Knowledge commons for human development

I am super-happy, that the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) through Jan Krewer has managed to shed some light on a crucially under-researched topic: How are digital commons in Sub- Saharan Africa doing? Which resources are governed through a commons-approach on the continent? How important are they and how are their communities functioning? Although the study makes it clear that it did not intend to map all existing digital commons in Sub-Saharan Africa, I find it the most extensive listing that has ever been done listing a total of 89 examples. And I have tried to find such listings or mappings or compendiums or directories for a while, see for instance this article. So KUDOs to Jan and AFD.

On top of mapping the digital commons the study contains 10 short case studies based on interviews, namely African Storybook (Open Educational Resources), AfricArXiv (Content and data), AFRINIC (Norms and standards), Energypedia (Content), Grassroots Economics (Digital financial assets), Open MRS (Free software for health information management), Pamoja-Net (Digital equipment), Ushahidi (Open source
software and data), WaziHub (Free software, open plans and designs), Wikimedia Ivory Coast (Content).

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So I have been involved in an AI project since a while professionally (see https://toolkit-digitalisierung.de/en/fair-forward/). Also, this website is all about how to understand and how to foster knowledge commons and open knowledge peer production for human development. Therefore, I would like to present you here some thoughts on how we might be able to democratize Artificial Intelligence (AI) globally through new commons, a concrete initiative that does this and a new alliance on the issue.

Common Voice (CC-BY-SA 3.0), Copyright Mozilla – Source: https://commonvoice.mozilla.org/en/about#get-involved

Let’s start with some quick background: It becomes more and more clear that most modern machine learning (aka AI) approaches rely on massive amounts of so-called training data. Such training data are not available as a knowledge commons most of the time, and for most people worldwide. A good example is spoken language, as this article from GIZ explains, from which I partly borrow in the next paragraphs:

Language-based AI can be used to share information in a targeted, personalised way and reach people who cannot read – e.g. through interactive voice assistance. But there’s a problem. AI can only work when it is ‘fed’ and trained with data. Suitable language data from African and Asian nations has so far been a scarce resource. Currently, the data is predominately gathered and used by big companies like Google and Amazon. Local languages in Africa and Asia are commercially less interesting and/or more complex and therefore are often neglected – at the same time they promise to yield high societal benefits. A classical case for a knowledge-commons approach.

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So you would like to build a software system for a project of development cooperation and you consider using “Free and open source software (FOSS)”? Good choice, as going open source will offer you a highly sustainable and cost-effective way of developing these systems. See also my think-piece on the “why development cooperation should use such open source systems” published with colleagues from GIZ and the Free Software Foundation Europe.

Here, we want to be more practical. We will use the “Toolkit 2.0 – Digitalisation in Development Cooperation” published back in 2019 by the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The toolkit in fact contains two interesting tools on open source The first one describes practical advantages of FOSS from the perspective of a project manager. For instance higher quality and greater reliability and flexibility achieved with Free Software. It also sketches out some possible downsides. The second tool, found in sections 2 and 3 then contains two checklists that support informed decision-making by looking at local conditions that would speak for or against the use of open source. Finally, this tool recommends some “next steps” and further resources.

As the “toolkit 2.0” is somewhat difficult to find on the web these days, I also provide a full text of toolkit and glossary both in English and in German below. (Disclaimer on all of the above: I have been involved in the creation of the toolkit while working at the project “Digital Development” of GIZ.)

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I just updated the “Compendium of hubs for commons-based peer production 4Dev”, which is hosted on this site. By adding the “Low-tech Lab”, I now count fourteen hubs and repositories. If you are aware of any other hub, please let me know. Check out the compendium here.

