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Learning by Sharing How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge Published by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40 53113 Bonn Germany

T + 49 228 4460 - 0 F + 49 228 4460 - 17 66 E [email protected] I www.giz.de 1 | 2 Learning by Sharing How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

Wikipedia is not merely an encyclopedia. It is the result of unprecedented collaborative learning on a global scale. Wikipedia aptly demonstrates that know- ledge can be acquired through various means and that it flourishes via an open, social-media driven web. More and more individuals are compelled to showcase their expertise. This fluid body of information is powerful because it is durable, flexible and globally accessible for all as a “knowledge ”. Published by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Open sharing of knowledge and ideas revolutionizes the way in which global communities cooperate and learn. Learning can be organized in Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40 53113 Bonn based on open licensing and a decentralized, collaborative and non-proprietary Germany process of global knowledge co-creation. This joint learning propels transforma- T + 49 228 4460 - 0 F + 49 228 4460 - 17 66 tion processes and capacity development across borders. E [email protected] I www.giz.de Global knowledge peer production and allows for exactly the Responsible scaling up of technical and social innovations that is currently much debated Dr. Jan Schwaab Sabine Olthof and needed in the international development cooperation world. It also allows

Edited by striking a balance between respecting the intellectual of corporations Christian Kreutz and institutions and giving communities access to advanced knowledge, in a bid Contact person / Ministry to create fair and just conditions for everyone. Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Design / Layout The vision is a self-organized and connected peer-to-peer learning for sustain- Creative Direction: Daniel Tobias Etzel (WAOH) Art Direction: Nora Wirth (3Karat), Katja Rudisch (3Karat) able human development worldwide, turning learning by sharing into a game changer in development cooperation. This work (article) is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License.

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COMMONS-BASED PEER-PRODUCTION’: the end product of this co-production is, in 3. More self-sustainability of learning sys- enhances the intrinsic motivations of learn- turn, available to readers and additional editors tems: The sharing of resources ers, a core ingredient of education (see also A NEW WAY OF LEARNING through an open license, ensuring that all future and the co-creation of outputs contrib- Table 1). The Internet and with it the rise of social net- versions can be shared, traced back to the author utes to a self-sustainable peer-production works have enabled a radically innovative way of and further improved. system1. In this system, new learners drive But what are specific examples of commons- producing knowledge-related goods. Software innovative production of commons goods based peer-to-peer learning? Let us look at Agnes, can now be jointly written by thousands of de- Learning is, in fact, the core of commons-based and thereby stabilize the learning system. a 13-year-old from Norway, Zuizui, a 17-year-old velopers as the operating system ‘Linux’ shows. peer-production (Schmidt 2009) and is most partic- Future learners are guaranteed standardized student from Vietnam, and Nadjetey, a Ghanaian The encyclopedia Wikipedia is updated by ipants’ primary motivator (Ghosh et al. 2002: 45). open (and low cost) access to the learn- computer-science graduate. All three are jointly roughly 1.7 million contributors worldwide. Law ing process and outputs produced, as the learning how to build a website at the “School professor Yochai Benkler has coined the term How Learning Propels Commons-Based “knowledge commons” cannot be privat- of Webcraft”, offered by the peer-to-peer uni- “commons-based peer-production” to describe Peer-Production ized or otherwise misappropriated. versity (P2PU). P2PU is arguably the most rad- this development. He has defined some of the ical peer-to-peer experiment to date. It is strictly characteristics intrinsic to this phenomenon. 1. More freedom to know: Open collabo- 4. More motivation to learn: The joy of peer oriented, with no formal instructor heading ration drives large-scale learning: com- contributing to a ‘public or commons good’ the courses. They seem to live by their motto: Commons-based peer-production is “radically mons-based peer-production widens the dis- decentralized, collaborative and nonproprietary, semination of existing codified knowledge. based on sharing resources and outputs among It also opens up the production and innova- widely distributed, loosely connected individuals tion process itself – enhancing the freedom who cooperate with each other without relying to learn and to know (Schmidt 2009; Wiki- on either marked signals or managerial com- media Deutschland e.V. 2011). mands”, he wrote in his 2006 book “The Wealth of Networks” (Benkler 2006:60). 2. More appropriation of tacit knowledge: Open peer-production is “learning by doing A Wikipedia article is an organic text produced and making” in an enhanced version: It fur- by hundreds of ‘peers’. This free text is not con- nishes a rare and valuable appropriation of trolled by one formal editor-in-chief, but is, in- implicit, tacit knowledge of the unspoken stead, a unifying construct. The document might practices and norms of established practi- be conceptualized by a student in Germany, re- tioners in a given profession. Thereby it en- vised by a farmer in Bolivia, and fine-tuned by ables “learning to be a full participant in the a professor in South Africa. The article is ruled field” (Brown/Adler 2008). by a commons-based license. This means that © istockphoto.com/kimberrywood Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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“We are all teachers and learners”. At the “School ‘CONNECTIVISM’: CREATING 14 Reasons Why Peers Help Peers to of Webcraft”, no one is paid to tutor Agnes, Zuizui, 8. Because you build emotional bonds LEARNING COMMUNITIES and