Platform Ecosystem
Community structure is differentiated into 'communities' (high bonding social capital), 'publics' (high bridging social capital), and 'crowds' (low social capital).
From p2pValue CBPP synthesis done in 2014
Online CBPP Communities
Online CBPP communities are a form of collaborative production frequently supported by a digital platform. These communities are generally defined by a set of criteria: they are peer-based (interactions are not mainly contractual, mercantile, or hierarchical), and commons-based (driven by general interest, typically with open access and licenses that allow for reproduction and derivative works, i.e., "forkability").
Structure & Collaboration
- The most frequent type of collaboration is "Collage" (writing something together, like an encyclopedia), found in 45.7% of cases.
- The overwhelming majority of cases (84.8%) use at least one social network, with Twitter being the most popular (89.8% of cases), suggesting trans-media practices.
- Community structure is differentiated into 'communities' (high bonding social capital), 'publics' (high bridging social capital), and 'crowds' (low social capital).
Governance
- Governance is characterized by a high degree of freedom for contributors, with 77.2% of cases having at least two indicators of freedom (in registration, participation, or user profile policies).
- In 63% of the cases, community members can formally intervene in the definition of formal rules and policies.
- Rotations in administrative hierarchies are very uncommon (less than 5% of cases).
- The document suggests a preliminary finding that self-governance and openness may not align with high freedom and autonomy, hypothesizing the presence of several distinct models of governance.
Economic Models & Sustainability
- Economic sustainability relies on diverse funding sources, including: Public funds, Private investments, Monetary Donations (from members/external agents), and Alternative Currencies.
- The document highlights the high importance of non-monetary contributions in sustainability strategies.
- Hybrid projects—which combine commons logic with market logic—are common, with money being a diffused reward type in 28.3% of cases.
- For reward systems, 73.9% of projects use a system to measure user contributions.
The majority of experiences (88.4%) privilege the acknowledgment of reputation as the main type of reward.
Physical (Face-to-face) CBPP Communities
While the most known cases have a strong digital presence, CBPP is not restricted to the digital environment. These communities often focus on locally-oriented activities and are characterized by a strong interplay between the digital (codified knowledge) and the physical (un-codified/tacit knowledge and physical output).
Structure & Collaboration
- Physical communities often require the co-location of actors for the effective transmission of tacit knowledge, which is the un-codified knowledge reported by almost 60% of survey respondents.
- In terms of social capital, physical interaction facilitates 'communities' characterized by high bonding social capital, which aims at reinforcing shared values and mutual trust among members.
Governance
- Governance structures for physical commons, or "common property regimes," are part of the study framework, based on Ostrom's work on the commons.
- The principles of peer-based governance—where interaction is not based on hierarchical command or contractual relationships—apply to the physical context as well.
Economic Models & Sustainability
- The output of these communities is physical in 50% of the cases surveyed.
- Examples of locally-oriented areas include Community Networks (19.6% of the sample), Urban Commons, Hacklabs, Collaborative Spaces, Open Hardware, and Open Design.
- When the collective output has a monetary value, the community faces the dilemma of commercialization and how to manage the benefits (e.g., collective redistribution in the community or individual distribution to contributors).
Interaction to Weave a Global Platform
The interaction between online and physical CBPP communities forms the basis of a global platform by managing the flow between digitally-supported and physical production.
Codification and Support: The key mechanism of interaction is the ability to digitally codify the knowledge and instructions for physical production. For instance, a community may collaboratively develop the design and instructions for a physical object (digital output), which can then be used by co-located actors in places like FabLabs and for 3D Printing (physical production).
Technological Infrastructure: The concept of a global CBPP platform requires new, more decentralized architectures (like Federated or Peer-to-Peer infrastructure), which are currently infrequent (only 2.6% to 5% of cases use these).
- Challenge and Opportunity: While decentralized architectures are more difficult to implement, they are necessary to promote fundamental rights like privacy and freedom of expression and counteract the control of services provided by centralized commercial companies (e.g., Twitter metrics).
- Value Management: Decentralized settings present a supplementary challenge for measuring value, as standard internal or external metrics rely on a single, centralized URL/platform for data. The development of Alternative Decentralized Currencies is one option being explored to serve as an indicator of value better suited for this distributed architecture.
Commonality of Logic: The platform is unified by the core CBPP principles across both spheres: open access, peer-to-peer relationships, and a focus on collective value creation. The challenge is to adapt the platform's tools to manage both digital content and the collective-generated output that is not digitally-supported.