Convergence 19

Open Everything - A Collaborative Economy Convergence 

Dublin, Limerick, Cloughjordan

www.openeverything.ie

convergence@cultivate.ie 

Since the year 2000 Cultivate have held Convergence, Ireland’s longest running sustainable living festival. This regular series of events have explored issues around community resilience, sustainability and how we transition to a society that works for all. 

Cultivate and our partners WeCreate Workspace and the P2P Foundation are delighted to invite you to this 19th Convergence that will bring together cooperative advocates, community activists, and commons animators to share perspectives and ideas on the question:

“How can a commons-based collaborative economy strengthen the resilience of our communities?”  

These events will explore and further a commons approach to building and stewarding shared resources, building community resilience and creating meaningful livelihoods. 

THE HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• A major conference that will reimagine cooperatives and look at how the cooperative model could facilitate sustainable livelihoods and service provision in our communities.  
• An introduction to peer production and open hardware in both the Limerick and Cloughjordan Fab Labs. 
• A symposium examining the potential of the old idea of the commons, now being rethought with new ideas from the open source community and the cooperative movement
• A conversation on Community and the Commons with Michel Bauwens and Peadar Kirby  

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Michel Bauwens a Belgian Peer-to-Peer theorist and an active writer, researcher and speaker on the subject of technology, culture and business innovation. 

Peter Couchman Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation who which supports predominantly rural communities to set up and run a range of co-operatives. 

John Restakis the former Executive Director of the BC Co-operative Association in Vancouver, has a professional background in community organising and co-op development and is the author of “Humanizing the Economy – Co-operatives in the Age of Capital’.

Angela Espinosa a Colombian academic focused on issues of complexity management and self-organisation with applications in cooperative management.

Jon Walker a UK-based proponent of the Viable Systems Model, an organisation tool used by cooperatives and communities. As well as many other international and local cooperative and community thinkers and activists. 

TOPICS INCLUDE:  

P2P Networks * The potential of Fab Labs and Digital Fabrication for sustainability * Social enterprises that facilitate new livelihoods * Relocalisation, Community Resilience and Permaculture * Co-working, co-housing, community supported agriculture and cooperative energy generation * Digital and complementary currencies + Open Source and Appropriate technologies + Managing the Commons for the benefit of all * Collaboration and sharing in urban and rural environments

Places are limited, for full details, booking and directions, see www.openeverything.ie or email convergence@cultivate.ie

If we are to make the changes that are needed to adapt to climate change, or to connect with each other in deeper ways and strengthen our resilience, we need to revive the idea of the commons. This series of events is for anyone interested or active in doing that. 

VENUES 

Wednesday’s event is being held in the Centre For Creative Practices, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2

Thursday’s event takes place at Fab Lab Limerick, Rutland Street, Limerick

All other events take place at WeCreate in Cloughjordan Ecovillage

GETTING HERE

Cloughjordan is 6 miles from the M7 motorway and is easily accessible by public transport. Rail travel from Dublin costs €9.99 each way if booked 3 days in advance of travel.  

Click here for more details on how to get here. 

Accommodation is available at Django’s Hostel in the Ecovillage.

SCHEDULE

Wednesday 10th September 14.00 - 16.00 €5 Suggested Donation

COMMONS TRANSITION STRATEGIES

Building on the FLOK Experience

Centre For Creative Practices, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2

Thursday 11th September 14.00 - 17.00  €5 Suggested Donation

OPEN DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Fab Lab Limerick, Rutland Street, Limerick

Friday 12th September 09.30 - 17.00 €30 + €8 Lunch Option

THE COOPERATIVE MODEL REVISITED

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Friday 12th September 19.30 - 22.00 €5 Suggested Donation

COMMUNITY AND THE COMMONS

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Saturday 13th September 09.30 - 17.00 €30 + €8 Lunch Option

THE COMMONS SYMPOSIUM

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Saturday 13th September 20.00 - 22.00 €Free to participants

OPEN CULTURE - OUR CREATIVE COMMONS 

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Sunday 14th September 11.00 - 13.00 €5 Suggested Donation

SOCIAL PERMACULTURE 

DESIGNING VIABLE ORGANISATIONS 

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Sunday 14th September 14.00 - 17.00 Open to P2P F members

P2P FOUNDATION GATHERING

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Sunday 14th September 14.00 - 17.00 €free

WECREATE OPEN DAY

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary 

Ticket to all Cloughjordan Events only €60

FULL DETAILS

WEDNESDAY 10th September 14.00 - 16.00 €5 Suggested Donation

COMMONS TRANSITION STRATEGIES

Building on the FLOK Experience

Centre For Creative Practices,
Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2

A team of researchers, lead by Michel Bauwens, founder and president at the P2P Foundation, gathered in Ecuador this year to develop a societal transition model from patent and IP process toward a society based on the Open Source model of Free/Libre Open Knowledge (free as in freedom, not as in ‘beer’).

Lead researcher from the project and founder of the Peer to Peer Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and project policy writer John Restakis, discuss commons transition strategies and the role of policy design in a common future, moderated by David Murphy, RTE’s business editor.

