openp2pdesign.org 1.1 [in English]

8/14/2019 openp2pdesign.org 1.1 [in English]

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o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g _ 1 . 1

M a s s i m o M e n i c h i n e l l i

en Castellano:

openp2pdesign.org

in English

in Italiano:

openp2pdesign.org


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o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g _ 1 . 1

i n E n g l i s h

M a s s i m o M e n i c h i n e l l i

S o m e R i g h t s R e s e r v e d , 2 0 0 8

h t t p : / / c r e a t i v e c o m m o n s . o r g / l i c e n s e s / b y - n c - s a / 3 . 0 /

W r i t t e n a n d D e s i g n e d b y M a s s i m o M e n i c h i n e l l i

w i t h S c r i b u s , O p e n O f f i c e , G i m p , I n k s c a p e , U b u n t u

A n i v e r s , F o n t i n , F o n t i n S a n s T y p e f a c e s b y J o s B u i v e n g a

h t t p : / / w w w . j o s b u i v e n g a . d e m o n . n l

A c o p y o f t h i s b o o k a n d t h e I t a l i a n a n d S p a n i s h v e r s i o n s c a n b e d o w n l o a d e d h e r e :

h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . s c r i b d . c o m / p e o p l e / v i e w / 9 8 4 9 3

h t t p : / / s t o r e s . l u l u . c o m / o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n

i n f o @ o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g

h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g


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Table of Contents

Introduction 11

01 Design and Locality 13

02 Design and Community 15

03 Design, Community and Free Software / Open Source / Peer-to-Peer 17

04 Design and Complexity for Communities 21

05 Design and Complexity towards Sustainability 25

06 Open P2P Communities 31

06.01 An early definition of Open P2P Communities 31

06.02 A loose definition, between many classifications 34

06.03 An Open P2P Communities list (1.1) 37

06.04 Open P2P Communities and Participation 40

07 The activity of an Open P2P Community and Service Design 43

07.01 Activity of a community and Activity System 43

07.02 Activity and the structure of the Open Peer-to-Peer Communities 45

07.03 Open Peer-to-Peer Communities described with an Activity System 47

07.04 Activity Systems and Service Design 49

08 Open P2P Communities and the Platform 53

09 Open P2P Design: the designer as an enabler 59

10 First examples of an Open and P2P Design 63

10.01 Co-created Service Design: RED's Open Health 64

10.02 Open Design, Open Source Software and Open Hardware: Openmoko 70

10.03 Open Design and Open Hardware: VIA OpenBook 78

11 First guidelines for an Open P2P Design 85

11.01 Analysis 87

11.02 Concept 87

11.03 Parallel co-design / test / setting-up 87

11.04 Self-organization 89

12. Future development for Open P2P Design 95

12.01 Design and research directions 95

12.02 A research for a social knowledge discipline 97

Bibliography 105


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C o m m e n t s :

h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g / b l o g / a r c h i v e s / 2 4

In the last 7-6 years, the design community has started

approaching the locality with growing interest. For the design

community, the locality is to be intended as the whole

characteristics of the territory where the project is developed

and directed to. The territory of users and designers too: the

territory of everystakeholder. Therefore, many initiatives have

been developed in Europe and in Italy, with the purpose of

redefining a relationship that (almost) have never been: therelationship between Design and Locality.

Produced by the Industrial Revolution and its Modernity,

Design could be an example of how we always tried to reduce

the complexity of the local dimension to exploit it.

Traditionally, most of the designers think about economies of

scale and mass production, and not about small productionand local scale.

Coming from modern activities and theories, Design follows

their paths too: as they are becoming more interested in local

dimension nowadays (maybe to manage globalization better),

Design is now pretended to develop solutions (and/or new

products and services) to local problems and opportunities.

Therefore locality become the place where new commercialand sustainable solutions can be found (to the problems old

01 Design and Locality

D e s i g n

L o c a l i t y


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opportunities generated). Most of the economic theories, from

the mainstream ones (development, and thus local

development) to the more outsider ones (degrowth and thus

localism), think of local dimension as the ideal place for every

action in the future.

Whether conformist or radical, the future has a local

dimension.

We should reflect more in the future on the relationships

between Design and Economy (and between Economy and

Locality, and Economy and Sustainability): but it is very

important now to point out how the relationship between

Design and Locality is growing. And what it is interesting the

most are the opportunities that this relationship can bring to

thesustainability issue.

In order to understand this relationship, we can look at the

map of the intersections between Economics, Marketing,

Architecture, Urban Planning, Institutions and Design as they

became interested in the local dimension. And then wen can

see that the most important keyword in this map is

p a r t i c i p a t i o n , as it is common to all the fields studied.

Theferore we should become interested in communities too,

in order to design for a locality.


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02 Design and Community

As designers, why are we interested incommunities and so in

participation to improve the qualities of a locality towards

sustainability? The Design community has reflected upon the

sustainability issue in the past years, why it is interested also

in communityies now?

For sure, the Design community has reflected upon

sustainability, learning from successes and failures

1

. Now, weare at a point where we know that simply redesigning

products (ecodesign) reducing materials number and quantity

and proposing services (which are not so immaterial as we

thought) its not enough to achieve sustainability.

These attempts have brought to a completely opposite effect

(rebound effect), an incredible growth of products and services

on the market (and, as a consequence, a growth in the use ofresources).

Maybe its better to propose (and improve the diffusion of)

sustainable lifestyles, based on sustainable and fair use of

resources. Lifestyles that could be proposed by designers or

companies, but already exist in the society, though they are

1. Manzini E., Jegou F. (2003)

D e s i g n

C o m m u n i t y

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y


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h t t p : / / w w w . s u s t a i n a b l e - e v e r y d a y . n e t / m a n z i n i /

not very well known and widrespread. Ezio Manzini calls

these cases Creative Communities2, i.e. bottom-up

communities that self-organize to solve local problems in a

sustainable way.

Design could support the emergence and diffusion of the

Creative Communities, providing them products,

communication tools, services and strategies that can help

them doing their activities. But Design have (almost) never

considered communities, how can it relate with communities

in participative projects?

Designers could learn something from Architecture, Urban

Planning and Web Design, that usually deal with participation.

Maybe the Design community could learn how to face the

complexity of communities an of their local dimension,

looking at whom have been capable to do it successfullyfor

example, Open Source communities, P2P communities and

similar communities

2. Manzini E. (2006)


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03 Design, Community and FreeSoftware / Open Source / Peer-to-Peer

Why should Design learn from F r e e S o f t w a r e , O p e n S o u r c e

a n d P 2 P h o w t o r e l a t e t o a c o m m u n i t y ?

Because Free Software, Open Source and P2P communities

have developed some organizational forms and principles that

can lead a community to self-organization, and potentially to

high dimensions. In other words, they have developed an

approach to a community-based organizational form that

proved its usefulness. For this reason, even in other fields than

software development, Open Source and P2P principles and

organizational forms have been adopted explicitly by many

organizations; moreover, many other organizations that have

not been explicitly inspired by Open Source and P2P use some

principles and organizational forms that come from them.

As a consequence of their success, a general interest in

community-based collaborative forms has been spreading:

this has lead to the discovery of similar cases prior to the Free

Software, Open Source and P2P phenomenon but that share

some features.

