Pool of shareables
A pool of shareables is a set of shared material resources (physical space, equipment and tools, consumable materials, limited resources, ...) that can be depleted, consumed, or degraded.
These resources have costs of use and maintenance. Moreover, some of these resources, like specialized lab equipment, require a minimal level of technical skills to use/operate. The pool of shareables requires governance in order to maintain, to insure safe and efficient use.
Materials resources play an important role in innovation and production and they are not valuable is they sit idle. In other words, down time of an equipment can constitute a lost opportunities for an OVN, so we need to minimize down time. One proposition is to maintain a budget for maintenance.
In OVN language we distinguish shearables from commons. The difference is that the commons are things that cannot be depleted or destroyed. Sherables may require maintenance. Items of a commons do not require maintenance. Ex. the whole of scientific knowledge is a commons. A shared working space with tools is a pool of sherables.
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 service provided.
Accessibility
Free: some resources can be used by all agents of the network, even by the public (use time/quantity may be restricted)
Permission: For some resources, like 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
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
- 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.
Replenishment
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.
Infrastructure
In order to insure a more effective and efficient management of material resources a Network Resource Processing system must be put in place - see more on NRP for value networks.
See this old video for QR code-based resource management from Sensorica.