Nadjetey. They support one another through Learn: Why Do They Share Their with people and things the various trials and “challenges”. With over Knowledge? (Table 1) In the field of online sharing and learning, the 3,000 participants in the School of Webcraft 9. Because you feel “meaningful” by “Massive Open Online Course” (“MOOC”) has alone (as of June 2013), there is always someone 1. Because you learn yourself through supporting the community, giving back received a lot of attention. Many are enthusiastic who can help. Nadjetey is one of over 50 parti- co-production and tutoring through reciprocity (putting values such about what elite universities such as the Massa- cipants who act as tutors, or “peers who have of- as fairness, solidarity, and altruism into chusetts Institute of Technology and the Uni- fered their help”. This university does away with 2. Because you win recognition and pres- practice) versity of Harvard are piloting. The two schools the traditional hierarchy between professor and tige from your peers have offered joint online courses that have at- students, but instead puts emphasis on “open ex- 10. Because you know that the result of tracted well over 100,000 students. Much is also ploration and transparency”, according to educa- 3. Because you might further your own your commons-based peer activities will written about the start-up ventures Udacity and tion writer Audrey Watters: interests through the co-production be available to others over time, and Coursera, which managed to enroll over two of knowledge, such as testing new cannot be monopolized or privatized million students in just one year. These ventures »(THE POINT IS TO) PUT OUT IDEAS THAT solutions, benchmarking, mastering a provide a forum to some of the world’s best technology, etc. 11. Because you feel good being associated professors to host their lectures online. The stu- ARE HALF BAKED…(AND) BUILD THEM with a trendy and innovative community dents are then encouraged to participate through 2 THROUGH A NETWORK OF PEOPLE.« 4. Because you can solve a problem that you online forums that help build a joint learning can only solve by collaborating with others 12. Because you get continued access to community. They typically do not offer academic This example shows that self-guided peer-to-peer knowledge, news and services credit aside from, in some cases, a statement of learning processes are working on a global scale. 5. Because you might gain power of completion. But they also do not charge tuition. They are the result of a radical paradigm shift that persuasion within your organisation, 13. Because you enlarge your personal and There are estimates that only about ten percent requires new pedagogical methods, the availability network, or peer group professional networks of students who sign up for courses actually fol- of technologies and concepts that are free enough low them until the end4. And it still remains to to allow commons-based peer production. 6. Because you are proud to co-own a 14. Because you can freely choose topics be seen whether mass distribution of centralized tangible “product” according to your interests online lectures will ultimately be incorporated But why does Nadjetey from Ghana want to help into the formal educational system or whether Agnes from Norway build a website? Research 7. Because you have the freedom to Sources: GTZ 2006: 43; Wenger et al. 2011; Preece/Sh- they are just briefly hyped by universities and suggests that there is a whole set of motivations co-create knowledge or goods, which neiderman 2009; Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. 2011: 125ff; venture capitalists searching for new revenue that makes people share their knowledge, a mix- increases autonomy and self-direction, Ghosh et al. 2002: 43-50; Pyne 2010 3; own considerations. sources and recognition. ture between altruistic and self-serving motives and thereby motivation summed up in the following table: This article will, therefore, go beyond the Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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MOOC. It will dwell, instead, upon the original constructivism, social learning, distributed cogni- lows6: “1) Aggregation: […] a starting point for pedagogical model that lies at the heart of the tion or Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory. • Learning and knowledge rests in di- content to be produced in different places online, MOCC experience, which was co-shaped by two Some of the theories around online community versity of opinions. which is later aggregated and accessible to partic- Canadian learning specialists: George Siemens learning trace their roots all the way back to the ipants on a regular basis. 2) Remixing: Learners of Athabasca University and Stephen Downes. early notion of “Bildung” that sees education as • Learning is a process of connecting spe- associate materials created within the course with the process of shaping oneself and the world as cialized nodes, or information sources. one another, and with materials elsewhere. 3) The relationship between work experience, com- put forth by German writers and thinkers Wil- Re-purposing: Aggregated and remixed materials munal learning, and knowledge is at the heart helm von Humboldt and Friedrich Schiller in the • Learning may reside in non-human are to be re-purposed to suit the goals of each of connectivism – as is expressed in ‘connec- late 18th and early 19th century (Deimann et al.: appliances: learning can rest in a com- participant. Finally, 4) Feeding forward: the shar- tivity’. Accordingly, “to teach is to model and 2013). munity, a network, or a database. ing of re-purposed ideas and content with others demonstrate, to learn is to practice and reflect” and the rest of the world.” (Downes 2007). Thereby, connectivism builds The learning concept of connectivism under- • Learning is more critical than knowing. on earlier practice- and community-oriented stands learning according to the following eight These modes of operation form an integral part pedagogical frameworks and theories such as principles5: • Maintaining and nurturing connections is of a peer-learning oriented pedagogy. The “open needed to facilitate continual learning. learning layer” (Seibold 2009:264) includes:

