Fostering collaborative communities

Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP) is being used across an ever-wider range of activities, including software development and open data sources, challenging traditional conceptions of productivity and value. The emergence of the CBPP model raises questions which Mayo Fuster Morell and Samer Hassan of the P2Pvalue project aim to address

The proliferation of collaborative wide diversity of productive activities,” P2Pvalue communities is radically challenging says Mayo Fuster Morell, a post-doctoral This approach has led to the development our traditional conceptions of researcher at IGOP in Barcelona. of widely-used pieces of software and productivity and value. - Although CBPP is being used ever more other commons resources, yet many lack a Based Peer Production (CBPP), a new widely, the concept is still relatively market value in the conventional model of production in which large underdeveloped, which is an important monetary sense. The P2Pvalue project numbers of people work together area of Fuster Morell’s research. “CBPP brings together six partners from across collaboratively, has been used in the involves some form of ‘collaboration’ Europe to investigate the conditions which development of GNU/Linux, and some ‘production’ – it is a process favour collaborative production, aiming and Open Street Map, raising among peers; in their interaction they to foster value creation and productivity fundamental questions that the form, develop, produce or build in CBPP communities, and inform the P2Pvalue project aims to address. “New something valuable that was not present design of a decentralized infrastructure. definitions of value are necessary in before, and which remains accessible as “The application of conventional value order to evaluate the contribution of the a public good,” she says. metrics is increasingly problematic, not

Some of the the multidisciplinary team of P2Pvalue.

www.euresearcher.com 63 P2Pvalue methodology for building theoretically grounded free/open source software.

only in CBPP, but in information and another key figure in the project. The P2P currency, illustrating the versatility knowledge economics more generally,” foundation of the project’s research is a of the CBPP model. “We have identified up says Fuster Morell. Researchers are detailed understanding of how CBPP to 30 areas of activities where CBPP takes investigating the issue of value in CBPP communities work and how value is place, including: FLOSS communities, communities by identifying a set of created. “Community interactions are not Open technology, Free software social dimensions, and applying them solely or mainly coordinated by networks and platforms, Collaborative empirically. “For the statistical analysis, contractual relationships, mercantile archive and Collaborative video,” five diverse dimensions of value are exchange or hierarchical command. In continues Fuster Morell. distinguished: community building, contrast, individuals are in an autonomous The traditional organisational structure objective accomplishment, monetary condition and there is a is very different to this CBPP model, with value, social use value and reputation,” in the conception and execution of people having clearly defined explains Fuster Morell. problems and solutions,” explains Fuster responsibilities and lines of management. This reflects the varied and complex Morell. However, the emergence of post-modern nature of the work produced by CBPP Where it is applied by large online networks and communities, partly fuelled communities, which includes citizen communities, the CBPP model can be by technological development, is science programmes, product design and understood as enabling widely distributed stimulating change. “We are seeing plenty open data sources. While the economic groups of people to work together, of experimentation in the forms of impact of this work tends to be significant, regardless of their location. However, organization, both in the for-profit and it is not typically accompanied by a large although most known examples of CBPP non-profit sectors,” outlines Hassan. The monetary flow, leading researchers to have a strong digital presence, CBPP is not American software company and consider other dimensions of value. “There restricted solely to the digital environment. distributor Valve is a prime example; the is a wide diversity of conceptions of value “A community does not need a digital company has a completely flat within CBPP communities, and these dimension, or to be digitally-based, to be organisational structure, offering dimensions aim to cover the whole defined as a CBPP,” says Fuster Morell. The employees a high degree of freedom and spectrum,” says Samer Hassan, a results of these communities’ work is very encouraging them to take risks in the researcher and assistant Professor at diverse, spanning everything from pursuit of technical development. “This Universidad Complutense de Madrid, operating systems and websites through to was unthinkable two decades ago. This is

