New section to focus on the link between open hardware, distributed manufacturing, and ecological/sustainability concerns

or, as they say so well in French:

* "Pour un mode de production, libre, durable et solidaire".

i.e. for a free, fair and sustainable mode of production.

Introduction

Commons-Based Peer Production and the associated 'open source stack', are a key ingredient for our sustainable future. Here's a summary of the arguments:

• design in market entities entails planned obsolescence as market goods have to remain scarce; open design communities inherently design for sustainability, interoperability, inclusion, etc ..

• shared design is crucial for a circular economy, which can't really develop easily with privatized knowledge

• mutualization of intrastructure, through a well understood Sharing Economy based on Communitarian Provisioning, has huge benefits in terms of the re-use of idle resources

• the Cosmo-Localization of production allows for a relocalization of production based on expressed local need, and avoids huge transportation expenditures as well as the systematic over-production of supply-driven mass markets

Some introductory material:

• Presentation at Degrowth 2014, video: Michel Bauwens on The Transition to a Sustainable Commons Society

• Article: The Emergence of Open Design and Open Manufacturing

Citations

"Cosmo-Localization describes the dynamic potentials of the globally distributed knowledge commons in conjunction with emerging capacity for localized production of value. The imperative to create economically and ecologically resilient communities is driving initiatives for ‘re-localization’. Yet, such efforts for re-localization need to be put in the context of new technologies, national policy, transnational knowledge regimes and the wider global knowledge commons."

- Jose Ramos [1]

Key Resources

Key Articles

• Kostakis, Vasilis, Niaros, Vasilis, Dafermos, George, and Bauwens, Michel. 2015. “Design Global, Manufacture Local: Exploring the Contours of an Emerging Productive Model”. Futures, 73, 126-135. http://www.p2plab.gr/el/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Futures.pdf

• Kostakis, Vasilis, Roos, Andreas and Bauwens, Michel. 2015. “Towards a Political Ecology of the Digital Economy: Socio-environmental Implications of Two Value Models”. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Env-Innov-and-Soc-Trans.pdf

• Kostakis, Vasilis, Bauwens, Michel and Niaros, Vasilis. 2015. “Urban Reconfguration after the Emergence of Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure: Four Future Scenarios with an Impact on Smart Cities”. In Araya Daniel (Ed.) “Smart Cities as Democratic Ecologies”. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 116-124. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Palgrave-Macmillan-Chapter.pdf

• Kostakis, Vasilis, Niaros, Vasilis and Giotitsas, Christos. 2014. “Production and governance in hackerspaces: A manifestation of Commons-based peer production in the physical realm?”. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(5), 555-573. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HS.pdf

• Kostakis, Vasilis and Papachristou, Marios. 2014. “Commons-based peer production and digital fabrication: The case of a RepRap-based, Lego-built 3D printing-milling machine”. Telematics and Informatics, 31, 434-443. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/TI.pdf

• Kostakis, Vasilis, Fountouklis, Michail and Drechsler, Wolfgang. 2013. “Peer Production and Desktop Manufacturing: The Case of the Helix_T Wind Turbine Project”. Science, Technology and Human Values, 38(6), 773-800. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/STHV1.pdf

• Kostakis, Vasilis. 2013. “At the Turning Point of the Current Techno-Economic Paradigm: Commons-Based Peer Production, Desktop Manufacturing and the Role of Civil Society in the Perezian Framework”. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 11(1), 173-190. http://triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/463

Statistics

• Three times as many raw materials are used to export traded goods than are used in their manufacture: Cost of Transportation vs Cost of Manufacturing