All these cases (inspired by, derived by, prior to Free Software,

Open Source and P2P communities) can be grouped (at least

D e s i g n

C o m m u n i t y

F r e e S o f t w a r e

O p e n S o u r c e

P e e r - t o - P e e r

O p e n P 2 P

C o m m u n i t i e s


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temporarily) in Open P2P Communities, i.e. communities

based on an Open and Peer-to-Peer participation. They can be

grouped temporarily in Open P2P Communities as they are

evolving so fast that new definitions rise often (and

CrowdsourcingandWeb 2.0are just an example).

This success proves that community-based organizational

forms are promising ones and that they can be adopted in

communities with an high number of participants, building

short and long collaborative networks, with high

probabilities of spreading and achieving success in the society.

They represent, maybe, the only participation-based

organizational forms with an high scalability: the more the

participants, the faster they can achieve success.

These organizational forms and principles could be used to

support and spread the activities of the Creative Communities

(or any community). Moreover, user-generated content and

community-based organization represents strong business

opportunities (like YouTube, for example), and so redefining

the role of Design could lead to more business opportunities

for designers too.

The idea is to bring Open P2P principles and practices inside

the design process, and to use the design process to spread

them throughout society. Open P2P organizational forms and


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04 Design and Complexity forCommunities

Why Design should learn how torelate to Complexity?

Because the communities and the territories where they live

are so complex that a design process dedicated to them must

understand their complexity, to have greater probabilities of

success. Understanding Complexity, for a designer, means to

design in and for Complexity3. Therefore, in and for the

complexity of a community and of its territory.

The connection between Design and Complexity represents a

an interesting field of research, now in its first steps: the

Complexity Theories are relatively recent and still society (and

therefore also in the Design community), tends to prefer more

the reduction of the complexity, than its valorisation.

We could spend so much time before we understand how to

face the complexity of a community, but fortunately there is a

very important consideration that can help us and comes from

the phenomenon of Free Software/Open Source. According to

Ko Kuwabara4 the Linux community has succeeded because it

3. Pizzocaro S. (2004)

4. Kuwabara K. (2000)

D e s i g n

S e r v i c e d e s i g n

F r e e S o f t w a r e

O p e n S o u r c e

C o m p l e x i t y


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C o m m e n t s :

h t t p : / / w w w . m e d i a d i g i t a l i . p o l i m i . i t / d d d / d d d _ 0 7 / n u m e r o / w _ a r t i c o l i / 7 2 _ 0 5 _ s a n g i o r g i . p d f

Every product has connections with the social dimension

(who designs it, produces it, sells it, distributes it, uses it) and

the local dimension (where these persons act and from

where they get the resources needed) throughout its life

cycle. Understanding these hidden connections can lead to

design products, communication artifacts, services and

strategies with greater probabilities of sustainability and

commercial success.

The realization of the Complexity dimension is not only useful

for the Design process, but also in the understanding of the

Sustainability issues


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05 Design and Complexity towardsSustainability

Why Design should learn how to relate to Complexity to

understand Sustainability?

Because the lack of understanding the unsustainability of

society is also a problem of lack of understanding the

complexity of the natural, social and economic (complex)

systems in which we live. The attempt of reduction (or

overappreciation) of Complexity was born with Modernity,

that has applied it to the social, natural and territorial

systems (leading us towards the unsustainability we face

now).

For Rullani6 Modernity (and in especially the great fordist

company) generates artificial environments with reduced

complexity, in order to control the behaviour of the agents.

And a modernity that proceeds reducing the complexity of the

human and social dimension has few points of contact with

the territory, that is a layered and localized synthesis of

history, culture and of relations between men and the

ecosystem. In the theory and the practice of the modern

economy,the territory has disappeared.

6. Rullani E. (2002)

M o d e r n i t y

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y

C o m p l e x i t y

D e s i g n

O p e n P 2 P



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C o m m e n t s :

h t t p : / / w w w . f i r s t m o n d a y . o r g / i s s u e s / i s s u e 4 _ 8 / m o g l e n / i n d e x . h t m l

h t t p : / / b l o g . p 2 p f o u n d a t i o n . n e t

h t t p : / / w w w . f r e e o s . c o m / a r t i c l e s / 4 1 3 3 /

h t t p : / / w w w . n y t i m e s . c o m / 2 0 0 5 / 1 0 / 1 5 / o p i n i o n / 1 5 r o b b . h t m l ? e x = 1 2 8 7 0 2 8 8 0

0 & e n = c 6 2 7 4 2 c 4 6 6 b 5 e d 1 e & e i = 5 0 8 8 & p a r t n e r = r s s n y t & e m c = r s s

h t t p : / / w w w . t i m b o u c h e r . c o m / j o u r n a l / 2 0 0 6 / 1 1 / 0 5 / t e x a s - b o r d e r - w a t c h - w e b s i t e /

The diversity is the main characteristic of the nature and the

foundation of the ecological stability, and the Open P2P

Communities introduce some suitable practices to valorize

the diversity of their own participants, succeeding in the

construction of acollective intelligence based on an open and

tolerant peer-to-peer learning.

Open P2P organizational forms and principles are very

defined, but still loose, that there is someone that believes

they representAnarchy, Communism, perfect free market and

therefore Capitalism, or that they are not Communism (or

something similar), or maybe a radically different

phenomenon, that we should study better.

Therefore, its possible to study how to modify and apply

these community-based organizational forms, as they can be

adapted to many situations: their flexibility has made them so

widespread. We could use Open P2P organizational forms in

order to diffuse questionable activities like military activities,

control activities, oractivities that, with an increase of their

scale, could lead to an increase pollution and the gap between

rich and poor (representing an awful future). Or we could use

them in order to diffuse sustainable activities from the social,

economic and natural point of view.


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h t t p : / / w w w . b o i n g b o i n g . n e t / 2 0 0 5 / 0 1 / 0 5 / b i l l - g a t e s - f r e e - c u l t . h t m l

h t t p : / / w w w . w i r e d . c o m / c u l t u r e / l i f e s t y l e / n e w s / 2 0 0 5 / 0 1 / 6 6 2 0 9

h t t p : / / w w w . t h e o n i o n . c o m / c o n t e n t / n e w s / c h a n e l _ d e v e l o p s _ d u r a b l e _ l o w _ c o s t

h t t p : / / w w w . n e x t b i l l i o n . n e t / b l o g s / 2 0 0 7 / 0 1 / 2 3 / b o p - s p o o f e d - b y - t h e - o n i o n

We can see these organizational forms like a box: they have a

shape (the values and practices), but it is the content that give

them a sense and a direction. A content that must be adapted

to the shape of the box, but we have seen that it is flexible

enough: it is necessary therefore to decide which contents we

should use. As this organizational forms are so suitable to

manage complexity, it is possible to choose them for complex

entities such as the territory and its sustainability, and

therefore for a Design directed to this issues.

Design, Locality, Open Source, P2P, Web 2.0 are therefore the

center of this research, where they will be analyzed from the

complexity and sustainability point of view. We are going to

analyze all the cases that are not explicitly related to

sustainabilty too, as they could be useful in order to

understand how to spread sustainable activities.

