Keynote Speech at Open 2009 Media Lab Helsinki Doctor of Arts Symposium 5th–6th November at Media Lab University of Art and Design Helsinki http://opensymposium.net/2009/

1. openp2pdesign.org
Metadesign and Strategic Design for
Open Design Projects
Massimo Menichinelli
Open 2009 November 6th 2009
Media Lab University of Art and Design Helsinki
http://mlabsymp.uiah.fi/2009/
http://openp2pdesign.org

2. 01.
openp2pdesign.org, and where it
started

3. What is openp2pdesign.org?
It's a Strategic Design project that offers
Open P2P Design projects
It's not a startup (yet) but an hub in the
Open Design network
Strategic Design: “the integrated body of
products, services and communication
strategies that business and social actors
conceive and develop to obtain a set of Yes, but what is
specific strategic results” Open P2P
http://www.polidesign.net/mds/
Design?

4. Where do openp2pdesign.org and Open P2P Design come
from?
* March 2005
* a young student started his master degree thesis in
industrial design (actually it became service design soon)
* Design researchers were studying Design+Locality:
* Spark! Design and Locality (Europe)
http://www2.uiah.fi/virtu/spark/index.html
* Me.Design (Italy)
http://www.sistemadesignitalia.it/sdi/ricerche/medesign/index.php
--> How can we design projects for a locality and its
community?
--> How can we enable the participation of a community in
the design process?

5. Free Software/Open Source and P2P were just breaking into
other disciplines...
* Open Source Everywhere
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/opensource.html
* Open Publishing
* Open Content
* Open Biotechnology
* Open Source Religion
* Open Cola / Open Beer
* Open Design
* (...and more coming later)
Fre Software, Open Source and
P2P as promising way to organise
communities

6. Designing Open Collaborative projects: Thinkcycle
http://www.thinkcycle.org (now closed)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~nitin/thesis/
Source: http://www.thinkcycle.org
This is... Open
Design!

7. Facilitating a P2P system: Open Health by RED (British Design
Council)
http://www.designcouncil.info/mt/RED/
Source: http://www.designcouncil.info/mt/RED/
This is... P2P
Service Design!

8. April 2006, Master Degree Thesis:
Reti Collaborative.
Il design per una auto-organizzazione
Open Peer-to-Peer
(Collaborative Networks.
Design for an Open Peer-to-Peer
self-organization)
Tutor: Ezio Manzini
Politecnico di Milano, Faculty of Design
You can download it here:
http://www.openp2pdesign.org/blog/texts

9. 02.
Open P2P Design: a Metadesign
methodology proposal

10. What is Open P2P Design?
Open Design (design of an open project)
+
P2P Design (design of a peer-to-peer system)
=
the co-design of Open P2P social systems
A promising way to design
with/for a Community and
its Locality

11. Why Open / P2P forms are promising?
* Open Source is based on Communities
* Communities are Complex Systems
* Bazaar style enables parallel projects, then evolution, self-
organization and emergence
* Complex Systems can solve Complex Problems
Complex Open P2P communities could:
--> solve complex problems
--> design complex projects
--> design complex collaborative activities
Open P2P forms as a Ko Kuwabara
design project and a “Linux: A Bazaar at the
design tool Edge of Chaos”
http://firstmonday.org

12. Open Source projects as Complex
Systems?
Just look at the following pictures...

13. Innovation in a closed, hierarchical, proprietary, linear project
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Microsoft_Windows

14. In an Open P2P non-
linear project
Source: http://futurist.se/gldt/

15. What is Open P2P Design?
Open tools +
Open process
=
Enabling Open Systems
--> a proposal for a design methodology
Designers become then
Enablers, Facilitators...
of distributed creativity

16. What does Open P2P Design do?
an open design process +
a collaborative activity self-organized by a community
=
an open metadesign / service design project

17. What we design with Open P2P Design?
* not the community itself and its complexity (social network)
* but first the platform (artifacts, rules, roles): all the elements
that once shared enable then the emergence of a:
* collaborative activity (and then the emergence and self-
organization of the community)

18. First the platform, then the collaborative activity
The platform is:
* dynamic and shared in the social network
* what we can easily design before actually co-designing
* necessary in the design process, where it's developed further

