Tere VadénInfrastructuring the Commons, 7.11. 2013

“What do you think you are doing?”- two cases

Background – FOSS and peer production

• The Protestant ethic strikes back: Open source developers and the ethic of capitalism

Teemu Mikkonen, Tere Vadén, and Niklas VainioFirst Monday, Volume 12, 2007

• Community created open source hardware: A case study of “eCars — Now!”

by Tiina Malinen, Teemu Mikkonen, Vesa Tienvieri and Tere Vadén. First Monday, Volume 16, 2011

• 3D printing community and emerging practices of peer production

Jarkko Moilanen and Tere Vadén.First Monday, Volume 18, 2013

Entrypoint

- A need for a common(-resource pool)- Some resources and capacities exist, but a key element is

missing (money!)

Two projects of “infrastructuring”- with two shared problems

1.- OS and “commons-based peer production” projects are

sustainable collectively (as projects) but not individually (for participants)

- Bauwens 2009- OS career path - compare science, research

2.

“ … radical projects tend to founder, or at least become endlessly difficult, the moment they enter into the world of large, heavy objects: buildings, cars, tractors, boats, industrial machinery. This is in turn is not because these objects are somehow intrinsically difficult to administer democratically; it’s because […] they are surrounded by endless government regulation, and effectively impossible to hide […]”- David Graeber, Revolutions in Reverse

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Vertaisrahasto – “peer fund”

The goals:- democratisation of research funding

- implying the one donation, one vote rule- leveling of the institutional & expert hierachies of doing

research - implying anonymisation and limitations to the size of the

application- a more direct link between researchers, research topics and

people not affiliated with research institutions.

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How was it done?

• Core group of volunteers• First round of donations• Launching a co-op (for the next step)• Collaborative design project at demola.fi• Launching a non-profit (ry)

At least 3 layers of heavily bureaucratic org (co-op, demola project, non-profit) for the bootstrapping

At least 3 years of intermittent volunteer work

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Robin Hood Minor Asset Management

The goals:• Democratization of finance

• “counter investment cooperative of the precariat”• Create non-wage income

• New forms of organisation• What brings people together? What is a precarious

community? Solidarity?• Investigate financial/semiocapitalism

• “Is this art?”

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How was it done?

• Research community on economy and art (Akseli Virtanen)• Sakari Virkki working on observing Helsinki Stock Exchange

• -> core group of volunteers• Launching a co-op • Future Art Base, Aalto University

• Discontinued

At least 3 layers of persistent and/or heavily bureaucratic org (research community/activity, co-op, university res center) for the bootstrapping

Tens of years of volunteer labour

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Principles?• Opt-in community

• the community is elsewhere?!• Nested action & governance (Ostrom 1990)

• Layers of different types of activity• Most people want the action, but access to governance a

condition• Transparency

• People want/need more info than you have• Friction with entities not keen on transparency

• Rules (Hess 2008) and more rules…• for all the layers (different types of participants, co-op,

non-profit) • “the right to devise rules respected by external

authorities”(Ostrom 1990) -> the devising of rules not (obviously) improper in view of external authorities- Compare Stadin Aikapankki and the tax authorities

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Department of Art

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