We should talk now a little bit more about Open P2P

Communities and about how Design can approach them.


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h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n p 2 p d e s i g n . o r g / b l o g / a r c h i v e s / 1 4 4

06 Open P2P Communities

06.01 An early definition of Open P2P CommunitiesBefore we take a look at the methodological part of my thesis

and the conclusions to draw from it, it would be useful to say

something more aboute those cases that have been defined

Open P2P Communities. The methodology that I have

developed in the thesis, in fact, has been developed taking in

consideration some existing cases before, and later taking inconsideration which design tools and theories were suitable.

Therefore, I searched for cases with a community-based

collaborative organizational form, that can build short and

long collaborative networks, reaching a potentially high

number of participants with an important active role.

This was still a vague definition, therefore I began searchingthose cases that were inspired by the Free Software / Open

Source / P2P phenomenon, as already then (at the beginning

of 2005) some believed they had developed organizational

forms and principles that could be adopted in other fields with

success8.

8. Mulgan G., Steinberg T., Salem O. (2005)

O p e n S o u r c e

C r o w d s o u r c i n g

P e e r - t o - P e e r

W e b 2 . 0

O p e n P 2 P



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Collaboration has always existed, but only today its

importance has been amplified to such levels that it is now

considered more promising than competition. Thanks to the

ITC distributed infrastructures, collaboration is being diffused

as an organizational form outside of the Free Software / Open

Source / P2P Communities.

To all these cases directly inspired by the Open P2P

phenomenon9, we can add some other cases that, even if not

explicitly inspired by Open P2P, share some of its features (and

therefore they could have been influenced indirectly)10.

We can also add some previous cases (and therefore without

relations with Open P2P), but that had developed community-

based organizational forms able to build long collaborative

networks with an active role of the participants11.

The existence of these last two categories is of fundamental

importance: community-based organizational forms are not

just for Open Source / Free Software / P2P software, but they

are very important, and as they tend to develop some

common characteristics, they can be used therefore for a

9. For example: Thinkcycle, OSCar, Open Health.

10. For example: BBC Action Network, Neubauten.org, Pledgebank.

11. For example: Amul, Dabbawalla, Grameen Bank.


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wide range of situations and disciplines, independently from

the degree of technology used. The Open Source / Free

Software / P2P phenomenon is therefore important because it

made us aware of the importance of community-based models

and inspired us to search for similar cases. Moreover, they

have shown own scalable and innovative organizational

forms, adapted to face the challenges of a knowledge society.

All these cases represent community-based organizational

forms, based on collaboration through the sharing of flows of

information and sometimes of material resources. While

traditional organizations are based on a vertical hierarchy that

commands and controls, the Open P2P Communities are

based on a horizontal network in which every participant

commands itself and contributes to control the whole

network. While in the vertical hierarchies the relationships are

defined by power (top-down), in the Open P2P Communities

they are defined by reputation (bottom-up).

The structure is therefore an horizontal reticular one, where

reputation becomes a centripetal force of infuence towards

the other participants. These communities can assume forms

that are localized or virtual; they share the ability of self-

organization during the development of a main activity for the

solution of a specific problem, that neither institutions neither

the market had provided satisfactory solutions.


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Their community nature allows the creation of social capital,

that could generate further processes of improvement of the

local dimension, through the connections that they

potentially can bring between short networks (the interest for

the local dimension) with long networks (that involve a wide

number of participants).

06.02 A loose definition, between manyclassificationsThis is therefore the concise definition of an Open P2P

Community. Like every classification, there is the risk of

excessive generalization and therefore to group cases that

represents different things. And as I was approaching to Free

Software, Open Source and P2P for the first time, there could

be some ingenuous statements.

And as one year has passed from the discussion of my thesis,

the definition of an Open P2P Community maybe should be

rethought and redefined. Probably in the future it could be

convenient or necessary to make a distinction between those

cases in which the community risks to be used in order to

produce value with an activity, and those cases in which is the

community itself that directs its activity.


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But for the moment I think it is better to continue to observe

these phenomena, while they are living and developing,

leaving any expectations of exaustive definitions for the

future. Even so, this definition has been very useful for me, as

it helped me to find a way between the wide number of cases.

Lets remain, at least for the moment, with a loose and

adaptable definition.

But maybe its time to signal others two phenomena (or,

therefore, also categories of definition) that became famous

towards or after the end of my thesis, and that share relations

with the Open P2P Communities. They are Web 2.0 and

Crowdsourcing.

My research started from existing cases, with a wide and

flexilbe classification at the beginning, and its point of

departure was the Free Software / Open Source / P2P

phenomenon and its diffusion to others fields. At the time

(March 2005) the term Web 2.0 already existed, but it had not

become so famous (it happened in 2006, with the success of

YouTube) and developed completely. Therefore it seemed to

me more useful to focus on the Free Software / Open Source /

P2P phenomenon. And the Crowdsourcing term was born in

June 2006, when the thesis was already finished.


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h t t p : / / w e b . m i t . e d u / i s / i s n e w s / v 1 7 / n 0 3 / 1 7 0 3 0 1 . h t m l

h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / W e b _ 2 . 0

Therefore, the main reason for the lack of Web 2.0 and

Crowdsourcing inside the thesis is mainly due for a temporal

factor. The interest towards the organizational forms and the

principles developed in the Free Software (and Open Source

and P2P) Communities was born end of the nineties.

However, we had to wait until 2003 for the first awareness of

this possibility, thanks to the Goetzs article appeared on

Wired12. The organizational methodology of the Open Source

Communities are seen as the right infrastructure for a

knowledge economy, just as the assembly line had been for

the Fordist mass-production economy. The interest for Open

Source / Free Software / P2P organizational forms was born

therefore before the definition of Web 2.013.

Moreover, I think they represent phenomena closely

correlated between each other. Web 1.0 has been developed

by communities, with bottom-up and P2P dynamics, through

sharing and Open Source / Free Software. Therefore it wasnt

Web 2.0 that introduced these dynamics, but they were

already present since years in the computer science and

programming sciene under the hacker ethic.

12. Goetz T. (2003)

13. For example, Thinkcycle started onMarch 2000, 4 years before

the first definition of Web 2.0


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C o m m e n t s :

h t t p : / / w w w . p l e d g e b a n k . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . m e e t u p . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . s m a r t m o b s . c o m

h t t p : / / w w w . i n d y m e d i a . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . g l o b a l i d e a s b a n k . o r g /

h t t p : / / e n g l i s h . o h m y n e w s . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . k u r o 5 h i n . o r g /

h t t p : / / s l a s h d o t . o r g /

h t t p : / / c y b e r . l a w . h a r v a r d . e d u / o p e n l a w /

h t t p : / / w i k i p e d i a . o r g /

h t t p : / / c n x . o r g /

h t t p : / / s t r i n g e r s . m e d i a . m i t . e d u /

h t t p : / / c l i c k w o r k e r s . a r c . n a s a . g o v /

h t t p : / / w w w . p g d p . n e t / c /

h t t p : / / s e t i a t h o m e . b e r k e l e y . e d u /

h t t p : / / w w w . g r i d . o r g /

consider this directory, later on I will write about new

interesting cases. The cases have been classified by the main

activity these communities develop, gathering participants

and building collaborative networks.