19. Design and collaborative activities
A collaborative activity:
* can be designed as a service design project
* should be co-designed with users (community)
* it's a complex project, so we need complex processes (like
open p2p ones)
* we should let it evolve and let the community modify it
Daniela Sangiorgi,
Service Design + Activity Theory
http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/static/5007/despdf/Daniela.pdf

20. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Open Source Software =
processes +
licenses +
tools +
roles +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* Reputation Levels
* License

21. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Activity Theory =
framework for the analysis of a collaborative
activity +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* Community Activity Analysis

22. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Service Design (+ Activity Theory)
=
design tools +
framework for the analysis of a collaborative
activity +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* System Map

23. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Service Design (+ Activity Theory)
=
design tools +
framework for the analysis of a collaborative
activity +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* Offering Map

24. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Service Design (+ Activity Theory)
=
design tools +
framework for the analysis of a collaborative
activity +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* Service Blueprint

25. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Service Design (+ Activity Theory)
=
design tools +
framework for the analysis of a collaborative
activity +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* Motivation Matrix

26. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Service Design (+ Activity Theory)
=
design tools +
framework for the analysis of a collaborative
activity +
...
Open P2P Design source code:
* Storyboard

27. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Action Planning =
Participation Matrix (metadesign tool) +
...
Nabeel Hamdi, Reinhard Goethert Open P2P Design source code:
“Action planning for cities : a guide to community * Participation Matrix
practice”

28. Where does Open P2P Design come from?
Social Network Analysis =
tools +
framework for the analysis of a community +
…
Open P2P Design source code:
* Social Network Analysis

29. What about the process of Open P2P Design?
* analysis of the existing community, activity and platform
* concept design of a collaborative activity
* distribution/sharing/discussion of the concept
* parallel and iterative co-design of the collaborative activity and
building of the platform
* self-organization
--> shaped by knowledge, reputation and participation

30. What about the process of Open P2P Design?

31. Why Open P2P Design?
* mass-collaboration/crowdsourcing/distributed creativity force
a change in the role of designers
--> designers become enablers of distributed creativity

32. Why Open P2P Design?
* it's about mass collaboration-based or community-based
activities (and Open Design is an example)
--> designers can find a role even outside design projects

33. Why Open P2P Design?
* communities generate innovations as the outcome of
collaborative activities
--> a designer becomes an enabler of innovation and change

34. Why Open P2P Design, then?
* because open collaborative projects can be more than just
choosing a license!
* because the best way to reach a new promising scenario is
designing it!
* because we can do more in order to enable systems of
distributed creativity that can solve complex problems!

35. 03.
Why Open P2P Design for Open
Design projects?

36. Where should we use Open P2P Design?
* works well where there are active participants
* within an organization (community, enterprise, public
institution), for its own processes
--> Open Innovation, Enterprise 2.0, Open Government, …
* when an organization (community, enterprise, public
institution) enables another one
--> Open Marketplaces, Open Innovation, Enterprise 2.0,
Open Government, …
* for community-based services / businesses
* for Open Design projects

37. What is Open Design?
a project published with a license that facilitates its sharing
and that can be “compiled” or “manufactured” locally
* sharing
* collaboration
* open licenses
* code --> artifact
Open Design refers to every kind of design projects that can
be shared in a digital format over a network

38. What kind of open design projects?
Open Web Design repositories:
http://www.openwebdesign.org/
http://www.oswd.org/
http://osdnetwork.org/
http://www.opendesigns.org/
And all the open source software themes, templates,
Frameworks, libraries...
It's Open Web Design! GPL, LGPL, CC, ...

39. What kind of open design projects?
Open Fonts libraries:
http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
http://openfontlibrary.fontly.org/
http://openfontlibrary.org/
http://www.typeforge.net
(Free as in Free Beer, and sometimes Free Speech)
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/
It's Open Font Design!
http://scripts.sil.org/OFL

40. What kind of open design projects?
Open Processing sketches repository:
http://www.openprocessing.org/
...
And all the projects that uses Arduino
or Processing and are released under
an open license:
http://harkopen.com/projects
...
It's Open Interaction Design! GPL, LGPL, CC, ...

