Pool of shareables

A pool of shareables is a set of shared material (or physical) resources (physical space, equipment and tools, consumable materials, limited resources, ...). The pool exists as a catalog of all available material resources. The implementation in the NRP-CAS is the Inventory. Very item in the catalog can specify the type of resource (see more on Resource type), property regime, location, etc. Note that resources in the pool do not need to be found at the same location. To regulate access to these resources in an OVN Physical resource governance is used.

Materials resources play an important role in innovation and co-creation and they are not valuable if they sit idle. In other words, down time of an equipment can constitute a loss of opportunities for an OVN, so we need to minimize down time. One proposition is to maintain a budget for maintenance, which is a practice already established in Sensorica.

Flows

The pool of shareables is a a list of all sorts of material resources that are made available for use by all affiliates of the OVN, under certain conditions, as described in the Physical resource governance. This pool can be augmented through acquisition (purchasing of new materials) or crowdsourcing (anyone can commit a material resource to the pool of shareable simply by adding it to the catalog). Some shared material resources are consumable, therefore they are naturally depleted during use. Others are usable and their usability degrades over time.

Access to use items from the pool of shareables can be seen as a transaction and every access event can be recorded into a ledger of activities, associating the resource, the user and the process.

Maintenance (repair) of a material resource can also be treated as a type of access, as a transaction. The implementation of the pool of shareables in Sensorica through the NRP-CAS as Inventory can keep track of all these flows.

Different mechanisms of replenishment are available.

• donations: anyone donates equipment.
• investment: one or more affiliates can purchase material assets and make them available to the network. Cost (+ interest) is returned to these affiliates who have invested, according to the use of the asset. These affiliates runs the risk not to be reimbursed (+ interest), if the asset is underused. Ownership is maintained by these affiliates until the asset is reimbursed (+ interest), after which ownership is transferred to the custodian. See section on property. This replenishment process has been prototyped within Sensorica - see the case of the 3D printer.
• sharing: some affiliates decide to share material assets (ex. lab space, equipment, etc.) in the context of a project. Scope can be limited and access might be restricted. There is no transfer of ownership during the sharing period. This replenishment process has been prototyped within Sensorica - see the case with professor Philippe Comtois from Montreal Heart Institute.

Investment and sharing make the OVN very elastic in terms of access to resources. In other words, capacity can grow dynamically according to needs. At the same time, it makes the pool of resources volatile, because some investors and sharing agents can retract their assets from the pool. Volatility can be modulated from governance and through incentives (see also benefit redistribution algorithm) and reputation systems.

Shearables vs Commons

Note that in the OVN jargon we distinguish shearables from commons. The difference is that the commons are things that cannot be depleted/consumed or destroyed and costs associated with their use (access, operation, etc.) are minimal. We call sherables material resources that are shared across the network under certain rules and conditions, they have high costs associated with their use and maintenance. Ex. the whole of scientific knowledge is a commons. A shared working space, a makerspace for example, with tools is part of a pool of sherables.

Access to the pool of shareables

Access to the physical pool of shareables needs to be regulated because physical resources have costs associated with their use, for maintenance and end-of-life treatment. Moreover, some physical resources, ex. specialized lab equipment, require a minimal level of technical skills to use/operate. Safety is another important aspect and governance can help to insure safe and efficient use.

According to the practice established by Sensorica, using things from the pool of shareables doesn't involve use-costs for affiliates of the OVN, such as rent. Nevertheless, the use of certain things must be sanctioned and/or rationed by the community. The commons must NOT be monetized. Active affiliates should NOT compete for the use of shareables in order to co-create. The focus should be on the preservation of shareables, rather than on its consumption/depletion.

See more on Governance of physical resources.

Accessibility

Free: some resources can be used by all OVN affiliates, even by the public (use time/quantity may be restricted)

Permission: For some resources, such as high tech equipment for example, access to use may require credentials. The user may be forced to follow a training session (defined by the community closer to the resource) and perhaps to pass a test. Moreover, some resources are scarce and can be in high demand. In this case, allocation may follow a system of prioritization (defined by the community closer to the resource). Some resources require regular maintenance, therefore permission to use may require some form of commitment to maintenance, which can be a payment or a guarantee of time to repair.

Formally restricted: Access to some resources can be restricted based on Reputation or Role

Allocation

Incentives: Allocation of material resources requires work. In order to insure efficient and effective allocation of resources it is strongly advised to associate immediate tangible rewards (example is revenue/hours of service) with the allocation.

Scope

Scope is related to the domain a resource can affect. They respond to the question "Who benefits?"

Project specific: some resources are intended for a specific project or venture and benefit mostly those who are involved. Examples: a chemical solution that can only be used in a specific research process.

Network specific: some resources are intended for a wider domain, for a cluster of projects or ventures or for an entire network constituted around a broader mission like the Sensorica network for example. Ex. a website used by the entire network, like [www.sensorica.co Sensorica's website], or a microscope that can be used in many processes by affiliates of a network.

Public: some resources can benefit the entire world and are usually managed as public goods, managed by governments. The traditional use of commons also designates resources shared within a community, which have a broader scope of use, not reserved to a specific project or venture. Ex. a park.

Property

See more on the Property page.

Responds to the question "Who owns it?" The pool of shareables can be a mix of material assets owned by

• Custodian serving the OVN.
• Affiliates or partners of the OVN, in which case they are governed by rules imposed by the owner. The community might also impose some generic rules on them (to be determined).

The custodian has no rights to exploit the pool of resources, i.e. to use it in a way to extract benefits, in the form of revenue or others. Separation between management and exploitation is important in order to avoid conflict of interest and to make sure that all agents of an OVN have access to resources. The goal is to avoid problems like: Makerbot, Occupy Thingiverse, and the reality of selling Open Hardware

Who should be in charge of the pool of shareables?

• If a custodian-based governance structure is adopted, one possibility is to have the custodian offer the maintenance and allocation service to the community.
• OVN affiliates can take roles of resource allocation agents.

In order to insure efficient and effective maintenance and allocation of material resources it is strongly advised to immediately rewarded related activities.

Infrastructure

In order to insure a more effective and efficient management of material resources an NRP-CAS is required. - see also NRP for value networks.

See this old video for QR code-based resource management from Sensorica.

See also

• commons
• resource type