• Perceiving connections between fields, • the open licensing of content as spearhead- ideas and concepts is a core skill. ed by the “Open Educational Resources” (OER) movement (Wiley 2009), • Currency – as accurate, up-to-date know- ledge – is the intent of learning activities. • the focus on ‘self-empowering’ study groups of self-organized peers (peeragogy. • Decision-making is in itself a learning org 2013) process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen • the open structure and learning goals through the lens of a shifting reality. In a connectivist world, learning by sharing is the only sustainable way of learning. This moves the What does this mean for the connectivist Open Cartesian dictum of “I think, therefore I am”, Online Courses? Four methods have been iden- to a “We participate, therefore we are”, as John tified and summed up by the peer-producers of Brown and Richard Adler nicely (Brown/Adler P2PU.ORG the Wikipedia article on connectivism as fol- 2008: 18) nicely put it. Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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EMPOWERING AFRICAN Good Practices of Organizing Learning • Provide a thoughtful sequence of learning events and spaces IT COMPANIES in Peer-Production Across Borders (Table 2) • Address quality and certification issues thr- Frank Tilugulilwa is an IT trainer in Tanzania. He Participation and self-governance: ough learner created assessments and badges7 teaches local IT companies how to build services • Let peers handle the co-facilitation of learning and revenues around so-called “Free and Open • Foster self-election of roles based on merit Source Software”. Such software can be copied or other community values and modified by every company and every indi- Motivation and cross-border trust vidual client. Frank has written a training man- • Support different commitment levels that • Make it fun to contribute ual with over 80 other IT trainers and experts accommodate newcomers and facilitate the • Encourage, reward and recognize contributions throughout Africa (and from elsewhere in the ‘migration to more demanding roles’ world) in an example of a community-generat- ed learning content. His experience with com- • Value and respect mentorship and merito- • Stay close to real-world practical knowledge mons-based peer production started back in cratic leadership, give it visibility of contributors: turn their working environ- 2008 when almost no training materials rooted Frank Ilugulilwa - IT Trainer in Tanzania ment into the learning environment • Gear self-governance and infrastructure in an African context were available. Frank and governance towards , freedom and • Create relatedness, empathy and trust across other African IT and business experts deve- munity of more than 1,200 co-learners, co-pro- autonomy boundaries loped over 250 pages of practical, open-licensed, ducers and businesses (UNCTAD 2012: 65f). modular training material. This has also resulted • Document participation and self-governance • Break language barriers through accurate in a vibrant community of trainers who have a This example can serve as a starting point to pro- processes and provide them as step-by-step translation strong sense of of their subjects and vide good practice measures on how initiatives guides who know and trust each other. They are sharing can structure learning around peer-production • Address cultural differences in collaboration their knowledge amongst themselves and their processes. The following points are guidelines • Focus on communication, provide explicit styles, recognition systems, norms trainees, local IT companies across the continent. for those who wish to initiate or participate in discussion prompts, build feedback loops Again, we see the power of peer-to-peer learning cross-border commons-based learning commu- • Set only a minimum of rules to let room for • Provide for multiple perspectives on common centered around a knowledge commons: the pro- nities – incorporating own experiences, recom- emergent behavior problems and challenges cess began as a capacity building program called mendations of the “Peeragogy Handbook” of ict@innovation launched by German develop- 2013 and other sources. It looks at how commu- • Seed and grow the community through • Use an open license, which is in line with the ment agency GIZ. The project aimed at creating nity empowerment managers can foster global open calls business or non-market goals of participants business and learning opportunities with free and “participatory cultures”, as media scholar Henry open source software in Africa. Now it is a com- Jenkins has put it. Sources: peeragogy.org (2013: 31ff, 53ff); Fischer (2011: 46, 52); Bacon (2012: 126, 151ff); Hagemann/Seibold 2013; Ahn et al. 2013; Jenkins 2006; Fuster Morell 2010; Zhang et al. 2012; Wenger et al. 2011; and Preece/Shneiderman 2009 Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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HOW PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING Anyone, including Jaime, John, and numerous ADVANCES GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION others, can tinker with and improve the designs of tube digesters. This is only possible, how- Some critics argue that commons-based peer ever, if the instruction on how to build a tube production and learning only apply in the digester is available as a shared resource. digital, non-real world (“building websites”, Therefor many of the fledgling peer produc- “building online training material”). The con- tion platforms, such as energypedia, apprope- cept, they say, is therefore less of interest to dia, opensourceecology, Howtopedia, knowa- international and development cooperation, ble, or Fabwiki have deliberately chosen open which focuses on non-digital environments models and ‘open source’ licenses that enable and “hard” topics such as health, energy or “commons-based peer production” as envi- agriculture. sioned by Yochai Benkler. Only ‘open source’ licensing can spur , invention, Jaime from Bolivia and John from Rwanda are and innovation processes that come with it. not in the business of building websites. They are in the business of building tube digesters Hubs for commons-based peer production ENERGYPEDIA.INFO to support local biogas production in rural for sustainable human development Bolivia and in rural Rwanda. They live 6,515 