Collaborative networks that reach a critical mass of

participants

PledgeBank

Meetup

Smart Mobs

Collaborative networks that manage informations and

knowledge

Indymedia

The Global Ideas Bank

Ohmynews

Kuro5hin

Slashdot

OpenLaw

Wikipedia

Connexions

Silver Stringers

NASA Mars Clickworkers

Distributed Proofreaders

SETI@Home

Grid.org


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h t t p : / / w w w . h a p m a p . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . t r o p i c a l d i s e a s e . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . d n d i . o r g /

h t t p : / / s n p . c s h l . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . c a m b i a . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . o s g v . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . t h e o s c a r p r o j e c t . o r g /

h t t p : / / o p e n s o u r c e . m i t . e d u / p a p e r s / m e y e r . p d f

h t t p : / / w w w . t h i n k c y c l e . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . i c o m p o s i t i o n s . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . s o l a r o o f . o r g / w i k i

h t t p : / / w w w . i n s t r u c t a b l e s . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . z e r o p r e s t i g e . o r g /

h t t p : / / n e u b a u t e n . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . a m u l . c o m /

h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / D a b b a w a l a

h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / N a p s t e r

h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / G n u t e l l a

h t t p : / / w w w . a m a z o n . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . e b a y . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . p - g r i d . o r g /

h t t p : / / t h e s i m s . e a . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . b i o s . n e t /

Collaborative networks that develop scientific research

The International HapMap Project

The Tropical Disease Initiative (TDI)

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)

The SNP Consortium Ltd

The CAMBIA BIOS

Collaborative networks that design

Open Source Green Vehicle (OSGV)

OSCar - The Open Source Car Project

Episodes of collective technological innovations

Thinkcycle

iCompositions

Solar Roof

instructables

Zeroprestige.org

Collaborative networks that organize business activities

Neubauten.org

Amul

Dabbawalla

Napster

GNUtella

Amazon

eBay

P-grid

The Sims


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h t t p : / / w w w . d e s i g n c o u n c i l . i n f o / m t / R E D / h e a l t h /

h t t p : / / w w w . d e v e l o p m e n t g a t e w a y . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . s u s t a i n a b l e - e v e r y d a y . n e t / E M U D E /

h t t p : / / l a u n c h p a d . y o u n g f o u n d a t i o n . o r g /

possible types of participation: there are three ways in which

Open P2P Communities can self-organize. They can self-

organize with:

_a bottom-up participation: a community gather

independently to fix a common problem (for example: Amul).

The community forms in a bottom-up way;

_a top-down participation: a (public or private) service that

allows the formation of a community and bases on it its

operation is offered. Participants operate in order to fulfill the

enterprise's/local institution's goals/work (i.e. the participants

depend from the enterprise/local institution) (for example:

YouTube). The service is offered in a top-down way, and the

participants act consequently;

_a marketplace participation: a (public or private) service that

allows the formation of a community is offered, and the

participants gather in the community. Participants behave

independently, forming relationships between each other in

order to develop their own goals/works (i.e. they behave

independently, in a true peer-to-peer way) (for example: BBC

Action Network). The service is delivered in a top-down way,

but the participants act in a bottom-up way within it.

The fundamental point is: who takes the initiative and looks

for persons in order to form a community? And with which


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goals? And which type of relationships, and therefore social

network, it enables? For example: Free Software is usually

bottom-up, Open Source and P2P could be bottom-up or top-

down, Web 2.0 and Crowdsourcing are very often top-down.

Moreover, from this bottom-up and top-down distinction, we

can ask another question: how much these communities are

Open and P2P? Data, informations, processes, results are

accessible in an Open and P2P way? This is a very important

issue and should be studied more.

As a consequence, as designers, we could design for a

community in two ways: offering our professional

capabilities to existing communities, or designing and

developing (public and private) community-based services.

Before we can get to the methodological aspects, let's

consider how a designer can relate to an Open P2P

Community (and therefore towards an Open P2P Design).

How can we design for a community that gathers around a

main collaborative activity? In a few words: through the the

process of co-design of its activity (and the characteristics

that allow it) like a complex collective service.


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and through which the human action is mediated. The model

of the Activity System, the unit of the dynamic analysis of the

human activity, describes the main elements through which

the human action is mediated, i.e. the artifacts (the

instrumental mediation) and the community (social

mediation) with which the subject, an individual or a

collective one, interacts according to rules, implicit or explicit

ones, and a division of labor, i.e. the organization of roles and

tasks.

The Activity System is an useful instrument to describe

human actions, and can be used at different scales: the

activity of one single person, of a group, of a community, of a

society. Moreover, the single human action is not perceived

like a discreet and isolated unit, but it receives a meaning

from being part of a collective Activity System socially and

historically generated; in its turn the individual action

contributes in a bottom-up way to the continuous creation

and reproduction of the Activity System.

The Activity System represents then a systemic instrument of

analysis of the complexity of the human activities. It is not a

static truth, but it is in continuous movement and

transformation as the single elements evolve and as the

activity is negotiated over time.


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These transformations are due to the fact that the activities

are not isolated units, but are more like nodes inside networks

formed of other interconnected Activity Systems. In fact, an

Activity System is not isolated, but interacts with a network

of other Activity Systems.

07.02 Activity and the structure of the Open Peer-to-Peer CommunitiesTherefore the Activity Theory, through the model of the

Activity System, can be used in order to analyze and to

describe the behavior of the Open Peer-to-Peer Communities.

object outcome

rules community division of labor

subject

mediating artifacts

Picture 01. Activity System (Source: Sangiorgi D. (2004))


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Given the particular nature of these Communities, we should

add the description of the structure of the community to this

model. The Open Peer-to-Peer Communities in fact are not

characterized by hierarchies, but that does not mean that

there are no strong positions. But as an hierarchy relies on

power (a top-down relationship), an Open Peer-to-Peer

Community relies on reputation (a bottom-up relationship),

that show the direction and the actions that could be more

interesting to the community, giving place to an horizontal

network-based layered structure.

Many researchers14 have noted that the Open Source

Communities (and therefore also the Open Peer-to-Peer

Communities) organize themselves with an horizontal

structure characterized by a gravitational center around which

there is a gravitational force that moves the participants

towards the center or outside the community: this force is

reputation15 and not power. We have then an horizontal (not

a hierarchy) network-based organizational form, similar to the

one found by Lave and Wenger16 in the Communities of

Practiceand calledLegitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP).

14. Crowston K., Howison J. (2005); Madanmohan T.R. (2002);

Nakakoji K., Yamamoto Y., Nishinaka Y., Kishida K., Ye Y. (2002)

15. Watson A. (2005)16. Lave J., Wenger E. (1991)


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Therefore, the Open Peer-to-Peer Communities have a radial

structure, where there are different levels, characterized by a

different amount of reputation and engagement.

A determined role can correspond to a determined level (one

role can be accessed only if in possession of one determined

amount of reputation), or a same role can be seen with a

centripetal structure based on the reputation (there are

several levels of reputation inside of the role, characterized by

different amount of engagement and different duties).

