Medialab Prado

 
> Introduction
> Methodologies
> Calendar
> Type of Participatation
> Promoters
> Registration 

 

Introduction

1. #bookcamping,  What is it?

#bookcamping an open and collaborative library, born in the wake of the 15M movement, has gone very far in a very short time, and we are very happy with the impact it has had, and with its capacity to produce value and knowledge. But what's moving even faster is the ground under our feet.

We have entered a garden full of books, doubts, licences, middlemen in crisis, obsolete distribution channels, frictions, mirages, laws, and, above all, questions.

We'd like to continue practising our horizontal, and as de-centralised as possible (dis)organisation, championing and fostering the circulation of free culture. But, for this purpose, we also need to stop and reflect. And we can't think of a better way than to do it collectively, as part of this Commons Lab.

We want to collectively rethink the need to reformulate the proprietary publishing model, and the opportunity offered to the redesign of the current state of affairs by the spreading of free culture. The current importance of reformulating aspects such as the obsolescence of copyright, the crisis of the copyright collecting agencies, and the production chain of the publishing industry itself prompt us to imagine and propose new possibilities for creation, publishing, promotion, enjoyment, exchange, funding and sales in the realm of publishing.

To redefine the relationship between producers, distributors and users in the publishing sector. To promote and teach the production of free publishing culture. To act as a realm of research and experimentation with new business models in publishing, based on the free circulation of content, free culture, and islands moving in the middle of the ocean when you least expect them to.

2. #bookcamping in the Commons Lab. ¿What are we proposing?

The #bookcamping work group proposes a reflection in order to generate a critical discourse around the free-culture - publishing relationship. It proses a place for debate and self-learning for different agents in the publishing production chain (anything from readers to publishers) interested in the new paths opened by the  current crisis of the current model of  production and distribution based on the new disruptive context established by the Internet and the questioning of copyright culture. The group's activity will launch a number of lines of analysis which will integrate a complex outlook which we have no answers, but many doubts and questions about.

 

3. Some of these lines of research/questioning are:

- Where is the current publishing model headed? - What is the future/present of reading and  its support media?

- The crisis of the notion of authorship. A little bit of necessary history and a map of present and future viewpoints.

- To discover new initiatives related to the book, to publishing, to literature, and to open culture, which can reveal that other publishing models are possible: critical, sustainable, and participatory initiatives.

- To weave networks among agents in the chain of value production of the publishing sector: readers, authors, publishers and booksellers. Because unity is strength. And so is the distribution of knowledge.

- To research the coexistence of copyright with free and open licenses, and the application of the latter in publishing. Do publishers dream with electronic writers? Is free culture sustainable for authors?

Methodologies

Each of the sessions will have the goal to discuss specific issues which are  currently generating friction, and which we want to learn and share our knowledge about:

- Licenses
- Copyright collection agencies and intellectual property
- Open Culture / Collective authoring
- Self-publishing
- Intermediaries in the scenario of the electronic book
- Copying

Each session will be divided in two parts:

a. A guest will address the work group, speaking of their experience in some of the areas we want to engage. They will also suggest a text to work with for the second part of the session.

b. Pooling together of ideas, and reflection on the chosen subject matter.

An open methodology, to be developed by the group itself.

Creation of a small library of texts on "Commons Publishing Basics", premised on the suggestions of the  participants and of the #bookcamping editorial team.

A practical session of free scanning.

Socialisation of the reading of texts from the library: books on the commons with an guest to guide the session, such as, for example, Joaquín Rodríguez, author of Los futuros del libro, a title available on #bookcamping. 

During December 2011, the group will be able to resort to the usual communication channels of the Commons Lab: the mailing list and shared documents  (etherpad/piratepad). Furthermore, we propose an Open Bookshelf within the bookcamping.cc where we can design and share our working library. Past and future sessions will be documented on the #bookcamping blog.

 

Calendar

Starting in 2012. Initially, one monthly session, on a Thursday

1st session: Thursday January 26 Tuesday, January 24 / 5 pm [+info] 
2nd session: Thursday February 23 Tuesday, February 28 / 5 pm [+info]
3rd session: Thursday, March 22 / 6 pm Tuesday, March 20 / 6 pm  [+info coming soon] 
4th session: Thursday, April 19 / 6 pm  Monday, April 23/ 5 pm  [+info coming soon] 
5th session: May [+info coming soon]

 

Type of participation

A work group fully open to heterogeneous individuals or groups related to or interested in the world of the book or social movements.

Readers, publishers, users, authors, members of social collectives / assemblies.

People with an interest in the book/text/document as a tool for the provision of collective intelligence and citizen initiatives.

Also librarians, archivists, teachers, cultural hackers.

 

Promoters

Daniel Gómez Blasco.

Jessica Romero. atemporalsiempre.com

María Durán.

Kamen Nedev. waitingfrcargo.net

Silvia Nanclares. blogs.zemos98.org/entornodeposibilidades/

María Castelló. www.castellosolbes.com/

 

Registration

Registration closed