miles apart, but they both use the same manual • Appropedia • Knowable open learning and practical improvement on a to build the tank. It is one of 822 open on- community-level; nevertheless, many of them line articles packed with practical production • Energypedia • Public Laboratory for Open Technology have a global reach. This is, in fact, what makes know-ledge on the knowledge commons plat- and Science commons-based peer production and learning so form energypedia. The platform’s vision is “a • Fabwiki relevant in the context of current debates in in- world of free knowledge exchange and mutual • WikiEducator ternational development cooperation. learning on renewable energies in which every- • Global Innovation Commons one has access to sustainable energy sources.” • Wikiversity & Wikibooks EMPOWERMENT, OWNERSHIP • Global Village Construction Set/open- AND SUSTAINABILITY Building a tube digester based on specific sourceecology More examples of hubs with a focus on “pro- needs of local communities is a concept duction”, on “peer-driven production” and on International development cooperation tries to that dates back to the “appropriate technol- • Howtopedia “commons-based initiatives” for human devel- trigger and support sustainable human develop- ogies” movement. But now, global and open opment are listed and described online at 10in- ment by catalyzing transformation processes peer-learning can be unleashed on top of it. novations.net. All those chosen above focus on worldwide. This is often described as “capacity Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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development”. Capacity development is defined ples of implementing capacity development, editing process. Finally, commons-based models of operation by the Organisation for Economic Co-oper- which are empowerment, local adaptability, have proven to be quite flexible and robust be- ation and Development (OECD) as “the pro- ownership, participation, value creation, scalabil- Value creation/Benefit creation: Values created cause of their open and participatory governance cess whereby people, organisations and society ity, decentralization and sustainability. Here are through peer learning and production include options (see Wikipedia). This allows for a perpet- as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt and some of the reasons why commons-based peer knowledge distribution, monetary value, recog- uation of decentralized learning and correspon- maintain capacity over time”. learning and peer-production has the potential nition, trust, satisfaction and the personal and so- ding peer production systems. to become a key tool to advance core principles cial value of the learning process itself. Learners Hence, sustainable learning and transformation is of sustainable capacity development8: and producers have the freedom to define and These learning processes also fit in well with two at the core of sustainable capacity development. shape their metrics of such value creation or pressing needs in international cooperation: the This is what the learning processes around com- Empowerment and local adaptability: Learn- benefit creation – according to the rules of the need to move towards scaling up of development mons-based peer production are all about. Here ers can fully shape and control their learning respective commons and according to their core solutions and the need to move towards know- we “find evidence of learning in collective action process, setting and resources, which allows motivations. ledge sharing as part of an emerging global ethics and/or behavioral change in groups rather than a for further change as well as for easy adaption of fairness. psychological process in individuals” (peeragogy. to local circumstances. Producers control their Scalability and decentralisation: Learners and THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE COMMONS: org 2013: 73). joint production systems. For example, a school providers of peer learning as well as peer-pro- IT admin in Uganda is able to localise learning ducers have the ability to scale to the global level TRIGGERING SCALING UP Such a step-up from simply increasing the know- software and learning material and provide it in and at the same time decentralize the learning Open innovation – often based on open licens- ledge of individuals to action and sustained be- local language. and production process to the local level. This ing and commons-approaches – is changing the havioral change on the level of communities can be achieved through modular designs, co- business models of more and more businesses and organizations is one of the thorniest issues Ownership: Learners and their institutions co- creation oriented methods and open licensing. and social institutions. Before the advent of inherent in both adult education and capacity own the commons-based learning setting and its One example are massive open online courses, open innovation, innovation was kept within the development. Learning modes and principles of resources. All of them have equal and free access but also the development of the Linux operating boundaries of the firm (or research institution). open, commons-based peer-production therefor to learning and support from peers. Likewise, system in different flavors and languages by tens In contrast, “Open innovation is a paradigm that have the potential to provide the “gold standard” producers own the commons-based production of thousands of software developers. assumes that firms can and should use external of enhancing future skills, competencies, connec- setting. For example, the producers of the biogas ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and tions, capacities of people and their organisations production plants mentioned above co-own the Sustainability: The availability of the learning external paths to markets, as the firms look to on a global scale. In short: peer-to-peer learning technology blueprints with the global community. process and learning resources as a commons for advance their technology”, scholar Henry Ches- around open, commons-based peer-production future learners is one of the key factors that adds brough, who coined the term open innovation, is a game changer in international development Participation: Learners and producers fully to the sustainability