It is therefore useful to reason in terms of reputation and

engagement levels: going towards the center the participants

increase their reputation and engagement. They move

towards the center as their engagement increases their

reputation, and they increase their engagement in order to

maintain or to increase their own reputation. In this way we

have a positive feedback that pushes the participants to

engage with crescent intensity.

07.03 Open Peer-to-Peer Communities describedwith an Activity SystemUsing an Activity System (and integrating it with a description

of the reputations levels found in the community) it is

possible therefore to describe such communities (table 01).


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to give instruments and informations useful to citizens

for organizing campaigns of public pressure in order to

improve their local conditions

activity

Table 01: Example of one Open Peer-to-Peer Community described through an

Activity System (Source: Menichinelli 2006)

B B C A c t i o n N e t w o r k

BBC, citizens who wish to resolve some local problems,

local institutionssubject

useful informations for the organization of campaigns of

public pressureobject

to enable citizens citizens who wish it to organize

campaigns of public pressure in order to inform society

about local problems

results

website (information, personal space for every citizen,

search engine of other citizens)artifacts

dont carry out political campaigns or commercial ones,

dont insultrules

British citizens, local institutionscommunity

webmaster, coordinator of campaigns, organizer of

group, public relation, coordination of the new

members, treasurer, mentor

division oflabor (roles)

core group:BBC

active participants:citizens trying to organize campaigns

peripheral participants:citizens in search of campaigns

already formed

reputation

levels


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07.04 Activity Systems and Service DesignThe main importance of the activity, in an Open Peer-to-Peer

Community, can give a useful role to the designer, thanks to

some reflections carried out in the service design field, based

around the study of the services as interactions before and the

study of the services as interactions between Activity Systems

later. A service in fact can be seen in many ways: like a

performance, a process and an interaction, visions that bring

to light its nature of human action and therefore of

intangibility. If we look at them as interactions, their design

therefore becomes traditionally the design of the interactions

that occur between a customer and the company, subdivided

infront office (the part of the agency with which the customer

interacts) and back office (with which the customer does not

interact).

Interactionstherefore as the place of encounter between the

customer and the company, the fundamental point in order to

understand the quality of the service (service encounter), and

where therefore the designer should address its attention.

According to Pacenti17, the most important thing in the

strategic design of a service is in fact the platform of

interaction between the service and the customer.

17. Pacenti E. (1992/1993), Pacenti E. (1998)


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The platform of the interaction is the context (the architecture

of the system) where the interaction between service and

customers finds its place. In the construction of the platform

we have the values proposed by the company, (materialized in

its offer), and the co-production of such values by the

customer, that participates with his engagement, knowledge

and resources. The platform of interaction is the place where

the offer of the service and the participation of the customers

meet within a shared context of values.

Considering services as interactions, we can find another

study that can be really useful for designing for an Open Peer-

to-Peer Community: Daniela Sangiorgi18 has connected service

design with the Activity Theory, resolving a lack of an

interpretation model of the service that holds in consideration

its main elements that influence the perception and the

behavior of the participants to the interaction. An

interpretation model that can be used to consider high social

complexity that characterizes a service.

Therefore, a service can be described as an activity formed of a

sequence of service encounters (or interactions), that can be

described as systems of situated actions co-produced in the

18. Sangiorgi D. (2004)


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encounter between the customers Activity System and the

enterprises Activity System (picture 02) (or, more in general

terms, between all the participants of the service).

The activity, therefore, can be seen like a network of

interactions between participants, and can be considered as

a service, and as such can be designed. In fact a service is

made of a network of interactions between several

participants, which assume the roles deriving from the

division of labor.

o b j e c t

r u l e s

c o m m u n i t y

d i v i s i o n o f l a b o r

s u b j e c t

a r t i f a c t s

o b j e c t

p o t e n t i a l l y

s h a r e d

s u b j e c t

d i v i s i o n o f l a b o r c o m m u n i t y

r u l e s

o b j e c t

a r t i f a c t s

Picture 02. Interaction between Activity Systems (Source Sangiorgi D. (2004))


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For service design, therefore, the design object coincides with

the same Activity System, that becomes the object of the

project, but also an analysis and a design tool.

We may think therefore that we can design the Open Peer-

to-Peer Communities designing their activity. In reality it is

still necessary to consider two aspects before we are able to

reach an appropriated methodology, holding corretly in

consideration the complexity of a community and of a project

directed to it.

Is it possible to design a community? Which of its

characteristics can we design?


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08 Open P2P Communities and thePlatform

What can we design in a community?

We cannot think about designing the relationships and the

complexity of a community (which are the features that make

it a community). The disciplines that traditionally have been

interested in communities (architecture, urban planning, web

design) are not oriented to design the relationships but the

characteristics that, once realized, enable and support the

birth and the development of the relationships. The necessary

infrastructure for the relationships, their platform.

It is convenient therefore to talk about a platform19 as the

object of the design process. It is possible to design and to

supply those fundamental conditions that, shared inside the

social networks of the participants, act as an infrastructure

to the emergence of the community and its characteristic

activity.

A platform is present (and necessary) every time a community

forms deriving from the interactions between a high number

of agents. As it is part of the activty, the platform can

therefore be described through the Activity Systems.

19. Menichinelli M. (2006)

S e r v i c e D e s i g n

A c t i v i t y T h e o r y

O p e n P 2 P


P l a t f o r m


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The platform consists in a system of artifacts (materials,

cognitive and communication ones), rules and division of

labor (picture 03), which make possible the development and

practice of the collective activity. As it is shared between the

participants, it has a reticular and dynamic nature (pictures

04, 05).

If the platform is necessary for processes that demand an

interaction between a high number of agents, then also the

design methodology will demand a platform for being carried

out. The platform exists previously to the design process, that

has the goal of improving it in a determined direction, that

comes from a design decision. It is therefore necessary, at the

beginnig of the design process, to analyze the existing

platform for the collective discussion; thanks to it is possible

to establish a contact with the participants. The designers, in

fact, enter in the wider design community: a community

whose activity is an open and peer-to-peer design.

But how the designers role change when he/she enters in a

wider design community?


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object

rules community

subject

artifacts

division of labor

Picture 03. The Platform, described through an Activity System

(Source: Menichinelli M. (2006))


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Picture 04. The Platform is distributed in the social network



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Picture 05. Distributed nature of the Platform (Source: Menichinelli M. (2006))


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09 Open P2P Design: the designer asan enabler

Once we define the platform, it is possible to understand

what, effectively, a designer can design for an Open Peer-to-

Peer community. It still remains to define how such a project

can be developed considering the complexity of a community.

We should try therefore to define a design methodology (or at

least some guidelines) that can improve the open and peer-to-

peer participation of the community and its complexity.

A community is a complex system, and there is the need of a

design methodology able to face its complexity without

reducing it. As we have seen before, Open Peer-to-Peer

organizational forms seem promising in supplying greater

probabilities to face complex problems and to elaborate

complex artifacts. That happens just thanks to their own

intrinsic complexity:the complexity of the project reflects the

complexity of the community, and both strengthen each

other. Whe we design an activity, the community itself (a

complex system) designs a complex project collectively (its

own organization and the necessary conditions).