41. What kind of open design projects?
Open Architecture for markets:
http://architecture.mit.edu/house_n/projects.html
http://www.openprototype.com
Open Architecture for Humanity
http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/
http://os-house.org/
http://www.solaroof.org/
It's Open Architecture! CC, ...

42. What kind of open design projects?
Open Cinema / Open Movie:
http://www.elephantsdream.org/
http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/
http://durian.blender.org/
http://www.thecosmonaut.org/
http://thisoneisonus.org/
...
It's Open Movie Design! ...and also Open Game Design!
CC

43. Open Design: Ronen Kadushin
http://www.ronen-kadushin.com/Open_Design.asp
Open Design
from a single
Designer

44. Open Design: OpenMoko
http://www.openmoko.com / http://www.openmoko.org
Source: http://www.openmoko.com
Open Design
from an
enterprise

45. Open Design: OpenMoko
http://www.openmoko.com / http://www.openmoko.org
Source: http://www.openmoko.com
It's also Open
Source Software!

46. Open Design: OpenMoko
http://www.openmoko.com / http://www.openmoko.org
It's even Open Source: http://www.openmoko.com
Hardware!

47. Open Design: Bug Labs
http://www.buglabs.net/
It's Open Design,
It's Open Design! Source http://www.buglabs.net/
...and a Meta-
Hardware, Software product

48. Open Design: Bug Labs
http://www.buglabs.net/
Source: http://www.buglabs.net/
It's Open Design,
It's Open Design! ...and a Meta-
Hardware, Software product

49. Open Design: Bug Labs
http://www.buglabs.net/
Source: http://www.buglabs.net/
It's Open Design,
It's Open Design! ...and a Meta-
Hardware, Software product

50. So Open Design is...
* a lot of different kind of projects
* in its first steps
* starting from, using and including Open Source Software /
Open Hardware
* working well when project and artifact are code/digital
* still developing tools, business models, processes and
systems when the artifact is a physical good
* limited to share a finished project rather than designing it
collaboratively right now

51. What is Open Design, for rival goods?
a distributed system of design & manufacturing
based on:
* sharing
* collaboration
* open licenses
* open and distributed projects
* open and distributed manufacturing technologies
A system of
agents that:
* use * distribute
* design * manage the
* manufacture end-of-life
* market * ...

52. Current approach to Open Design projects
* very few single designers initiatives and designers interested
* recent communities (very few succesful ones)
* enterprises, hackers more interested in the hardware
* fabbing technologies developed by hackers
--> let people design a project and then just publish it online
--> lack of new tools, processes, systems that enable
designers and users in developing open design projects
Is it just publishing a file
online?

53. What we can still do for Open Design projects is
Metadesign
Metadesign is the design of the design tools, processes
and systems
* research and share design knowledge
* design and share design tools
* design and share design processes
* facilitate design & manufacturing & end-of-life systems
* facilitate the distributed creativity
For communities For users For enterprises
For designers

54. Open Design actually is Metadesign
* a community is designing, not just a single designer
* the process is open, and therefore out of control
* the process ideally never stops
--> We need Metadesign within single Open Design
projects
--> We need Metadesign for making Open Design
possible
Shift of focus: from Product
Design to Metadesign

55. Three Layers of Metadesign
* Metadesign of Collaborative Activities: co-design a
collaborative activity that will actually design the goal
* Metadesign of Collaborative Activities that design tools:
co-design a collaborative activity that will actually design
the tools and processes for other Open Projects
* Metadesign of Collaborative Activities that design the
Metadesign process: co-design a collaborative activity that
will actually redesign the Metadesign process itself
(1) for Open (2) for tools for
Projects Open Processes (3) for rededesigning
itself

56. Sourcemap as an Open Source Metadesign example
* sharing supply chains
* open source
* API
--> Research
--> Visualize
--> Share
--> Design
Source: http://www.sourcemap.org/
For Open Design we need
Metadesign initiatives

57. Open Hardware / Fabbing as a Metadesign example
* Hardware (Arduino, ...)
* Fabbing (RepRap, ...)
--> Ecosystem
--> Reuse/Remix
--> Share
--> Design
Source: http://www.reprap.org
For Open Design we need
Metadesign initiatives

58. 04.
The openp2pdesign.org strategic
project

59. How do we design such Metadesign projects?
--> Open P2P Design
How do we offer them in a Strategic Design
project?
--> openp2pdesign.org