Created by GDJ and released under Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Public Domain License at https://openclipart.org/detail/273507/two-heads-are-better-than-one

Researcher Evangelos Papadimitropoulos just published a cool article that sums up and puts into perspective some of the emerging schools of thought on commons-based peer production (cbpp). Fresh hot off the (virtual) press, it also presents a pretty comprehensive and up-to-date list of references. I recommend the article to everyone interested in getting beyond the basics of commons-based peer production and discovering some of the different „currents“ of the emerging field of research and activism of cbpp. I quote below some of my main take aways, for more, check the article itself: „Commons-Based Peer Production in the Work of Yochai Benkler“, published in the online journal „tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society“. Some interesting quotes: „Not only is there a tension between material rewards and pro-social motivations, but also between Continue reading →

Bahar Kumar from Nepal Communitere speaking at the session “Crisis response makerspaces” / Copyright: Foto Jan Zappner/re:publica, Licence: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

I report here about one of my favorite sessions at re:publica 2018, which was on „Crisis response makerspaces“. I finally had the opportunity to meet Susan Long, innovation adviser at Field Ready in Syria and Bahar Kumar, strategic adviser at Nepal Communitere. Both stressed the need to „be locally grounded“ and to build strong communities to unleash the power of makers under difficult circumstances. Here‘s the topic of the session: „A mid-wife in the mountains of Nepal, a surgeon under bombardment in Northern Syria – how can digital, distributed manufacturing support them to deliver basic needs and healthcare services they need?“ I highly recommend to check out the recording, which is online now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGoX7WdHLCE Disclaimer: I was part of the team that supported the BMZ partnership with re:publica, including the topic „tech for good“, which featured this session. Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

CNC Torch from Global Village Construction Set, one of the pioneers of “open manufacturing” / Copyright: Cantinarivolta, licensed under CC attribution share alike

What is “open manufacturing”? When I tried to look up the term in Wikipedia some months ago, I was surprised to find no entry on “open manufacturing”. Nice opportunity to learn more about the term by writing the first stub with a group of people discussing the issue of “open manufacturing”… Now its your turn: Help wikipedia explain the term! The current version of the article surely needs more editing, more examples, better references, more links etc. Here is the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_manufacturing . You may also read the current version of the article as an embedded text below: Continue reading →

Roy Mwangi Ombatti builds a 3D printer from waste materials at re:publica 2015

Roy Mwangi Ombatti started to tinker with 3D-printing in Nairobi, Kenya more than three years ago. He co-founded and led the Nairobi FabLab Robotics Outreach Program, he produces 3D printers from waste materials, became a Stanford Fablearn Fellow 2014 and he developed a successful low-cost solution to a pressing health problem (his project ‘Happy Feet’ aims at providing bespoke shoes for people with foot deformities as a result of the jigger sand flea in Kenya). I talked to him at re:publica 2015 about his future plans, the role of open source and open innovation and why Africa needs a local 3D printing industry. _______________ Q: Roy, you just had a workhop on “Motors, Circuits, Value Chains – Building a 3D Printer with E-Waste” here at re:publica 15. Why is it important for Kenya, or for Africa at large to develop such a local 3D printing industry? Roy: I am passionate about bringing technology to the less fortunate in my country to solve pressing problems. I feel that local self-made technology is the thing that has most impact. For one, it is most easily adaptable to local circumstance, as shows for instance my approach of using available e-waste to build the printer. Also, such self-help in innovation is a perfect tool to promote real change: If you empower people to build their own tools to solve their own problems, you win. In fact, this might be the only way to have sustainable lasting impact. Q: You are in the last stages of producing a 3D-printer out of locally available electronic waste. When will it be ready? Continue reading →

Open innovation – often based on open licensing and commons-approaches – is changing the business models of more and more businesses and social institutions. Before the advent of open innovation, innovation was kept within the boundaries of the firm (or research institution). In contrast, “Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to markets, as the firms look to advance their technology”, scholar Henry Chesbrough, who coined the term open innovation, has put it. But what opportunities does this imply for institutions in developing countries? What are their learning opportunities?

Source and Copyright: https://10innovations.alumniportal.com (GIZ)

Let’s take a look again at the global tech sector as a starting point (for more details, see Seibold 2010a). Here, the most prominent example of free and open source software development and licensing are the operating system Linux, the office suite Open Office and the web browser Firefox. Linux has shown that open-source programs can be very competitive. The reason is obvious: more people know the source code and, accordingly, can correct flaws and make other improvements. For the private sector in developing countries, such knowledge commons provide a clear opportunity, not only for low-cost access to global state-of-the-art knowledge, technology transfer, and open peer-learning on a massive scale (see Seibold 2009, Seibold 2010a, Seibold 2010b; UNCTAD 2012: 9ff), but also because they have the potential to empower local businesses and communities in developing countries. This creates truly local open innovation by appropriating elements of outside open innovations and transforming them into a product or service that is relevant to local needs. Continue reading →

In previous blog entries, I talked a lot about commons-based peer production and learning in areas crucial to development cooperation such as Energy, Health, Education etc. A key question then is where to find such “free knowledge” for open innovation and for peer-production in the different sectors of human development?