of peer learning. Secondly, has put it. But what opportunities does this imply cooperation. participate in a commons-based learning envi- sustained ‘learning by doing’ in peer communities for institutions in developing countries? What are ronment. For example, every author of a Wiki- fosters durable capacities to cope with change. their learning opportunities? This becomes clear when looking at the princi- pedia article is part of a joint and collaborative Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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Let’s take a look again at the global tech sector ledge Commons’ held in September 2012. It as a starting point (for more details, see Seibold covered research areas ranging from an „Open 2010a). Here, the most prominent example of Source Drug Discovery“ program in India to a free and open source software development and massive push for Open Licensing of Plant Ge- licensing are the operating system Linux, the of- netic Resources9. In all of these fields, research- fice suite Open Office and the web browser Fire- ers inventors and businesses are looking at how a fox. Linux has shown that open-source programs collective build-up of knowledge can help solve can be very competitive. The reason is obvious: protracted global problems. more people know the source code and, accord- ingly, can correct flaws and make other improve- The exact modes of knowledge sharing are quite ments. For the private sector in developing coun- complex and differ from commons to commons; tries, such knowledge commons provide a clear However, many of these knowledge commons opportunity, not only for low-cost access to glob- are starting to be built around an „open source al state-of-the-art knowledge, technology trans- commons“ with a “” approach. As a re- fer, and open peer-learning on a massive scale minder, open source means that all future pro- (see Seibold 2009, Seibold 2010a, Seibold 2010b; ducers have access to the end product’s source CC WORLDBANK PHOTO COLLECTION http://goo.gl/g25U8y UNCTAD 2012: 9ff), but also because they have material and the freedom to improve and change the potential to empower local businesses and it. Under the copyleft approach, all modified and communities in developing countries. This cre- extended versions of the product have to be re- innovate“ and the „automatic expansion of the is often as follows: “I ask the crowd for ideas, ates truly local open innovation by appropriating leased and distributed with the same rights. This knowledge commons“ for all, who participate – but then I privatize the fruits of the co-creation elements of outside open innovations and trans- ensures that all versions are protected against and for the rest of the world as well. as my innovation”. We do, however, know that forming them into a product or service that is misappropriation of the commons. For example, more and more entrepreneurs are finding oper- relevant to local needs. the open licensing of the International Treaty We still do not know how business models re- ating models based on the knowledge commons on for Food and Agri- flecting open innovation and respective ground and open source. For many decades, a group of researchers led culture can prevent global plant companies to rules of international trade will evolve globally. by the late Nobel Prize winner privatize knowledge on top of a commons, be- We also do not know how much open innovation A McKinsey report by authors Markus Reitzig has looked at how communities share ‘com- cause the copyleft licensing requires them to will be centered around the commons and com- and Oliver Alexy therefore predicts that open mon-pool resources’ and ‘club goods’ over time. share the improved versions again10. In short, mons-based peer production, in which (some) source competition will gain traction in a num- This network has just charted the future of glob- such an approach is a “license to innovate freely”. cannot be privatized and ber of mainstream industries, such as machinery, al knowledge commons through its ‘First Inter- In the view of the author of this text, the copy- which parts will in contrast remain within the communication equipment, medical and optical national Thematic Conference on the Know- left model may turn out to be the only one, which realm of companies that understand open inno- instruments or fabricated metal. “Consider con- – in the long run – secures both the „freedom to vation in a ‘non-open-source’ way. Their strategy struction cranes … software runs all the drive, Brochure 07/10 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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calibration, safety and security systems … and development experts. They have been working • allow for mutability what burdens and benefits of social cooperation some crane manufacturers have started to adopt on the protracted problem of how to scale up de- might fall to him/her once the veil is lifted. With open-source software” (Reitzig/Alexy 2012, sec- velopment interventions to achieve more impact. Commons-based open innovation therefor has this knowledge blocked, parties to the original tion “Will open competition gain traction in your They now claim that such forms of open inno- the potential to reinforce both innovative busi- position must decide on principles for the distri- industry”). vation around the commons and collaborative in- ness models and promising ways of scaling up bution of rights, positions and resources in their tellectual property might be the key to a solution: development. Both will, in turn, reinforce and re- society (Wikipedia-Article).” A strong business model can be defined as “open quire -based peer learning on a everything, and let people pay for service”. »OPEN INNOVATION ENABLES COM- broad scale. Indeed, we are witnessing a growing If we transfer this thought experiment to a glob- More and more enterprises around the world are MUNITY PARTICIPATION, DISTRIBUTED relationship: “Both creative economies and open al level, Rawls principles clearly leads towards choosing this approach, also in Africa. The ict@ education encourage collective knowledge, which an ethics of equal access and open sharing of ACCOUNTABILITY, AND KNOWLEDGE innovation programme identified a number of can spur individual contributions and coopera- knowledge: Unsurprisingly, corresponding claims successful IT business models around the free CREATION – ALL BEHAVIORS THAT PRO- tion in the production of knowledge”, authors are growing in international development coop- and open source software commons (FOSSFA/ VIDE THE GROUNDWORK FOR SCALE” have put it in a book on the impact of an open eration. The latest communique of the “Fourth InWEnt 2010). (CLAY/PAUL 2012: 17).