Abstract:
The worldwide and rapid spread of Covid-19 led to a number of reactions and effects, such as a surge in demand for different medical and non-medical items which caused interruptions in their global supply. Self-organizing groups of makers started to produce supplies locally – particularly personal protective equipment (PPE) – for medical professions and other frontline workers, meeting the ongoing needs of public and private organizations. The realisation that by joining together and self-organising they could manufacture meaningful products for others, rather than just quirky stuff for themselves, quickly became part of the narrative of the self-assumed “maker movement” and the press reporting on it. This was supposed to be the seminal example of how distributed manufacturing could effectively and efficiently rise above the deficiencies centralized manufacturing and hence contribute to a transition to peer-production of physical goods. This article traces the makers’ response to Covid-19 on the basis of five public online panels with makers in four European countries. It concludes that the contribution of their work was real, and that it is too early to judge if it contributed to a long-term transition.

Keywords:
Covid-19, makers, innovation

Abstract:
This article examines the capacity of groups in civil society to observe and mitigate far-right extremism. A critical feature of far-right activity today is the adoption of digital technologies such as social media platforms, email, and distributed chat servers. But transitions in underlying sociomaterial systems also contribute to capabilities for civil society to fight back. Using a framework that integrates sociomaterial perspectives of digital transformation with the Capability Approach, the article identifies a set of capabilities for collective action valued at the Far-Right Observatory in Ireland. The FRO is intellectually and empirically interesting because it aims to combine a commitment to building capabilities amongst communities most impacted by extremism; the cultivation of in-house expertise; and collective capabilities developed by new forms of digital advocacy organisations. In conclusion, the article speculates on the possibilities for digital advocacy organisations more broadly to cultivate capabilities that challenge narrow technologically-directed transition and instead contribute to more plural radical transformation.

Keywords:
collective action, digital advocacy organisations, far-right extremism, human capabilities, research infrastructure

Abstract:
This paper focuses on the cooperation between makerspace members and professional researchers. We draw on empirical data collected during the course of a publicly funded project aimed at the “democratizing” industrial robot technology in a high-tech makerspace. Out analysis conceives of the collaboration between makerspace representatives and researchers as a “trading zone” in which members of different technical cultures participate by virtue of their shared interests in collaborative robots as a technology in-the-making. To trace how existing knowledge is (ex)changed and new knowledge is produced in the sociotechnical configuration of the studied project, the analysis draws on participant observation of and interviews with members of the institutions participating in the process (a factory training center and a makerspace). The analysis emphasizes two kinds of transitions. First, it traces the transformation of entrenched knowledge and practices pertaining to collaborative robot safety, as the technology is being appropriated by the members of makerspaces. Second, it traces the reconfiguration of the makerspace prompted by its encounters with research institutes and companies, which entailed the projectification and professionalization of its activities.

Keywords:
participatory research, makerspaces

Abstract:
This paper explores the role of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and open-source prototyping processes in participatory design practices aimed at advancing grassroots digital sovereignty. The emergent term “digital sovereignty” describes various forms of autonomy, self-determination and independence in relation to technologies, digital infrastructures and data. The case study we analyze here, (the MAZI EU-funded project) was planned for translating “big” questions on the meaning of digital sovereignty into situated hands-on engagements and transdisciplinary work between local residents, activists, academics and designers. It concerns a collaborative prototyping process that focuses on the development of Community Wireless Network (CWN) technology in Berlin’s urban space, for creating locally and corporate-free platforms for sharing information and organizing collective action. The paper shows how DIY and open source prototyping can positively contribute to addressing challenges of participation towards digital sovereignty in the city, by bringing together different political and epistemic groups in academy-community partnership. However, by critically examining the tensions and conflicts that emerged in the process, it argues that openness and collaborative experimentation in itself do not guarantee the long-term infrastructuring goals of digital participation, self-determination and autonomy. Rather, the broader transition to digital sovereignty requires long-term design coalitions for sustaining the ongoing maintenance of open and collaborative socio-technical infrastructures.

Keywords:
Transition, Prototyping, Self-determination, Digital sovereignty, Community Wireless Networks, DIY-Networking, Academy-Community partnerships, open-source technology, right to the city

Abstract:
Commons based peer production (CBPP) is a framework for considering economic production emerging from voluntary relationships and supported at scale by ICTs, and sits in tension with contemporary modes of technology development that are often hierarchical and profit driven. Reflecting on interviews, workshops, and action research, I use concepts from CBPP and other writings on the commons to analyze governance and production in Civic Tech Toronto (CTTO), a six year old group supporting autonomous technology development in Toronto, Canada. I use these concepts to provide clarity on some elements of CTTO’s governance and its role in transitions within Toronto's civic tech world. On the one hand, while and operating as a commons allows the community to reproduce itself and support the emergence of projects, in some ways it also appears to frustrate commons based strategies for transition, such as the Partner State Approach. CTTO’s focus on producing social relationships also strains some of CBPP’s focus on transition through the creation of competitive technologies, while nonetheless demonstrating the value of common spaces for civic life in the city.

Keywords:
civic spaces, commons

Abstract:
Wikipedia is composed from consensus. Discussion by discussion, article by article, the “online encyclopedia that anyone can edit” holds a steady drumbeat toward agreement. While it is often positioned as a self-evident good, its usage on Wikipedia is not without concern. In this paper I mobilize Chantal Mouffe’s (2000) feminist critical political theory and Johanna Drucker’s (2014) methods of interface analysis to raise important questions about the relationship between consensus and peer production [1]. Through a discourse analysis of consensus as an ideal and a technique, I identify the multitude of ways that Wikipedians perform consensus: not only through understanding and decision-making, but also through acts of composing, showing, processing, closing, and calculating. However, because Wikipedia’s socio-technical vision is over-determined by consensus, its political design is ill-equipped to address the political conditions of pluralist societies. As a result, I identify the reasons why Wikipedia should strengthen its democratic commitment by engaging with dissensus. By conducting this research, I demonstrate how consensus has transitioned from a democratic ideal into an interface and why it should be re-imagined within peer production projects.

Keywords:
Wikipedia, democracy, consensus, policy, user interface, discourse analysis