Open P2P Design.
Metadesign for Open Design Projects
Massimo Menichinelli
Media Ecologies & Post-Industrial Production.
Media Ecologies for Open Design Communities
and Distributed Manufacturing
November 3rd 2009
University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
http://www.espach.salford.ac.uk/sssi/p2p/
http://openp2pdesign.org

What is this presentation about?
* successful Open Design projects need tools, processes
and systems
* we can co-design such tools, processes and systems
using design, in an open and p2p way
* then reaching the Distributed Manufacturing Scenario is a
project too

What is Open Design?
a project published with a license that facilitates its sharing
and that can be “compiled” or “manufactured” locally
* sharing
* collaboration
* open licenses
* code --> artifact
Open Design refers to every kind of design projects that can
be shared in a digital format over a network

What kind of open design projects?
* Open Web Design
* Open Font Design
* Open Interaction Design
* Open Movie
* Open Architecture
* Open Product Design
* ...
Every Open Project
except Software and
Hardware?

Open Design: OpenMoko
http://www.openmoko.com / http://www.openmoko.org
Source: http://www.openmoko.com
It's Open Design! It's also Open It's even Open
Source Software! Hardware!

So Open Design is...
* a lot of different kind of projects
* in its first steps
* starting from, using and including Open Source Software /
Open Hardware
* working well when project and artifact are code/digital
* still developing tools, business models, processes and
systems when the artifact is a physical good

What is Open Design, for rival goods?
a distributed system of design & manufacturing
based on:
* sharing
* collaboration
* open licenses
* open and distributed projects
* open and distributed manufacturing technologies
A system of
agents that:
* use * distribute
* design * manage the
* manufacture end-of-life
* market * ...

Current approach to Open Design projects
* very few single designers initiatives and designers interested
* recent communities (very few succesful ones)
* enterprises, hackers more interested in the hardware
* fabbing technologies developed by hackers
--> design a project and then just publish it and share it online
--> the project is open, but the process is not collaborative
nor open
--> lack of new tools, processes, systems that enable
designers and users in developing open design projects

What we can do for enabling Open Design projects is
Metadesign
Metadesign is the design of the design tools, processes
and systems
* research and share design knowledge
* design and share design tools
* design and share design processes
* facilitate design & manufacturing & end-of-life systems
* facilitate the distributed creativity
For communities For users For enterprises
For designers

Open Design actually is Metadesign
* a community is designing, not just a single designer
* the process is open, and therefore out of control
* the process ideally never stops
* designers won't design complete and definitive projects
--> Metadesign is necessary for single Open Design
projects
--> Metadesign is necessary for making Open Design
projects feasible
Change of focus: from Product
Design to Metadesign

...and we also need Strategic Design projects!
* Strategic Design: “the integrated body of products, services
and communication strategies that business and social
actors conceive and develop to obtain a set of specific
strategic results” http://www.polidesign.net/mds/
* building and offering a complete system of metadesign
projects in order to enable people easily
* because even business strategies should be thought as
projects (and therefore design)

Make Magazine as Metadesign and Strategic Design example
* Make Magazine
* Maker Faire
* “Makers” Book (not Cory Doctorow's book)
* Make: television
* Make Controller Kit
* Craft Magazine
--> Tools, Knowledge, and Systems for DIY
--> Metadesign projects offered within a whole Strategic Design
project
For Open Design we need
Strategic Design and
Metadesign initiatives

How do we design such Metadesign projects?
--> Open P2P Design
How do we offer them in a Strategic Design
project?
--> openp2pdesign.org

Facilitating a P2P system: Open Health by RED (British Design
Council)
http://www.designcouncil.info/mt/RED/
Source: http://www.designcouncil.info/mt/RED/
This is... P2P
Service Design!

What is Open P2P Design?
Open Design (design of an open project)
+
P2P Design (design of a peer-to-peer system)
=
the co-design of Open P2P social systems

What is Open P2P Design?
Open tools +
Open process
=
Enabling Open Systems
--> a proposal for a design methodology
Designers become then
Enablers, Facilitators...
Metadesigners

What does Open P2P Design do?
an open and p2p co-design process
--> a collaborative activity self-organized by a community
--> a collaborative activity that may design projects (Open
Design is one of the possible applications)
* service design+product design+social network analysis+...
* enabling/co-designing a social system in a locality

Three Layers of Metadesign
* Metadesign of Collaborative Activities: co-design a
collaborative activity that will actually design the goal
* Metadesign of Collaborative Activities that design tools:
co-design a collaborative activity that will actually design
the tools and processes for other Open Projects
* Metadesign of Collaborative Activities that design the
Metadesign process: co-design a collaborative activity that
will actually redesign the Metadesign process itself
(1) for Open (2) for tools for
Projects Open Processes (3) for rededesigning
itself

What is openp2pdesign.org?
It's the Strategic Design project that offers
Open P2P Design Metadesign projects
It's not a startup (yet) but an hub in the
Open Design network
From March 2005: Next:
1 master degree thesis 3 books
1 paper 1 keynote speech
1 book 3 workshops
4 workshops 1 Open Everything event (?)
1-2 open source softwares (?)
A larger network

openp2pdesign.org : completed project
Book 00:
An introduction to Open P2P Design and openp2pdesign.org
Spreading knowledge
http://stores.lulu.com/openp2pdesign
about Open P2P Design

openp2pdesign.org : next projects
Book 01:
Open Source tools for Open Design Projects
* Free/Open Source Softwares for Design
* Free/Open Source File Formats for Design
* Web-based services for Design
* ...
Spreading knowledge
about Tools

openp2pdesign.org : next projects
Book 02:
Strategic Design and Metadesign for Open Design
Projects
* Past and Present of Open Design
* The Distributed Manufacturing Scenario
* Metadesign guide for Open Design projects
* ...
Spreading knowledge
about Processes for
Open Design projects

openp2pdesign.org : next projects
Book 03:
Open P2P Design: Metadesign for Complex
Projects
* Open P2P Design
* Design & Complexity
* Metadesign guide for Collaborative Activities
* ...
Spreading knowledge
about Processes for open
collaborative activities

openp2pdesign.org : design tool (a proposal for a project)
Software(s):
Collaborative Design tools
* Version Control System for Open Design projects
+
* Web-based Open Design Forge for Open Design projects
Needs:
* Open Source
* Multiplatform
* Open file formats A tool that visualizes:
* Scripting/API * processes
* resources
* networks
* interactions
* history
* reputation

openp2pdesign.org : a proposal for a project
Software(s):
Collaborative Design tools
Existing softwares that can be used:
* Aptana/Eclipse/... (IDE)
* SVN/... (Version Control Systems)
* Trac/... (Forge)
* Archimedes/... (CAD...and Eclipse IDE)
What they lack now:
* Image/CAD/2D/3D file formats viewer and versions diff/merge
* Integration with CAD/2D/3D softwares
* Integration with other Open Design communities
* Integration with P2P Clients (BitTorrent/...)
* ...

Any questions or comments?

Thank you!
Massimo Menichinelli
Do you want to join or contact us?
info@openp2pdesign.org
openp2pdesign.org
twitter.com/openp2pdesign
stores.lulu.com/openp2pdesign