the world’s poorest.

The potential of the open economic development paradigm lies in addressing this equation. The opportunity is the next trillion dollar economy: the open source economy.