« society on education by scholar Michael Peters High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness”, an in- and others (Peters et al. 2012). ternational policy forum of OECD, features re- Other emerging examples of such collaborative Accordingly, the five recommendations on scal- peated calls for “knowledge sharing” “peer learn- intellectual property in Africa range from infor- ing up according to authors Alexa Clay and Paul GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE SHARING: ing”, “knowledge co-creation”, and “peer-peer 11 mal automotive engineering in Uganda, com- Roshan echo the processes of organising learn- JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS support” (OECD 2012) for the very first time. mons-based approaches to ing in commons-based peer production: This policy shift was likely triggered by a range of in South Africa, commons elements seemingly What rules would you design for global know- motives, including the pragmatic search for more present in Egypt’s independent music industry How to organize commons-based peer pro- ledge sharing, if you didn’t know whether you appropriate peer learning between countries to willingness to engage with open scholarship duction and learning in order to maximize will be born as a German with a university de- sharing similar challenges; however, it also con- modalities in Kenya. All were just analyzed and scaling up of development interventions: gree and high-speed internet or as a rural Indian tains the idea of a more equal, and thereby more summed up by members of the African expert without access to books? just, exchange and co-creation of knowledge. network “Open AIR” in their volume “Innova- • turn beneficiaries into co-creators tion and Intellectual Property - Collaborative Dy- Philosopher John Rawls posed such queries in his Such a notion echoes some of the analytical namics in Africa”, edited by scholars Jeremy de • move from enterprise to ecosystem book “Justice as Fairness”. His question is: What groundwork done by UNESCO, and other UN Beer, Chris Armstrong, Chidi Oguamanam and do we mean by “justice”, if – as a thought experi- agencies, at the two information society world Tobias Schonwetter (see references). • master the art of gifting ment - “parties … know nothing about their par- summits of 2003 and 2005. Reports, such as ticular abilities, tastes, and position within the so- UNESCO’s “Towards knowledge societies”, These in turn are starting to excite for- • spark entrepreneurship inside and outside cial order of society. The veil of ignorance blocks made the case for the moral requirement of ward-looking policy makers and human capacity your organisation off this knowledge, such that one does not know moving “from the knowledge divide to know- Brochure 06 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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ledge sharing” on a global level (see also Seibold around echo such a blend of CONCLUSION 2009: 262ff). principles, be it the community-built “Cape Sustainable human development needs solutions Town Open Education Declaration” of 2007 or that scale, empower, benefit, and increase own- Previously, however, the antagonism between a the “Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in ership. Peer-to-peer learning is a potential game model of private information ownership in the the Digital Age” of 2013. changer: the trick is to build learning processes form of patents and copyright and the need around open, commons-based peer production. to advance “global public goods” could not be Yochai Benkler has done a thorough job in analyz- Only then may one achieve more freedom to solved by policy makers. In the binary world ing all liberal theories of justice and applying them know, more appropriation of tacit knowledge, view of the 20th century, knowledge (and related to “commons-based strategies for human welfare more self-sustainability of demand-driven learn- learning) was either a proprietary good, or was and development”. His credo clearly points us to- ing systems, and more ownership. In addition, considered a , as exhibited by the wards the need to move towards global knowledge the inherent fairness of an open “knowledge development thinker Inge Kaul, among others. sharing as part of efforts to make the world a place commons” provides opportunities for unfettered Education and learning, in turn, was either seen that is fairer and more just. open innovation and the scaling up of develop- as a private enterprise of learners and educational ment solutions. Commons-based peer learning institutions, or as a human right as in the United “Equality of opportunity to act in the face of une- offers a trigger to enhance skills, competencies, Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights qual endowment is central to all liberal theories of connections, capacities, and the agency of people and UNESCO’s “Education for All” reports. justice …Commons-based and peer production and their organisations on a global scale - from efforts may not be a cure-all. However … these the global peer-to-peer university to the commu- Interestingly, commons-based peer learning and strategies can make a big contribution to quite nity of biogas digesters producers. It provides production now have the potential to reconcile fundamental aspects of human welfare and devel- the freedom to learn - by sharing the world’s some of the most acute clashes in the recent past, opment. And this is where freedom and justice coincide”, wealth of knowledge. stemming from various ethos of ethical sharing. Benkler wrote in his 2006 book (p. 355). The “knowledge commons” can be considered a new middle ground. It offers solutions that re- spect global moral imperatives of fair distribution of relevant knowledge, skills and the freedom to learn, while maintaining some property-based principles such as business models, distribution models, appropriation models and sustainability models.