“The research project focuses on many interrelated themes, including open education; open innovation and science; the arts, cultural and meaning-making activities; open design commons; distributed manufacturing; sustainable agriculture; and open machining. The research also explores the enabling of legal and institutional frameworks to support open productive capacities; new open technical infrastructures, systems for privacy, security, data ownership and digital rights; and ways to mutualise the physical infrastructures of collective life and promote collaborative consumption.” David Bollier

THURSDAY 11th September 14.00 - 17.00  €5 Suggested Donation

OPEN DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Fab Lab Limerick, Rutland Street, Limerick

An exploration of commons based peer production and design with Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation. Participants will gain practical experience of open hardware projects including Wiki House.

• Discuss and explore the possibilities of using the
  FabLab equipment, such as 3D Printing and CNC Routers
• Work with Open Source designs tailored to your needs
• Collaborate on new designs and make them available to the global to the community 

FRIDAY 12th September 09.30 -17.00, €30 + €8 Lunch Option 

THE COOPERATIVE MODEL REVISITED

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Tipperary
Supported by Tipperary County Council, NTLP and the Plunkett Foundation UK

This timely event will bring international experts, national thinkers and local entrepreneurs together to inspire a cooperative approach to nurturing sustainable livelihoods and facilitating new enterprises at the local, regional and national level. 

With the withdrawal of government from the funding of social services, and the rise of austerity policies that have attended the current economic crisis, there is an urgent need for new forms of social care. Over the last twenty years, social and solidarity co-ops have emerged as a new form of care that not only provides care to citizens but also reforms the purpose and direction of social care itself. Pioneered in Italy, social co-ops are a new form of open co-operativism in which multiple stakeholders work together to provide a wide range of social services not only to co-op members but to the community as a whole. 

Tipperary has a rich tradition of cooperative enterprise and in recent years this has taken off with the community tearoom in Loughmore, the cooperative energy projects in Templederry and Drumbane, as well as the many cooperative initiatives in community farming and housing at the Cloughjordan Ecovillage. 

FRIDAY 12th September 19.30 - 22.00 €5 Suggested Donation

COMMUNITY AND THE COMMONS

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage

A talk and public interview with Michel Bauwens, a Belgian integral philosopher and Peer-to-Peer theorist, moderated by Professor Peadar Kirby, a resident of Cloughjordan Ecovillage. 

SATURDAY 13th September 09.30-17.30, €30 +€8 Lunch Option 

THE COMMONS SYMPOSIUM

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Tipperary

The commons provides a framework to facilitate transformative action around co-operative and commons-based housing and land tenure, mutually owned renewable energy, local and sustainable food systems, and even community controlled health and social care. 

Sharing with others and working together is hard-wired into our very being. Today, however, the dominant social and economic systems we depend on are actually working against our ability to collaborate, curbing our development and, in many ways, destroying our cultural and natural environments.

A fresh approach for taking care of our shared resources is emerging. The old idea of the commons, which has been around since the start of human history, is being supercharged with new ideas from the open source community and the cooperative movement. This new collaborative economy may offer an egalitarian and collaborative approach to a more just and sustainable future.

The commons is a social practice for meeting our needs outside of the market. It is estimated that there are 2 billion people around the world right now who are managing land, forests, fisheries, water, seeds and creative knowledge as commons. In doing so, these commoners are not only the users and beneficiaries, but also the co-creators and stewards of these shared resources.

A commons is not just about resources, it is more about how we work together and relate to each other, and is a conversation about who we are and how we act. It involves taking your life into your own hands, rather than being dependent on markets to sell you what you need. Commoning allows people to make decisions and take action to shape the future of their own communities.

This symposium, which features local and global thinkers, will explore the question, “How can a commons-based collaborative economy strengthen the resilience of our communities?”

SATURDAY 13th September 20.00 - 22.00 €free to participants

OPEN CULTURE - OUR CREATIVE COMMONS

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage 

Performance, Storytelling and Celebration - A celebration of the new ways we are sharing knowledge and techniques to create a cultural commons. Blending international and local speakers with food, music, performance and spoken word.

SUNDAY 14th September, 11.00 - 1300  €5 Suggested Donation

SOCIAL PERMACULTURE
DESIGNING VIABLE ORGANISATIONS 

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage

The Viable Systems Model designed by the late Stafford Beer identifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for any system to be ‘viable’, meaning being able to cope with and to adapt to changes in its environment. Jon Walker, Angela Espinosa and Davie Philip explore community applications of the viable systems model through the lens of Permaculture design. 

SUNDAY 14th September 14.00 - 17.00 

WECREATE OPEN DAY

WeCreate, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Tipperary, 

An Open Day in the grounds of the WeCreate Workspace featuring a maker market space and tours of the FabLab. Participate in the the Eco Coder Dojo and get an introduction to Raspberry Pi small computers and their applications in resilience building. There will be taster sessions on future courses that WeCreate will be hosting in Green Building and Digital Manufacturing. Learn basic digital fabrication skills including laser cutting, vinyl cutting, milling, routing and 3D printing,

SPONSORS AND COLLABORATORS

We would like to thank Plunkett Foundation, Tipperary County Council and North Tipperary Leader Partnership for their support. 

Our collaborators deserve a special mention for their assistance in delivering this Convergence. 

Thanks to the Centre for Creative Practices, FEASTA, Fab Lab Limerick, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, NICER Training, and the Tipperary Green Business Network.

Convergence 19 is hosted by Cultivate Living and Learning, the P2P Foundation and WeCreate.

convergence@cultivate.ie