Moreover, a project dedicated to a community must consider

the characteristics of the context in which it lives, especially

theterritorial characteristics that become resources once the

community realize their importance.

C o m p l e x i t y

D e s i g n

M e t h o d o l o g y

E n a b l e r

L i n u x

O p e n P 2 P


I n s t i t u t i o n s


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This is an ulterior reason for giving it a greater opportunity of

direct participation to the design process, as a community can

recognize the usable resources better than others. This is

therefore a design approach that take advantage of the

participation of a potentially elevated number of participants,

through a complex process characterized by its specific path

(path dependency), oriented to several the levels of interaction:

between participants, participants and community,

community and another community, communities and

institutions, community and society. We should therefore

adopt a design approach based on participation, in order to

use the knowledge of the participants to getter better results.

We can therefore say that a project directed to an Open Peer-

to-Peer community should be itself Open Peer-to-Peer, based

on the participation of the community to the design process

(open: open to the participation), to whose members is

recognized an equal and active role (peer-to-peer: the

acknowledgment of other peoples competences and

expertise). An Open Peer-to-Peer design process therefore

becomes aco-design process, where designer and participants

collaborate in a wider design community (which is a

collective intelligence). The designer therefore assumes a

specific role in the projects directed to Open Peer-to-Peer

communities.


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Thanks to his/her competences, a designer can supply the

instruments for self-organization and the optimal conditions

for an activity to take form, assuming a role ofan enabler and

not of a provider (or supplier of defined solutions). No more a

simple supplier of his/her own creativity, but an enabler of

distributed creativity. No more a simple design process that

produces definitive solutions, but a design process that

support communities so that they can develop appropriate

solutions to their own needs and characteristics.

We can see that the same shift is happening in the local

institutions too, where local government is transforming

itself into governance. A redefinition of the role of the local

institution that becomes an enabler of the participation and

the coordination between public entities and private and

social ones, and not a provider of rules and services20.

A designer can be an enabler naturally, since his/her

competences make him/her able to establish connections

between customers and enterprises, therefore mediating

between different interests. Thanks to his/her abilities to

visualize in advance, a designer can at the same time manage

multiple and discordant interests, remembering the

20. Vicari Haddock S. (2004)


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advantages that derive from a collective collaboration.

Moreover, an enabler should supply support to reach the self-

organization of the members in the short term, avoiding to

render them depending on him/her in the long term. The goal

of a designer is therefore the social enabler of the

development of communities; the role that Linus Torvalds

chose to assume in the development of Linux, avoiding the

more traditional one of designer-provider21.

21. Kuwabara K. (2000)


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10 First examples of an Open and P2PDesign

In order to see how an Open P2P methodology has real and

especially topical potentials for application, we can point out

some first cases of design projects based on strategies of

openness and user involvement in the project and usage stage

of the product/service offered . These projects are the Open

Health project developed by the design team RED (the first in

chronological order, and even today one of the most

innovative), the Openmoko mobile and the VIA OpenBook

subnotebook. These three cases offer first reflections and

attempts of Co-created Service Design, Open Design and Open

Hardware initiatives: cases that share openness of the project

through peer-to-peer dynamics and community building.

The goal here is not to present a complete list of cases and

their analysis, but to provide a starting point for discussion, a

proof of the validity of the Open P2P methodology and its

integration into the world of design. Before the presentation

of the individual cases, we can notice how they present open

or p2p dynamics, but never both at the same time. Openmoko

and VIA OpenBook are projects whose source codes were

opened, but where the building of p2p dynamics was not

explicitly sought (they are Open Design projects): they were

B u s i n e s s / S e r v i c e

C o m m u n i t y - b a s e d S e r v i c e s

M o b i l e

O p e n S o u r c e F r e e S o f t w a r e

C o - c r e a t i o n

P r o d u c t D e s i g n

S e r v i c e D e s i g n

O p e n H a r d w a r e

T e c h n o l o g y


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h t t p : / / w w w . d e s i g n c o u n c i l . i n f o / R E D /

left to develop on their own. The Open Health project instead

aimed at facilitating the emergence of p2p dynamics (P2P

Design), but the project is not open (it was so only in a short

period of confrontation during its initial development).

An Open P2P project instead, covers both the opening of the

project, of its source code, and the facilitation of the

emergence of p2p dynamics: is not only about the publication

of a code, but about the facilitation of a social system through

the use of a project code. In the next chapter the proposal for

a methodology for an Open P2P Design will be presented more

in detail.

10.01 Co-created Service Design: RED's Open Health

Open Health is one of the first example of P2P-inspired

Design. After a careful reflection, Hilary Cottam and Charles

Leadbeater developed this experimental project of reform of

public services within the RED design unit of the British

Design Council, which, during its lifetime, proposed new

approaches to economic and social problems through

innovative uses of design.

During its existence, RED eveloped its projects explicitly

relying on the principles developed by the movement of Open

Source software, i.e. developing concepts very rapidly and

making them questionable even outside the division.


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Cottam and Leadbeater, i.e. a community of users and

professionals who work using all the resources already

existing in innovative ways, based on a common platform that

makes possible the activity of many participants without

having the need for an hierarchy of control. Communities that

are similar in some characteristics to the community of Open

Source software, even if their activity depends on the

characteristics of all stakeholders of the health system.

The prevention and cure of chronic diseases can therefore also

occur in the homes if we give people advice, technologies and

services, particularly through support groups: the knowledge,

skills and experience spread between people allow the

construction of a network of relationships and collaborations.

Solutions to deal with unhealthy lifestyles will be created only

if a system of all actors, where resources, knowledge, advice

and funding will be distributed outside of public institutions,

between communities and individual citizens. In this way the

same citizens and communities will be themselves

protagonists in the elaboration of collective solutions careful

tolocal conditions.

Therefore we must distribute knowledge now found only

within the institutions, use the resources that already some

people have them become agents for the provision of support

to other citizens (peer-to-peer).


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h t t p : / / w w w . a c t i v m o b . c o m

h t t p : / / w w w . d e s i g n c o u n c i l . i n f o / m t / R E D / f i l e s / R E D A c t i v m o b s . p d f

With these considerations in mind, the RED division developed

two projects in collaboration with two localities, Kent and

Bolton, as prototypes for testing future services which are not

yet ready for introduction throughout the whole country.

In the city of Kent the problem addressed was of an ageing

population, while in the city of Bolton was addressed the issue

of management of chronic diseases, in this case diabetes.

The projects were developed in six months by the RED design

team that consisted of designers, doctors, economists,

anthropologists and politics experts, in collaboration with

professionals, local services employees and residents of the

two localities.

The problem addressed in the city of Kent was to encourage

people (initially aged between 50 and 70 years) to play physical

activities in order to reduce the chances of problems related

to old age, such as fractures, osteoporosis, diabetes, etc..

The design team developed Activmobs, a service aimed at

providing support for people who want to maintain their good

state of health while carrying out physical activities and

following their inclinations. A mob is formed by a group of

acquaintances who, together, play a regular physical activity

(such as gardening or walking with the dog).

The service, whose communicative artefacts are a magazine

and a website, allows the self-organization of the activities by


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the mob, and their networking with trainers and resources.