Recent efforts to formulate a global set of rights Brochure 06 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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References Rheingold, Howard (2012): “Toward Peeragogy”, DMLCentral [Blog], 2012, January 23. Ahn, June; Weng, Cindy; Butler, Brian S. (2013): “The Dynamics of Open, Peer-to-Peer Learning: what Factors Influence Participation in the P2P University?”. Schmidt, Philipp; Geith, Christiane; Haklev, Stian; Thierstein, Joel (2009): “Peer-To-Peer Recognition of Learning in Open Education”.

Bacon, Jono (2012): “The Art of Community. Building the New Age of Participation”. Schmidt, Philipp (2009): “Commons-based peer production and education”.

Benkler, Yochai (2006): “The Wealth of networks. How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom”. Seibold, Balthas (2009): The global digital divide is an innovation and learning divide. Ethical challenges and solutions based on capacity building. In: Dabrowski, Martin / Aufderheide, Detlef (Ed.) (2009): Internetökonomie und Ethik, p. 255 - 267. Brown, John; Adler, Richard (2008): “Minds on Fire. Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0”, Educause Review, January/ February 2008. Seibold, Balthas (2010a): „Unleashing Open Innovation Systems. International Experiences and Potentials for Developing Countries“, in GTZ: “Strengthening Innovation Systems in the Context of Development Cooperation”, pp. 87-92. Clay, Alexa; Roshan, Paul (2012): „Open Innovation: A Muse for Scaling“, Stanford Social Innovation Review. Seibold, Balthas; Winter, Phillip (2010b): Freedom to innovate - To close the innovation divide, it makes sense to bank on open innova- de Beer, Jeremy; Armstrong, Chris; Oguamanam, Chidi; Schonwetter, Tobias (Eds.) (2013): “Innovation and Intellectual Property - Col- tion & digital knowledge commons. In: Development + Cooperation. 2010/04, p. 170-172. laborative Dynamics in Africa”, Cape Town. UNCTAD (2012): “Information Economy Report 2012: The Software Industry and Developing Countries”. Deimann, Markus et al. (2013): “How does Open Education (OE) work?”. In: Andreas Meiszner & Lin Squires (Eds): “Advances in Digital Education and Lifelong Learning”, Vol 1 “Openness and Education”. UNESCO (1972): “Learning to be: The world of education today and tomorrow”. Paris.

Downes, Stephen (2007): “What Connectivism Is”, in Half an Hour [Blogpost]. Wenger, Etienne; Trayner, Beverly; de Laat, Maarten (2011): “Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: a conceptual framework”, Rapport 18, Open Universiteit. Dulong de Rosnay, Mélanie, Le Crosnier, Hervé (2012): “An Introduction to the Digital Commons: From Common-Pool Resources to Community Governance”. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. (2011): „Alles über Wikipedia”, Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, Hamburg. Online at:

Fischer, Gerhard (2011): „Understanding, Fostering, and Supporting Cultures of Participation“, interactions Volume XVIII.3, May/June 2011. Wiley, D. (2009): “Defining Open‘“, OpenContent [Blog], November 16, 2009.

FOSSFA; InWEnt (2010): “ict@innovation: Free your IT-Business in Africa! Advanced Training Material on African Free and Open Zhang, Tingting; Wang, William Yu Chung; Techatassanasoontorn, Angsana (2012): “User Participation In Self-Governance In So- Source Software (FOSS) Business Models for IT-SMEs” cio-Technical Communities”, PACIS 2012 Proceedings. Paper 108.