60. Make Magazine as Metadesign and Strategic Design example
* Make Magazine
* Maker Faire
* “Makers” Book
* Make: television
* Make Controller Kit
* Craft Magazine
--> Tools, Knowledge, and Systems for DIY
--> Metadesign projects offered within a whole Strategic Design
project
For Open Design we need
Strategic Design and
Metadesign initiatives

61. What is openp2pdesign.org?
It's the Strategic Design project that offers
Open P2P Design Metadesign projects
It's not a startup (yet) but an hub in the
Open Design network
So far: Next:
1 master degree thesis 3 books
1 paper 1 keynote speech
1 book 3 workshops
4 workshops 1 Open Everything event (?)
1-2 open source softwares (?)
A larger network

62. openp2pdesign.org : design knowledge
Book 00: openp2pdesign.org_1.1
An introduction to Open P2P Design and openp2pdesign.org
Spreading knowledge
about Open P2P Design

63. openp2pdesign.org : design knowledge (next projects)
Book 01:
Open Source tools for Open Design Projects
* Free/Open Source Softwares for Design
* Free/Open Source File Formats for Design
* Web-based services for Design
* ...
Spreading knowledge
about Tools

64. openp2pdesign.org : design knowledge (next projects)
Book 02:
Strategic Design and Metadesign for Open Design Projects
* Past and Present of Open Design
* The Distributed Manufacturing Scenario
* Metadesign guide for Open Design projects
* ...
Spreading knowledge
about Processes for
Open Design projects

65. openp2pdesign.org : design knowledge (next projects)
Book 03:
Open P2P Design: Metadesign for Complex Projects
* Open P2P Design
* Design & Complexity
* Metadesign guide for Collaborative Activities
* ...
Spreading knowledge
about Processes for open
collaborative activities

66. openp2pdesign.org : a proposal for a project
Software(s):
Collaborative Design tools
* Version Control System for Open Design projects
+
* Web-based Open Design Forge for Open Design projects
Needs:
* Open Source
* Multiplatform
* Open file formats A tool that visualizes:
* Scripting/API * processes
* resources
* networks
* interactions
* history
* reputation

67. openp2pdesign.org : not just a blog, but a network
* it has always been intended as the start for a collective
effort
* publishing house?
* community/social network?
* design agency?
*…
* Design and Open P2P / Complexity / Locality /
Sustainability
* an Open P2P community and Open P2P Design as its first
source code
Do you want to join us? Do you have any advice?

68. 05.
Open P2P Design and Open Design
projects for the Distributed
Manufacturing Scenario

69. Design for a (Distributed) Scenario
Open projects seem very fascinating, but are they really going to
make a change? In order to make Open (P2P) Design a truly
changing and problem-solving discipline:
* we need to analyze current problems
* we need to define possible new scenarios that address these
problems
* we need to design strategic projects to reach these scenarios
* we need to metadesign processes for collective and distributed
action
--> May an Open, P2P and Distributed Scenario be the answer?

70. Design for the current Scenario
We need to recognize the scarcity of some resources:
* water/food
* oil/energy
* materials
* money
We need to recognize the abundance of some resources:
* knowledge/information
* distributed software, hardware and omputing power
--> A Scenario where design is used not to produced
more objects but to valorize scarce physical resources
and to share intellectual ones

71. Design for a new, Distributed Scenario
Based on:
* energy: distributed generation
* physical goods: distributed manufacturing
* financial resources: open money
And we need to redefine Design and its:
* identity
* knowledge
* social networks
* roles
* processes
* limits/choices
--> Let's redefine and use Design for enabling Distributed
Systems

72. Problems and Limits of Open Projects
* lack of specific tools/softwares
* some hardware/services need to evolve more
* we need systems of services and technologies
* open alone does not mean a project will be succesful, it needs a
market, businesses models and marketing initiatives
* open and p2p processes are very flexible (and can be used for wrong
projects too)
* open and p2p dynamics still not so widely understood and accepted
* need for education about open p2p concepts first (and tools and
processes then)
--> Let's work on these issues, in an open and p2p way!

73. Any questions or comments?

74. Thank you!
Massimo Menichinelli
Follow and join us!
info@openp2pdesign.org
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twitter.com/openp2pdesign
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