Comunes is a nonprofit organization aiming to encourage the commons and facilitating grassroots work through free software web tools. Previously known as Ourproject.org, this collective established itself as a legal entity in 2009, forming Comunes. Nowadays it serves as an umbrella organization for several projects related to the Commons.[1]
Founded | September 2009 |
---|---|
Type | Non-profit association |
Focus | Commons |
Location | |
Origins | Ourproject.org |
Area served | Worldwide |
Method | Free/libre web tools and free resources |
Website | Comunes.org |
Philosophy and Values
editThe objectives of the Communes include providing legal protection[2] to member projects, together with technical infrastructure. The organization claims[3] to be inspired by Software in the Public Interest organization, which provides similar protection to free software projects. Comunes member projects must focus on encouraging the protection or expansion of the Commons.[4] Comunes Manifesto[5] shows a view on the social movements as nodes in a social network, analysing which problems this ecosystem has[6] and proposing Comunes web tools for diminishing them.
Projects
editOurproject.org
editOurproject.org[7] is a web-based collaborative free content repository. It acts as a central location for offering web space and tools for projects of any topic, focusing on free culture and free knowledge. It aims to extend the ideas and methodology of free software to social areas and free culture in general. Thus, it provides multiple web services (hosting, mailing lists, wiki, ftp, forums, etc.) to an online community of social,[8] cultural,[9] artistic,[10] and educational[11] projects as long as they share their contents with Creative Commons licenses (or other free/libre licenses). Active since 2002, Ourproject.org hosts 1,200 projects and its services receive more than 1 million monthly visits.[12]
Kune
editKune[13] is a software platform for federated social networking and collaborative work, focusing on workgroups rather than in individuals.[14][15] Kune aims to allow the creation of online spaces of collaborative work, where organizations and individuals can build projects online, coordinate common agendas, set up virtual meetings and join organizations with similar interests. It is programmed using GWT, on top of the XMPP protocol and integrating Wave-In-A-Box. Licensed under AGPL, it has been under development since 2007[16][17] and it launched a beta and production site in April 2012.
Move Commons
editMove Commons (MC)[18] is a web tool for initiatives, collectives, and NGOs to declare and make visible their core principles.[19][20] The idea behind MC follows the same mechanics of Creative Commons tagging cultural works,[21] providing a user-friendly, bottom-up, labelling system for each initiative, with four meaningful icons and some keywords. It aims to boost the visibility and diffusion of such initiatives, and build a network among related initiatives/collectives, allowing mutual discovery. Additionally, newcomers could easily understand the collective approach in their website, or discover collectives matching their field/location/interests with a semantic search. It has been presented in several forums.[22][23][24][25][26] Nowadays it is in beta version, but there are already a few organizations using their MC badges.[27][28][29][30][31][32]
Other projects
editComunes includes other newer projects such as Alerta,[33] the community-driven alert system, Plantaré,[34] the community currency for seed exchange, and others.[35]
Partners
editComunes has developed partnership with several organizations:
- GRASIA (Group of Software Agents, Engineering & Applications):[36] Research group of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, it is collaborating with Comunes to offer joint grants to students and provide hardware resources.[37]
- American University of Science and Technology (Beirut): offering students the chance to frame their senior project and Master theses within Comunes projects.
- The Master of Free Software of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid): offering students the chance to complete their compulsory Master internships in the free software community of Comunes projects.