I have collected an annotated compendium of hubs for commons-based peer production that are of particular interest for sustainable human development. These hubs include energypedia, appropedia, opensourceecology, Howtopedia, knowable, and Fabwiki. The compendium is complemented by links to comprehensive directories.

Please note, that I have included mainly hubs with a focus on “production”, on “peer-driven production” and on “commons-based initiatives” for human development. All those chosen focus on open learning and practical improvement on a community-level; nevertheless, many of them have a global reach.

Many of the platforms have deliberately chosen open models and ‘open source’ licenses that enable “commons-based peer production” as envisioned by Yochai Benkler. Why? Because they feel, that ‘open source’ licensing can best spur open learning, invention, and innovation processes that come with it.

So here is my compendium of hubs for commons-based peer production for sustainable human development.

>>> Do you know more such hubs? Please let me know.

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Some critics argue that commons-based peer production and learning only apply in the digital, non-real world (“building websites”, “building online training material”). The concept, they say, is therefore less of interest to international and development cooperation, which focuses on non-digital environments and “hard” topics such as health, energy or agriculture.

Jaime from Bolivia and John from Rwanda are not in the business of building websites. They are in the business of building tube digesters to support local biogas production in rural Bolivia and in rural Rwanda. They live 6,515 miles apart, but they both use the same manual to build the tank. It is one of 822 open online articles packed with practical production know-ledge on the knowledge commons platform energypedia. The platform’s vision is “a world of free knowledge exchange and mutual learning on renewable energies in which everyone has access to sustainable energy sources.”

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Frank Ilugulilwa – IT Trainer in Tanzania / Copyright: Frank Ilugulilwa

Frank Tilugulilwa is an IT trainer in Tanzania. He teaches local IT companies how to build services and revenues around so-called “Free and Open Source Software”. Such software can be copied and modified by every company and every individual client. Frank has written a training manual with over 80 other IT trainers and experts throughout Africa (and from elsewhere in the world) in an example of a community-generated learning content. His experience with commons-based peer production started back in 2008 when almost no training materials rooted in an African context were available. Frank and other African IT and business experts developed over 250 pages of practical, open-licensed, modular training material. This has also resulted in a vibrant community of trainers who have a strong sense of ownership of their subjects and who know and trust each other. They are sharing their knowledge amongst themselves and their trainees, local IT companies across the continent. Again, we see the power of peer-to-peer learning centered around a knowledge commons: the process began as a capacity building program called ict@innovation launched by German development agency GIZ. The project aimed at creating business and learning opportunities with free and open source software in Africa. Now it is a community of more than 1,200 co-learners, co-producers and businesses (UNCTAD 2012: 65f). This example can serve as a starting point to provide good practice measures on how initiatives can structure learning around peer-production processes. Continue reading →

In the field of online sharing and learning, the “Massive Open Online Course” (“MOOC”) has received a lot of attention. Many are enthusiastic about what elite universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Harvard are piloting. The two schools have offered joint online courses that have attracted well over 100,000 students. Much is also written about the start-up ventures Udacity and Coursera, which managed to enroll over two million students in just one year. These ventures provide a forum to some of the world’s best professors to host their lectures online. The students are then encouraged to participate through online forums that helpbuild a joint learning

Source and copyright: CC WORLDBANK PHOTO COLLECTION goo.gl/g25U8y

community. They typically do not offer academic credit aside from, in some cases, a statement of completion. But they also do not charge tuition. There are estimates that only about ten percent of students who sign up for courses actually follow them until the end ¹. And it still remains to be seen whether mass distribution of centralized online lectures will ultimately be incorporated into the formal educational system or whether they are just briefly hyped by universities and venture capitalists searching for new revenue sources and recognition.This article will, therefore, go beyond the MOOC. Continue reading →

