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A grassroots campaign is taking off against the proposed privatization and commodification of one of Greece’s last-remaining utopias: its coastline.
In May 2011, hundreds of thousands of Greeks swarmed into Syntagma Square in Athens to protest against the firesale of their country, their labor rights and their livelihoods to corrupt domestic elites and foreign financial interests.
The water Commons in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, are under threat (an older post about here). Needless to say that in time of crisis such an enclosure of a common good is a common practice. A recent text by Theodoros Karyotis, a member of the Initiative 136 for social control of Thessaloniki’s water services, gives a thought-provoking summary of the current situation, the social movements and some recent related developments:
The next Open Coffee Athens is a special one: April Rinne, Chief Strategy Officer at Collaborative Lab is giving a keynote on the global and local Sharing Economy – also starring leading Sharing Economy startups like Airbnb, Cookisto, Dopios, Easybike, Incrediblue and Locish on March 28, 2014 at 7 pm.
This article deals with the phenomenon of hackerspaces and sheds light on the relationship of their underlying values, organizational structures and productive processes to those of the online communities of Commons-based peer production projects. While hackerspaces adopt hybrid modes of governance, this paper attempts to identify patterns, trends and theory that can frame their production and governance mechanisms. Using a diverse amount of literature and case studies, it is argued that, in many cases, hackerspaces exemplify several aspects of peer production projects’ principles and governance mechanisms.
"In their search for solutions, Greeks are tinkering with a new kind of economy with little precedent in modern Europe. The collapse of the Greek economy is challenging not only the survival of Greeks, but also some of the basic mechanisms of capitalism in a nation where the economy has shrunk by about 25 percent since 2008.
‘If representative democracy is only to choose every four, or five, or six years the person who’s going to do everything they want without taking popular will into account... we are in a sort of trap and I think that’s certainly the case today for Europe and elsewhere.’
Nature World News Greek economic crisis leads to air pollution crisis Science Daily (press release) Dec.
This essay narrates, from a creator-observation perspective, the production of two works of fiction, a book of short stories and a play, based on the principles and technologies of Commons-based peer production (CBPP). This is potentially interesting from both the CBPP and the literary perspective. Even though both seem well-matched by their prima facie lack of profit orientation, CBPP case studies rarely deal with fiction, and regarding plays, artistic creativity is still mostly associated with one, maybe two. After tracing and analysing the CBPP phenomenon, the case studies show concretely the fate of the specific projects as well as how, nowadays, people can involve in collaborative artistic projects inspired and catalysed by Commons-oriented principles and technologies.
This essay set out to show, through the case of the RepRap-based, Lego-built 3D printing-milling machine, two points: First, on a theoretical level, that modularity, not only in terms of development process but also of hardware components, can catalyze CBPP’s replication for tangible products enabling social experimentation, learning and innovation. Second, that the synergy of a globally accessible knowledge Commons as well as of the CBPP practices with digital fabrication technologies, which are advancing and becoming more and more accessible, can arguably offer the ability to think globally and produce locally.
Through the case of the RepRap-based, Lego-built three-dimensional (3D) printing-milling machine, this paper sets out to discuss and illustrate two points: First, on a theoretical level, that modularity, not only in terms of development process but also of hardware components, can catalyze Commons-based peer production’s (CBPP) replication for tangible products enabling social experimentation and learning. Second, the hybrid 3D printing-milling machine demonstrates the digitization of material and the potential of digital fabrication. We show how the synergy of a globally accessible knowledge Commons as well as of the CBPP practices with digital fabrication technologies, which are advancing and becoming more and more accessible, can arguably offer the ability to think globally and produce locally.
A list of P2P Lab collaborators' publications in international peer-reviewed journals, starting from 2013:
"The International Conference “Innovative, Open and Economically Sustainable Models of Creative Production”, organised by the National Documentation Centre (EKT) on September 30 and October 1 2013, is designed in order to examine and present emerging models of creative production in Greece, as they develop within the wider context of the European tendencies and developments in the field of cultural and creative industries. This international and public event will bring together representatives of contemporary practices, where research and applied innovation, culture and science, creativity and entrepreneurship meet.
