Examining the so called life cycle of a product from the perspective of our current socio-economic system, it becomes apparent that attempting to achieve a zero waste supply chain demands nothing less than reinventing the wheel. The capitalist mode of production, from material extraction, to manufacturing, to distribution to disposal, adopts a wasteful linear process. This is not made unintentionally, but constitutes a structural reinforcement of this mode of economic and social organization. Taking into consideration some core principles upon which capitalism thrives (scarcity, inefficiency/waste, unsustainability) with characteristics that dominate the whole life-cycle process: intrinsic, planned, perceived obsolescence and proprietary design.
Environmental and social negative consequences are baptised as irrelevant externalities, and are not accounted for at all. The dominant incentives in our economic system, are incompatible with what could be considered as an Open Source Circular Economy. Thus, it is necessary to step back and consider the values that should dictate the whole life cycle of a product. Having as our general guiding principles, sustainability, abundance and efficiency, we will start a systems-thinking attempt to identify the values that have to be adopted in the material extraction, design, manufacturing and reuse/recycling processes in order to achieve an Open Source Circular Economy. Additionally, we will examine if these need to be adapted to a different mode of production: from a centralized mass-production to a distributed and appropriate one.

Organiser: Lauren Lapidge
Read more: https://oscedays.org/

Considering what Henri Lefebvre calls the “rhythmic character of the city”, we should heed the noises and voices of public space as unique expressions of Southern European spirit, through disruptive movements including Spain’s 15M, Greek and Italian street protests in 2011 and the Taksim Square and Gezi Park occupations in Istanbul. Movements which emerged rapidly and seemed ephemeral from outside reveal themselves to be widespread over local contexts. What once was underground has become commonplace, accepted: urban gardens, self-managed social centers, open schools, fablabs, squats, active urban squares, hacklabs, medialabs, makerspaces, connected by scores of networks.
We’re calling this Southern European phenomenon “P2P Plazas”: places where bottom-up initiatives connect actions among peers (citizens)
‘P2P Plazas: a Southern European Network’ is an ongoing research that aims to produce a cartography of this practices that are actually reshaping public space and cultural production and intervention. The workshop we suggest for CommonsFest15 calls the attention of the Greek community to help building a wider cartography of this experiences and collectives in Greece. The data collected will be published back in in open source formats for usability and replicability.

Organiser: Carmen Lozano Bright
Read more: http://p2p-plazas.tumblr.com/

1) Management of the assets of the CommonsFest (~20 minutes)
1a- Brainstorm on what we have. (site, video, contacts…)
1b-> Write down tasks on what we have to do about them.

2) Experiences and Impressions from past CommonsFest (~30 minutes)
2a- Brainstorm on our impressions. (from best to worst)
2b-> Write tasks. (How can we keep the best and improve the worst?)

3) Goals of the CommonsFest (~20 minutes)
3a- Brainstorm on what each individually has as goal for the CF.
3b-> See which goals are common goals that everyone agrees to.

4) Ideas for the future of the CommonsFest. (~20 minutes)
4a- Free propositions and ideas for the future of the CF.
(~2 minutes each idea: Present an idea to discuss later online.)