The magazine, the website, mob groups, the roles of "trainers"

and "motivators" are part of the service system co-designed

and co-managed by citizens and professionals.

A group already formed can register through the website,

choose its activities and build a timetable for the conduct.

Through the website, individuals can look for mobs in their

area, mobs looking for participants can reach a minimum

number of participants or suggest an activity to form a mob

(also taking inspiration from a special site section that gives

advices and examples).

When one of these mobs is formed, its founder (motivator)

receives a special coupon, which can be used to cover the

costs of organizing the mob or to attend courses to become a

trainer for mobs. The trainers are chosen after an interview,

and can help the mobs to choose their activities, to improve

their effectiveness for the physical health, and help setting

targets to be achieved through the activity, which will be

rewarded. Targets may be based on the presence of

participants, on a space distribution, on a time distribution or

on a score achieved.

The participants can also choose individual goals, and once all

components of the mob have achieved them, the whole mob

earns a reward. In this way the components of the mob


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encourage each other in order to achieve the objectives, just

as it happens in the microcredit services developed by the

Grameen Bank.

The magazine show ideas, interviews with mobs, list of

existing mobs and recommendations, awards, instructions on

how to organize the mob, interviews to trainers and

motivators, list oftrainers divided by area, list of facilities that

can be used and so on. The website shows all the information

on the magazine, and also allows the mob to self-organize

themselves keeping in contact and looking over personal and

collective progress. The members of the mob compile fact

sheets every three months on the website in order to monitor

their progress, receiving in return a score and coupon for

activities within the mob or for their family.

In the second project, developed in the town of Bolton, the

RED design team addressed patients suffering from diabetes,

about one every ten families. In this case the team proposed a

co-created service based on the encounter of top-down and

bottom-up initiatives for the distribution of resources and to

encourage patients to follow more healthy lifestyles.

The service developed tries to provide an interface between

citizens suffering from diabetes, so that they can support each

other through peer-to-peer dynamics, and between them and

doctors, encouraging the sharing of their knowledge.


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w w w . d e s i g n c o u n c i l . i n f o / m t / R E D / p u b l i c a t i o n s / p u b l i c a t i o n s c o n t a i n e r / m e 2 _ s t o r y . p d f

The RED design team developed a service based on two

approaches to resolve the problem. The first concerns the

development of a set of cards (Agenda cards) that patients and

physicians use during their meetings to improve their

communication, because patients are not always able to

communicate their feelings about diabetes. The advantage of

cards is the easy and short prototyping and testing time, using

the feedback of the participants to direct the further

development of the project.

The second approach consists in a consulting service called

Me2Coach Service, where people with a long experience of

living with the disease play the role of coaches of people

affected by the problem only recently, who knows what

changes are to be undertaken but are not quite willing to act

yet. The coaches, with their long experience, provide valuable

advices outside the public health service, thus constituting a

not hierarchical service where participants are at the same

level and have the same problems: on a peer-to-peer basis.

10.02 Open Design, Open Source Software and Open

Hardware: Openmoko

The case of Openmoko plays a crucial role here, because it

represents the most complete case of the first mass product

completely open source. Therefore, this is the first example of


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h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n m o k o . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n m o k o . o r g /

h t t p : / / w w w . r o n e n - k a d u s h i n . c o m / O p e n _ D e s i g n . a s p

h t t p : / / w w w . g u i x e . c o m / e x h i b i t i o n s / 2 0 0 3 _ m t k s - l i s b o a / i n d e x . h t m l

a realOpen Design, not tied to individual experiments or niche

markets (albeit very important): the first example of how open

source philosophy can be adopted not only in areas different

from programming and production of knowledge, but also in a

production of physical goods, rival goods.

It's the Openmoko organization, a project aimed at designing

a completely open source smartphone, first for its software,

and now also for its hardware and design. We can say that

this is the first, true, open source mass product design, as the

previous examples have not pursued completely the Open

Source philosophy, or because they have had limited results,

or, lastly, because the context was not ready for such

initiatives.

Thinkcycle, which is the first and most developed Open

Design example (at least so far), was an experiment aimed at

niche markets, and for this reason should deserve even more

importance because it was aimed at helping disadvantaged

contexts, but still limited in the results and in influence on the

world of design as too ahead of the spread of Open Source

awareness in society. Ronen Kadushin's initiative, although

worthy, represents only a solitary experiment without broad

appeal and development. Mart Guix's proposal takes the

Open Source just as a metaphor and try to adopt some of its

collateral features, i.e. that he looks for certain aspects of

h t t p : / / w w w . t h i n k c y c l e . o r g /


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h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n m o k o . c o m / p r o d u c t s - n e o - b a s e - 0 0 - s t d k i t . h t m l

h t t p : / / w w w . f i c . c o m . t w /

h t t p : / / w i k i . o p e n m o k o . o r g / w i k i / N e o 1 9 7 3

h t t p : / / d o w n l o a d s . o p e n m o k o . o r g / C A D /

h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n m o k o . c o m

open source software that he can apply to products too, but

in substance this is not Open Design.

The Openmoko initiative (in its first incarnation, Neo1973,

produced byFIC) is so important because the adoption of the

Open Source philosophy is not an experiment but a real

initiative. We have gone beyond the stage of inspiration and

experimentation for Open Design, to a stage where it is put

into practice by big companies too. Of course,

experimentation is not over and should be pursued further,

but now we are talking about a product that the general

public will see in stores and that is in competition with the

most expected product of the moment, the Apple iPhone.

And this referring to the freedom that this choice of opening

may give the user, just like the philosophy of the Free

Software: "If you cant open it, you dont own it. Our first key

unlocked the software, unleashing the community to recraft the

code. Now, we free the case and share the keys to Industrial

Design. Developers who want to re-craft the case are set free".

It is by no coincidence that we can buy an advancedversion,

bearing all that is needed to open and edit the phone,

enabling itshacking in order to customize and learn from it at

the same time. The distribution of the design files is therefore

a logical consequence; the files (IGES, STEP, ProE), have been

published under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license.


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Picture 07. Openmoko (Source: http://openmoko.com/)


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Picture 08. Openmoko, Open Source Software (Source: http://openmoko.com/)


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Picture 09. Openmoko, Open Hardware (Source: http://openmoko.com/)


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Picture 10. Openmoko, Open Design (Source: http://openmoko.com/)


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h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / V I A _ T e c h n o l o g i e s

h t t p : / / w w w . v i a o p e n b o o k . c o m

The fact that a mobile phone of new generation, a

smartphone, is the first true open source product, makes the

event even more important, because mobile phones represent

a huge potential for the development of community-based

collaborative services. A tool that will enable us in the future

to exploit, enhance and more easily spread the collective

intelligence, because it has the ability to further break down

the barriers of the services, as many more people have access

to mobile phones and feel more comfortable with them than

with computers and the World Wide Web.

Therefore, with an Open P2P design methodology we could

design with/for a community, mobile phones, their software

and their services, according to their specific needs. We are

then able to co-design with a community their collaborative

services and the tools that allow their deployment, even for

small contexts.

