Bioregional Knowledge Commons

* Report: Bioregional Knowledge Commons - A Meta Perspective. Federated Knowledge Infrastructure for Place-Based Organizing. Andrea Farias et al. r3.0 BIOREGIONAL KNOWLEDGE COMMONS SERIES, May 2025.

URL = https://www.r3-0.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Bioregional-Knowledge-Commons-A-Meta-Perspective.pdf?

Description

"The bioregional movement is generating signicant knowledge across diverse communities worldwide, yet this valuable information remains scattered within specic groups or informal networks. This research was undertaken to explore opportunities and design considerations for developing a bioregional knowledge commons—a federated, community-governed infrastructure that connects knowledge and surfaces patterns across bioregional eforts, enabling practitioners to learn from and build upon each other's work more efectively.

Bioregional knowledge commons are envisioned as shared infrastructure that support learning, coordination, and innovation across place-based communities. There are two key layers to consider:

● Local Knowledge Commons: Stewarded by individual bioregions, focusing on context-specic ecological knowledge, cultural practices, and governance activities.

● Meta Knowledge Commons: A higher-level, connective layer that surfaces shared patterns, facilitates collaboration across bioregions, and supports the co-creation of tools, models, and methodologies.

This report centers on the meta level—exploring how coordinated, community-governed systems could strengthen knowledge lows across the bioregional movement."

Directory

of learning networks

"The following learning networks and support organizations were selected for analysis based on their active roles in bioregional knowledge sharing, platform development, and community coordination:

1. Design School for Regenerating Earth maintains extensive documentation from learning journeys and themed dialogues.

2. The BioFi Project has developed comprehensive materials around bioregional financing.

3. Bloom Network has built a purpose-made platform which documents impact reports and templates from local initiatives.

4. OpenCivics is developing an open protocols library with clear contribution processes.

5. ReFi DAO is developing playbooks and common data standards for local node operations.

6. COBALT is creating story maps documenting bioregional learning journeys.

7. Hylo is building learning management tools and community spaces, including a shared knowledge space called "Hylo Commons."

8. Regenerative Knowledge Commons is prototyping a relective knowledge environment rooted in living systems principles."