Fuster Morell, Mayo (2010): “Governance of online creation communities. Provision of infrastructure for the building of digital com- Endnotes mons”, Doctoral thesis. Florence. 1 More information on mechanisms to sustain a “knowledge commons” over time in Dulong de Rosnay / Le Crosnier 2012 or Benkler 2006 p. 91- 132 Ghosh, Rishab; Glott, Ruediger; Krieger, Bernhard; Robles, Gregorio (2002): „ Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study. Part 4: Survey of Developers“.Maastricht University. 2 See recording of Watters, Audrey; Hill, Mako; Schmidt, Philipp (2013, March 10): ‘Session 5 - Open Learning’, Part of the course Learning Creative Learning, MIT Media Lab. GTZ (2006): “Work the Net. A Management Guide for Formal Networks”. 3 Pyne, Becca; Stephenson, Abi; Cognitive Media (2010) “The surprising truth about what motivates us” (2010, April 1), RSA Animate – Hagemann, Petra; Seibold, Balthas (2013): “Case Study ict@innovation: An Open Source Approach”. In: Andreas Meiszner & Lin Squires Drive, Retrieved June 27, 2013 (Eds): “Trends & Innovation in Digital Learning & Education”, Vol 1 “Openness and Education”. 4 See article by Tamar Lewin (2013, January 1): “Students Rush to Web Classes, but Profits May Be Much Later”, New York Times Hess, Charlotte; Ostrom, Elinor (2007): Understanding Knowledge as as Commons. 5 See Connectivism. (2013, July 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:20, July 15, 2013 Jenkins, Henry (2006): “Confronting the Challenges of : Media Education for the 21st Century”, The MacArthur Foundation. 6 Source of the entire following paragraph: Massive open online course. (2013, July 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:21, July 15, 2013 Mozilla Foundation; P2PU; MacArthur Foundation (2012): “Open Badges for Lifelong Learning: Exploring an open badge ecosystem to support skill development and lifelong learning for real results such as jobs and advancement”. 7 For more on quality assurance, measurement of accomplishment, skills, quality and certification in peer-learning, check Mozilla et al. (2012), Schmidt et al. (2009) and peeragogy.org (2013, p. 74ff, p. 115ff). peeragogy.org (2013): “The Peeragogy Handbook”. With contributions from more than 20 authors. 8 For more, see Seibold 2009: 264-265, Benkler 2006: 60, 112 & „Golden Rules for Successful Partnerships – Design Principles“ of BMZ Peters, Michael; Liu, Tze-Chan; Ondercin, David (2012): “The Pedagogy of the Open Society. Knowledge and the Governance of Higher of 2008 [German original: „Goldene Regeln für eine erfolgreiche Partnerschaft – Die Gestaltungsprinzipien“]. Eduation”. 9 See online for a full list of topics, participants and conference papers., See also Hess / Ostrom: 2007 Preece, Jennifer; Shneiderman, Ben (2009): “The Reader-to-Leader Framework: Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation”, AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction 1(1), pp. 13-32. 10 You find more information on applying a commons approach to knowledge & the economics of open innovation in Dulong de Rosnay / Le Crosnier 2012 and Seibold 2010a Reitzig, Markus; Alexy, Oliver (2012): Managing the business risks of open innovation. Focus on the factors that could redefine intellec- tual-property competition in your industry. In: McKinsey Quarterly. 11 As described by Clay/Paul 2012. Brochure 06 How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge

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LICENSE and build upon the material for any purpose, even ABOUT THE AUTOR This work (article) is licensed under a Creative commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Balthas Seibold License. Under the following terms: Attribution/Disclaimer – If you create a new version of work, please note that the license Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, Balthas Seibold is a senior project manager for ‚Global requires attribution of all sources and authors provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes Knowledge Sharing & Learning’ at GIZ, the ‘Deutsche in future versions, and please add the following were made. You may do so in any reasonable Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH’. disclaimer along with the attribution: manner, but not in any way that suggests the He focuses on open knowledge cooperation to foster the licensor endorses you or your use. freedom to learn and innovate in developing countries. “Based on work developed by GIZ (Programme Balthas has a special interest in the knowledge commons Global Partners of Germany) funded by BMZ. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build and social networks and their potential to build human Under the license, the copyright holders and upon the material, you must distribute your capacities, link up people and foster open learning funders do not endorse any future versions of the contributions under the same license as the worldwide. Before 2012 he led capacity building programs material or use of the work.” original. with GIZ that promote the open source IT-sector in Asia and Africa such as ict@innovation. Balthas has also worked Translations – If you create a translation of this To view a copy of this license, visit http:// at InWEnt – Capacity Building International, UNESCO’s work, please also add the following disclaimer creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/ bureau of strategic planning, the GTZ and the UNDP. along with the attribution: “This translation was deed.en or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 not created by GIZ and should not be considered Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, The author would like to thank the following persons for a GIZ translation. GIZ shall not be liable for any 94105, USA. invaluable input and detailed comments (any errors and content or error in this translation.” misjudgments are of course his own): Philipp Schmidt, Andreas Meiszner, Susanna Albrecht, Kader Ekici, Copyright holder: GIZ (Programme Global Christian Gmelin, Petra Hagemann, Claudia Lange, Partners of Germany) Sarah Malelu, Sabine Olthof, Natalie Maria Stewart, Lennart Stoy, Miriam Unverzagt. You are free to: The views expressed in this article are those of the Share— copy and redistribute the material in any author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and medium or format Adapt— remix, transform, should not be attributed to GIZ or any other affiliation. a [ei][[e b [[b[bi:]b c [si:]

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