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Greece. A country in deep crisis. The promise of the Commons seems to embody the hopes and dreams of a multitude in search of an alternative, sustainable future. For the past few years, we have been witnessing a surge of Commons-fuelled activity: Projects, workshops and festivals explicitly focused on Commons-oriented ideas and practices are taking place throughout Greece.
For a country suffering from economic devastation and political upheaval, Greece is not accustomed to bursts of optimism. But last weekend provided a showcase of hopeful, practical solutiions at the second annual CommonsFest, held in Heraklion on the island of Crete. The festival brought together a dazzling array of commons and peer production communities: hackers, open knowledge advocates, practitioners of open design, hardware and manufacturing, open health innovators, sustainable farming experts, among many others.
Thessaloniki is a lively sprawling metropolis located in the north of Greece. As with the rest of the country, it is affected by increasing unemployment and poverty, a result of the government's Troika-dictated policies, which have driven the economy into a deep recession.
I recently spoke with Tasos Pagakis, a colleague in our Mediterranean regional division, about some interesting findings in a study of the Greek market. Tasos is passionate about the potential of technology to unite, engage and empower whole societies especially in his home country of Greece, so I asked him to write a guest blog about the research findings.
Businesses tired of dealing with bureaucrats and failing corporations are relying on volunteer networks to provide cheaper goods and to sell directly to customers.
A comparative study of the press coverage of the Indignados and Aganaktismenoi in the Spanish and Greek press illustrates a favourable coverage of the movement.
Paper: The Crisis and the Emergence of Communal Experiments in Greece. By Nicholas Anastasopoulos. ICSA2013 Conference Proceedings: Communal Pathways to Sustainable Living .
This essay narrates, from a creator-observation perspective, the production of two works of fiction, a book of short stories and a play, based on the principles and technologies of Commons-based peer production (CBPP). This is potentially interesting from both the CBPP and the literary perspective. Even though both seem well-matched by their prima facie lack of profit orientation, CBPP case studies rarely deal with fiction, and regarding plays, artistic creativity is still mostly associated with one, maybe two. After tracing and analysing the CBPP phenomenon, the case studies show concretely the fate of the specific projects as well as how, nowadays, people can involve in collaborative artistic projects inspired and catalysed by Commons-oriented principles and technologies.
The historical building of Riga Palamidi 2 of Embros was built in 1933 and till 1985 housed the printing facilities of EMBROS newspaper. In 1988 the Public Real Estate Corporation leased the building to the theatre director Tassos Bantis.
This essay narrates, from a creator-observation perspective, the production of two works of fiction, a book of short stories and a play, based on the principles and technologies of Commons-based peer production (CBPP). This is potentially interesting from both the CBPP and the literary perspective. Even though both seem well-matched by their prima facie lack of profit orientation, CBPP case studies rarely deal with fiction, and regarding plays, artistic creativity is still mostly associated with one, maybe two. After tracing and analysing the CBPP phenomenon, the case studies show concretely the fate of the specific projects as well as how, nowadays, people can involve in collaborative artistic projects inspired and catalysed by Commons-oriented principles and technologies.
This research project attempts to examine to what extent the technological capabilities of open source 3D printing could serve as a means of learning and communication. The learning theory of constructionism is used as a theoretical framework in creating an experimental educational scenario focused on 3D design and printing. In this paper, we document our experience and discuss our findings from a three-month project run in two high schools in Ioannina, Greece. 33 students were tasked to collaboratively design and produce, with the aid of an open source 3D printer and a 3D design platform, creative artifacts. Most of these artifacts carry messages in the Braille language. Our next goal, which defined this project's context, is to send the products to blind children inaugurating a novel way of communication and collaboration amongst blind and non-blind students. Our experience, so far, is positive arguing that 3D printing and design can electrify various literacies and creative capacities of children in accordance with the spirit of the interconnected, information-based world.
Groups of friends are pooling money, and resulting profits, to run coffee houses. Employees have purchased a popular radio station and are now running it as a co-operative. There are impromptu farmers' markets. All over, people are being forced by circumstance (and disgust at a failed system) to venture into what is, for Greece, unchartered territory.
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