For all those interested in a new economy that’s cooperative, networked and commons-based, here’s the videos from Open: 2020 (Reinvented)
Very delighted to receive news of the full set of edited video-sessions from Open: Coop 2020, the third Open: event we’ve covered on A/UK - and of course entirely online over a few days last June, given the prevailing pandemic.
Our co-initiator Indra Adnan spoke at the opening plenary (see embed below) - but the rest of the videos are a fascinating overview of a sector really trying to get into the nitty-gritty of establishing a new economy, both digitally and organisationally.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 Introduction June 18, 2020
How can we enable small groups to form, exchange ideas, define shared purposes, to collaborate effectively, and trade – within a global network of like-minded commons building initiatives?
We also hear updates from Indra Adnan of the Alternative UK and Francesca Pick of Greaterthan, Cobudget, Ouishare and Enspiral as part of our work to connect the dots and encourage greater collaboration and coordination throughout the decentralised network of commons building initiatives.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – The language of the commons June 19, 2020
On Day two we met again to discuss a new working group dedicated to the creation and maintenance of a long-term signposting resource to help us coordinate our work on the ‘new’ or ‘regenerative’ economy.
This work involves explaining more clearly what we mean by terms like ‘regenerative’, and connecting them with other concepts and resources, to make up what’s known as an ‘ontology’.
We intend to link into the wealth of pre-existing online resources and map the key relationships between the terms we include.
We want to create a continually-evolving, commonly-owned and jargon-minimal overview of the language describing the building blocks of a better economy for people and planet.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – Introducing mutual credit June 20, 2020
How can we enable local mutual credit networks and transition away from the present ‘debt based’ economy and start trading within networks of trust?
This introductory session on mutual credit features Giuseppe Littera, co-founder of Sardex, one of the most successful mutual credit networks in Europe and Dil Green of the UK’s Open Credit Network.
This session covers the challenges and obstacles to creating vibrant trading networks which do not rely on conventional money – and a global network of mutual credit networks.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – Tools of collaboration June 20, 2020
Every group, project or community needs digital tools to enable collaboration. But which tools should we choose?
This is the first of two sessions looking at common infrastructure for the communities and organisations that are building the new economy.
See also the slides and speaker notes for Sectors of work on the new economy and Toolsframe – A framework for assembling a tool infrastructure.
There are hundreds of thousands of groups and communities working on building a new economy, but no centralised control or coordination system – after all, that’s the whole point of a decentralised network, there shouldn’t be any central ‘nodes’!
But because our projects are decentralised it’s often hard to find other people and organisations working on similar ideas… which means we often end up tackling the same problems in isolation.
Recognising that centralised maps and directories will not help, and that projects and communities will continue to use a range of different tools and platforms for their work, it is clear we need a decentralised and interoperable way to coordinate our efforts.
This session introduces the concept of protocols, and Murmurations.network as a method to coordinate the vast diversity within our decentralised movement – and explains how projects, working groups and communities can benefit from increased exposure by installing one simple file on their websites.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – Universal Basic Everything June 29, 2020
We hear from Iris Schönherr about the amazing Every One Every Day project they have been running in Barking and Dagenham, building universal basic infrastructures for peer-to-peer participation.
Read more about their work and the vision for Universal Basic Everything, and the Tomorrow Today Streets project which invites residents to work together on a range of practical projects.
These initiatives are exactly the kind of bottom-up, local, people-powered initiatives we are keen to see bloom all over the world so there is much to learn from these pilots projects.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – Mr Gee June 29, 2020
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 - Cooperation will win June 29, 2020
Discussion with Esther Foreman from the The Social Change Agency.
Esther and team helped set up and support over 110 mutual aid groups via Open Collective during the Covid pandemic and their work, supporting people-powered networks, is paving the way for a world in which people and planet come before profit
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – Mutual credit deep dive July 3, 2020
Although Mutual Credit has a strong pedigree, both theoretical and practical, it cannot be said to have ‘moved the needle’ in terms of the world economy.
If we believe that mutual credit is important, that it holds a promise of deep systemic change to the incentives that dictate what sort of economy we can have, then we need to understand the reasons for this lack of wider impact.
This session assumes a certain degree of knowledge about mutual credit which was explained in the introduction to mutual credit.
In this session Grace Rachmany chairs a discussion with Enric Duran of Faircoin, Giuseppe Littera of Sardex, Ferananda from Commons Engine, Sue Bell, Mary Fee, Matthew Slater from Credit Commons and Dil Green from the UK’s Open Credit Network.
VIDEO: OPEN 2020 – Governance in collaborative projects July 9, 2020
OPEN 2020 was run using an open source video tool, managed by a new platform co-op, meet.coop.
But how should this co-op, and other collaborative projects, be stewarded and governed to best effect?
Following on from the first session on The tools of collaboration this second session addresses governance and stewarding in a collaborative, commons building projects.
The session reviews a number of established forms of governance for distributed resources on the web. A panel of speakers present ideas, success stories and failures to provide background and inspiration to inform the development of meet.coop and other collaborative projects.
See the slides and notes here.