- Medialab-Prado:[38] Serves as a forum to present Comunes initiatives.[22][39] One of them, Move Commons, is part of their Commons Lab.[40]
- IEPALA Foundation:[41] It has hired a programmer for the development of Kune and provides technical resources for an alpha-testing environment.[42]
- Xsto.info: Free software cooperative[43] that provides technical infrastructure to Comunes without charge.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Mass Araya, Elizabeth Roxana; Borsetti Gregorio Vidotti, Silvana Aparecida (15 July 2012). "Creative Commons: a Convergence Model Between the Ideal of Commons and the Possibilities of Creation in Contemporary TimesOpposed to Copyright Impediments". In Baptista, Ana Alice; Linde, Peter; Lavesson, Niklas; et al. (eds.). Social Shaping of Digital Publishing: Exploring the Interplay Between Culture and Technology. IOS Press. pp. 3–11. ISBN 9781614990642. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
- ^ "P2P Foundation on the Comunes Association". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "About the Commons". Comunes Association. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Comunes Legal Statutes". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Comunes Manifesto". Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^ "Challenges to connecting nodes in the ecosystem of social movements". Retrieved 5 February 2011.[permanent dead link ]
- ^ "Ourproject.org Homepage". Archived from the original on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
- ^ "Unos 3.000 ciclistas se concentrarán en Madrid entre hoy y el domingo en una nueva edición de 'La criticona'". Europa Press news agency. 28 April 2010. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ Kleinberg, David (2008). Handbook for Language Learning Resources at Winthrop University (PDF). South Carolina, USA: Winthrop University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-15. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
- ^ "Jornada de Apoyo al Pueblo Palestino (Madrid)". Kaos en la Red. 6 November 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ De Pedro, Xavier; et al. (2006). "Writing documents collaboratively in Higher education using Traditional vs. Wiki methodology (I)". The Fourth Congress of the International University Teaching and Innovation (IV CIDUI). 10.
- ^ "Ourproject boosts!". Comunes Blog. 2 October 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
- ^ "Kune Homepage". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ Boeing, Niels (31 August 2012). "Das neue Internet" [The new internet]. Die Zeit (in German). Germany. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ "Software libre, hardware libre, ¿servicios libres?". Libertonia News. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Kune project in Ohloh". Archived from the original on 14 May 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Colabora con Kune! Llamado a desarrolladores/as". Peru Free Software Association. Archived from the original on 22 August 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Move Commons Homepage". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Move Commons te ayuda a definir públicamente tus proyectos". Barrapunto (Spanish Slashdot). 26 July 2010. Archived from the original on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ^ "Move Commons, un nouveau système de marqueurs pour les initiatives du libre et au-delà". LinuxFR (French Slashdot). 29 December 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ^ "Move Commons: Moving Beyond Creative Commons". Glyn Moody's blog "Open...". 23 July 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ a b "Medialab-Prado debate on Move Commons (video)". 25 November 2010. Archived from the original on 13 January 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Mozilla Drumbeat platform: page for Move Commons project and its supporters". Archived from the original on 23 December 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Move Commons activity scheduled in Mozilla Drumbeat Festival 2010". 5 November 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ James, Nathaniel. "Drumbeat Festival Evaluation 1: Objectives & Outcomes". Archived from the original on 23 January 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ^ "Creative Commons Grant proposal of Move Commons". 30 June 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Seeks project homepage (with MC badge)". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Derecho Internet homepage (with MC badge)". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Engineers without frontiers - Youth (Asturias, Spain) (with MC badge)". Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Alifa free Culture Magazine (with MC badge)". Alifa. Archived from the original on 15 February 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Asturias Bicycle association (with MC badge)". Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "White book of Free Software - Hispanic Calendar of Free Events (with MC badge)". Archived from the original on 2 March 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Alerta! service homepage". Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Plantaré project homepage". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Comunes list of projects". Retrieved 3 February 2011.[permanent dead link ]
- ^ "Grasia Research Group homepage". Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Comunes Acknowledgements". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Medialab-Prado (Madrid) homepage". Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Comunes profile in Medialab-Prado". Archived from the original on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Medialab-Prado "Commons Lab" list of workgroups in 2011". Archived from the original on 7 February 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "IEPALA Foundation homepage". Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Kune node in IEPALA Foundation domain". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Xsto.info free software cooperative homepage". Retrieved 3 February 2011.