10.03 Open Design and Open Hardware: VIA OpenBook

After the first example of a real Open Design mass product, we

have now another example like this, showing us how Open

Business strategies are already understood and spread now.

VIA Technologies, the world's largest independent

manufacturer of motherboard chipsets, from Taiwan,

published the CAD files of his last product:VIA OpenBook.


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Picture 11. VIA OpenBook (Source: http://www.viaopenbook.com/)


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Picture 12. VIA OpenBook (Source: http://www.viaopenbook.com/)


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h t t p : / / w w w . v i a o p e n b o o k . c o m /

The CAD files of this subnotebook are available under a

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

License.

There are many reasons behind such strategies, but mainly

two reasons are the most probable here. First, this move is a

way to lay the foundation basis for the development of an

hackers/modifiers/suppliers/manufacturers ecosystem around

the product. Second, this is a strategic move in the

subnotebook market, which is rising in these months (just see

the Asus eeePC phenomenon). Indeed, an open design product

gives more probabilities that innovation and competition will

eventually shift in other areas: no more in the manufacturing

of a subnotebook but in the construction ofan open peer-to-

peer ecosystem of users and enterprises.

Moreover, VIA is mainly a computer components

manufacturer, not a notebook one: everyone could

manufacture an OpenBook, but will most probably end using

(and therefore buying) VIA's chipsets and motherboards.

Releasing the "source code" of an open design product brings

a positive side-effect that makes a little step further toward

environmental sustainability. Open design products can be

manufactured locally, avoiding therefore the need for long

travel for the finished goods (unfortunately it is not the same

for the raw materials) and fossil fuels consumption and CO2.


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h t t p : / / b l o g . p 2 p f o u n d a t i o n . n e t / h o w - o p e n - i s - v i a s - o p e n b o o k - d e s i g n / 2 0 0 8 / 0 6 / 0 7

And as we know everything about this product (it is open) we

can manufacture it and repair it in such a way it will last

longer than other products and then there will be less need to

change it frequently. Sure, these are not great steps toward

sustainability, but we should consider these side-effects too

for anopen and sustainable business.

The openness of VIA OpenBook is considerably very limited

(CAD files relate solely to the plastic shell, while hardware and

its related software remain closed), especially if we compare it

to the Openmoko initiative. Its importance lays therefore in

being another proof that Open Design and Open Hardware

products are a feasible business and that we should pay

attention to the level of openness adopted. Here is an early

analysis that Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation wrote

about Open Hardware:

Closed Hardware: is any hardware for which the creator of the

hardware will not release information on how to make normal

use of the hardware, in such a way that that information may be

freely shared with others. A sure sign of closed hardware is

requiring the signing of an NDA to receive documentation on how

to make use of a device.

Open Interface: In the case of Open Interface hardware, all the


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11 First guidelines for an Open P2PDesign

Unlike a traditional, linear, design process, Open Peer-to-Peer

Design is non-linear and characterized by multiple parallell

processes because of the large number of agents and their

interactions. An Open Peer-to-Peer design process thus

provides the basis for developing more parallel projects, an

ecosystem of designer agents with a memetic evolution of

the projects that are more suitable to the community,whose selection will lead to better results.

An Open Peer-to-Peer design process is characterized by

openness and sharing of the project (the source code, in the

software) of the platform and of the activities that it allows

once provided to the community by the designers.

The community will test and modify it several times and inseveral directions (in the software, compiling the binary

code), until a satisfactory version is reached (the stable

version of the software)and self-organization is ensured.

The source code of the project (community source code)

consists of tools coming from service design, with the

introduction of a description of the reputation levels within

the community, the license that governes cooperation and the

C o m p l e x i t y

D e s i g n

M e t h o d o l o g y

E n a b l e r

P l a t f o r m

O p e n P 2 P


S e l f - o r g a n i z a t i o n

S o c i a l N e t w o r k

A n a l y s i s

P a r t i c i p a t i o n

C o m m u n i t y


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collectively discussed. Now begins a phase of co-design of the

activity/platform, characterized by steady growth of

commitment, energy and visibility from the participants.

At this stage, the concept of activity is developed

collaboratively to get a functioning project, a stable source

code (version 1.0).

The participants test the community source code of the

community simulating the activity, in order to understand

what are the weaknesses, errors (bugs in the community

source code). The source code is subjected to a peer-review

process, in which both the designers (who observe the

simulation) and the participants report errors and the

necessary changes. Once a bug is identified the source code is

modified and again a testing begins with the new code.

In order to simulate the activity, participants must share the

conditions necessary to carry out the activity, represented by

the platform. Rules and roles should be developed and

adopted, and the artifacts that are not already present will be

built or bought. This means that along with the continuation

of the co-design / test process, the platform is implemented

and when the project reaches the stable version, the

participants can begin the regular activity, strengthening then

the sense of community. Once the co-design / test ends, the

project will already be done, there are no phases of production


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nor execution. As in software, then the source code (the

project) gives place to the binary code (the activity done by

the participants).

11.04 Self-organizationAfter the first stable version (1.0.0) of the source code is

reached, the community will be largely formed: during the

simulation / activity new social relationships will have formed.

A stable version of the source code means that it can be

compiled (ie, done) and used by anyone without the

possibility of critical errors. At this stage, therefore, the

community is able to carry out the activity and self-organize

without the contribution of the designer: if his role was that

of a facilitator (enabler), now the community is able to act

successfully alone.

At this point, ideally, the role of the designer is not needed

anymore; however, the community will always need its

contribution in the future: the designer has always knowledge

and expertise useful to provide support to the community in

response to changes in the outside world. Also, if the

community activity is a design one, the desingers capabilities

make them important in the community, and they will

continue to be part of also during the self-organization phase.


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people withthe sameinterestsmeet eachother

self-organization

raise ofsocialawareness

first dicussionsand proposalsabout commonproblems participants

start to gather

decision to

form a community

the minimumcritical massof participantsis reached

analysis

concept design

conceptcommunication

co-design /test /construction

individual participants

energy andvisibility

potential coalescing stable


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Picture 13. Open Peer-to-Peer Design timeline (Source: Menichinelli M. (2006))

communities networks

single communities

stable version

time

self-organization and expansion decline


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Picture 14. Open Peer-to-Peer Design participation matrix

indirect

co-design

conceptdesignanalysis conceptcommunication

participationlevel

none

consultative

sharedcontrol

totalcontrol


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co-design / test

co-design


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h t t p : / / w w w . t i m e . c o m / t i m e / m a g a z i n e / a r t i c l e / 0 , 9 1 7 1 , 1 5 6 9 5 1 4 , 0 0 . h t m l

h t t p : / / n o b e l p r i z e . o r g / n o b e l _ p r i z e s / p e a c e / l a u r e a t e s / 2 0 0 6 / p r e s s . h t m l

These observations represent therefore an initial proposal (1.1)

for an Open Peer-to-Peer design guidelines, in a broader

process of studying a comprehensive methodology.

And then, what are the future opportunities and directions for

the application and study of these design guidelines?


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These Open Peer-to-Peer design steps should be considered

more as guidelines than a complete methodology: we should

apply them, test them, study them more (as in research as in

practice).

And this is the right time to study and tes

openp2pdesign.org 1.1 [in English]

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