64 EU Research justified on the basis of exploiting workers’ tailored for the actual needs of real-world At a glance talent, and technological development has communities. Instead of building provided the tools to facilitate this something and hoping it will be used, we Full Project Title change,” continues Hassan. make sure it will be used before building Techno-social platform for sustainable it,” explains Hassan. models and value generation in P2Pvalue This is key to ensuring the viability commons-based peer production in the The project’s work in developing a techno- and effectiveness of the software, and Future Internet (P2P Value) social platform will play an important role also to the project’s long-term goal of in the continued evolution of the CBPP fostering the sustainability of CBPP Project Objectives model. This development is being informed communities. P2Pvalue is part of the • Enhancing community sustainability by by both the results of social research, Commons social movement, and the adopting the governance, legal, including surveys, interviews and legal project is working together with other economic, and technical analysis, and feedback from CBPP networks and collaborators towards the infrastructures that favour value communities on the project’s prototypes. development of a more CBPP-driven creation and resilience; “P2Pvalue considers multiple dimensions society. “Our research is not only • Supporting the contributors with of value in CBPP, including not only published in scientific journals or systems of reward that allow value to monetary value, but also reputational and conferences. We follow a strongly Open flow back to the creators; ecological value, as well as others. There approach where all datasets are released • Integrating the functionalities of is a wide diversity of conceptions of value as open data, software as free/open online social networking services and within CBPP communities, and these source, publications as open access, and collaborative software in a privacy- dimensions aim to cover the whole any content is openly-licensed publicly,” aware platform based on a spectrum,” says Hassan. The platform will says Hassan. “We encourage third parties decentralised architecture. be based on decentralized architecture to access, reuse, reproduce and and is being designed through a Lean disseminate our research and tools. We Project Partners approach, with short development cycles, also work to expand the developer Please see website for full details which Hassan says brings important community, and the more the platform benefits to the project. “This methodology fulfills a social need, the easier it will be Contact Details is commonly followed by IT start-ups, but to become an economically sustainable Project Coordinator, thanks to the funding we are receiving project on its own.” Professor Department of Sociology more and more towards University of Surrey, Industry is already looking Guildford, Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP) and this Surrey is clearly a growing trend. We are seeing large corporations like GU2 7XH T: +44 (0)1483 689 173 Orange and Deloitte fund large studies on CBPP in order to E: [email protected] understand this new paradigm W: www.p2pvalue.eu from the EC, we can apply it without The P2Pvalue platform will be adopted Mayo Fuster Morell (Right) pressure from investors,” he outlines. by three or four CBPP communities, who Samer Hassan (Left) This bottom-up, lean approach enables will help guide its development. This researchers to tailor the platform to the could eventually lead to the wider adoption specific needs of real-world communities, of CBPP as a means of production. “We are rather than having to work in a top-down working with the communities to make way. While company structures are in our work their own. If the software many cases well-established, Hassan platform is successful, as we expect it to believes there is an openness to change in be, it will be used not just by our case- Mayo Fuster Morell is a postdoctoral Europe, particularly following recent study communities but also by others,” researcher at the Institute of Government financial turmoil. “The economic crisis says Hassan. Researchers are applying for and Public Policies (IGOP), where she has not damaged but in fact boosted CBPP, further funding to extend the work of the directs the IGOPnet.cc research group. as society is more open to embracing project, while Hassan says that industry is Samer Hassan is an activist and alternatives, and there is a real need for taking a growing interest in CBPP, Assistant Professor at the Universidad new models different to those that the heralding wider change. “Industry is Complutense de Madrid (Spain). He has classical private and public sectors, which already looking more and more towards more than 45 publications in Computer are now in crisis, have provided,” he says. CBPP and this is clearly a growing trend. Science and Social Sciences. Researchers aim to deploy several We are seeing large corporations like customised nodes of the federated Orange and Deloitte fund large studies on platform, giving real-world communities CBPP in order to understand this new the opportunity to interact and paradigm. We are witnessing the collaboratively create content. “The Lean beginning of a shift, and no one wants to approach allows us to build software be left behind,” he stresses. www.euresearcher.com 65