See article by Tamar Lewin (2013, January 1): “Students Rush to Web Classes, but Profits May Be Much Later”, New York Times ↩

Blink And You’ll Miss It! / Pete / CC BY / Source: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/comedynose/4058757916/

Why do peers help peers to share and co-produce knowledge? Research suggests that there is a whole set of motivations that makes people share their knowledge, a mixture between altruistic and self-serving motives summed up in the following table: 14 Reasons Why Peers Help Peers to Learn: Why Do They Share Their Knowledge? (Table 1)

Because you learn yourself through co-production and tutoring
Because you win recognition and prestige from your peers
Because you might further your own interests through the co-production of knowledge, such as testing new solutions, benchmarking, mastering a technology, etc.
Because you can solve a problem that you can only solve by collaborating with others
Because you might gain power of persuasion within your organisation, network, or peer group
Because you are proud to co-own a tangible “product”
Because you have the freedom to co-create knowledge or goods, which increases autonomy and self-direction, and thereby motivation
Because you build emotional bonds with people and things
Because you feel “meaningful” by supporting the community, giving back through reciprocity (putting values such as fairness, solidarity, and altruism into practice)
Because you know that the result of your commons-based peer activities will be available to others over time, and cannot be monopolized or privatized
Because you feel good being associated with a trendy and innovative community
Because you get continued access to knowledge, news and services
Because you enlarge your personal and professional networks
Because you can freely choose topics according to your interests

Sources for table above: GTZ 2006: 43; Wenger et al. 2011; Preece/Shneiderman 2009; Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. 2011: 125ff; Ghosh et al. 2002: 43-50; own considerations; Pyne 2010 ¹ __________________________________________________ This blog is part of a series of 10 questions that I have extracted of my article “Learning by Sharing – „How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge“. The piece has been released in June as part of the GIZ Online- Series „10 trends in open innovation. How to leverage social media for new forms of cooperation“. Check it at https://www.knowledge-commons.de/en/learning-by-sharing/ Further readings on the question? Here. ____ Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

Pyne, Becca; Stephenson, Abi; Cognitive Media (2010) “The surprising truth about what motivates us” (2010, April 1), RSA Animate – Drive, Retrieved June 27, 2013 ↩

Source and Copyright: https://10innovations.alumniportal.com (GIZ)

The Internet and with it the rise of social networks have enabled a radically innovative way of producing knowledge-related goods. Software can now be jointly written by thousands of developers as the operating system ‘Linux’ shows. The encyclopedia Wikipedia is updated by roughly 1.7 million contributors worldwide. Law professor Yochai Benkler has coined the term “commons-based peer-production” to describe this development. He has defined some of the characteristics intrinsic to this phenomenon. Commons-based peer-production is “radically decentralized, collaborative and nonproprietary, based on sharing resources and outputs among widely distributed, loosely connected individuals who cooperate with each other without relying on either marked signals or managerial commands”, he wrote in his 2006 book “The Wealth of Networks” (Benkler 2006:60). A Wikipedia article is an organic text produced by hundreds of ‘peers’. This free text is not controlled by one formal editor-in-chief, but is, instead, a unifying construct. The document might be conceptualized by a student in Germany, revised by a farmer in Bolivia, and fine-tuned by a professor in South Africa. The article is ruled by a commons-based license. This means that the end product of this co-production is, in turn, available to readers and additional editors through an open license, ensuring that all future versions can be shared, traced back to the author and further improved. __________________________________________________ This blog is part of a series of 10 questions that I have extracted of my article “Learning by Sharing – „How global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge“. The piece has been released in June as part of the GIZ Online- Series „10 trends in open innovation. How to leverage social media for new forms of cooperation“. Check it at https://www.knowledge-commons.de/en/learning-by-sharing/ Further readings on the question? Here. ____ Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

Building that collaboration may be difficult for some people. so the project that will be built will be constrained at…

Dear Wahdan, here ist the source of the Quote from the letter of Jefferson: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html

Dear Winda, of course you can thare the guides - all is under open licenses. See below. Just Name the…

how quotation of the parts of the letter of Jefferson on knowledge and property?

Thank you for this nice guide.This really helped me, keep posting! can i share it?