lecture: vrijcoop.org - VrijCoop

Housing is a common good and as such the responsibility of all. To permanently protect the inhabitants against the precarity of the profit-driven real estate market, the real-estate has to be liberated from the market. To achieve this, the ownership -as a right to sell- of the real estate has to be separated from the ownership -as a right to use-. VrijCoop is a decentralised network between various groups in autonomously managed real-estate (right to use), where the broader community functions as a guarantor against the real estate being reprivatised or recapitalised (right to sell). The immediate purpose of the network is to further ransom (vrijkopen) space for the participants. In this perspective any surplus created amongst the participants is statutory intended only for this goal.

lecture: John Diggins - The Silent Killer: Exploring eBook Watermarking

Sometimes called "social DRM", ebook (and e-journal) watermarking is an umbrella term for a broad array of tactics publishers use to inject a unique fingerprint or serial number into every copy of an ebook or journal article that is purchased from them. In other words, watermarks allow publishers to turn a book into a tool of surveillance, giving them the power to monitor, suppress, and ultimately attempt to dictate who shares what books with whom. The key argument put forth will be that watermarking goes beyond 'merely' being a threat to reader privacy and the free exchange of ideas, and may in fact be literally life-threatening in some cases. This talk will thus examine how various watermarking systems work, how they function as surveillance tools, and then proceed to explore how they may be identified and neutralized so as to help facilitate the safe, unrestricted sharing of knowledge.

other: Biolab Amersfoort - what could a biolab be good for?

DIY Biolabs come in a lot of flavours. They can be fun or serious, harmless or on the edge of what is ehtically acceptable. What kind of biolab does De WAR need? A lab for soil analysis? Bio-art? Growing stuff? DNA-analysis?
Join our discussion and help us get a better feel for the possibilities.

other: Biolab Amersfoort - biohacking and ethics, the brainstorm

Following the lecture about ethics, we write our own charter for the biolab.

workshop: Biolab Amersfoort - The opening workshop

From 15 to 19 August De WAR sets up its own biolab. Now the time has come to officially open the lab with a first workshop.
As a start we make agar art. We paint with living bacteria in different colours. The materials will be available and participation is free.

lecture: Joachim de Koning - Peer2Product

Many online webshop systems are overly complex and obtuse. In some cases collaboration between webshop owners is encouraged. However, in most cases, this collaboration is only possible inside the jailed garden of the webservice hosting the shops. Peer2Product makes it easy to start your own webshop and have full control over it, as well as enabling you to make peer2peer connections with other users and form a large network of online retailers. This brings people and the products they make together to increase their online sales potential, without compromising their individual rights when it comes to their data.

lecture: Joachim de Koning - Elliott Wave Theory

In the early 1930's Ralph Nelson Elliott noticed something strange going on in the large amount of stock and currency chart data that was part of his job. Patterns and waves emerged for him that gave him the idea that these may hold more information about the timing and direction of market action. He formed an elaborate theory on how to analyse these seemingly random movements, and spent large amounts of time researching why and how these patterns were formed, in order to find out how they drive the markets.

workshop: Stefan Lehner - Re-use of PET-bottles to build bikes, vehicles, bridges, roofs

We develop and build solid structures with empty plastic bottles.
The idea behind it is that our waste can be used directly to build practical items.
A goal is to present and test a strong bicycle frame for driveable bicycle at the end of the conference. Or another vehicle or a bridge for pedestrians.
During the week will work on these structures and we will present the results on the last day.
Everybody and specialists for pneumatics are welcome to participate and contribute their ideas from wednesday 17th to 21th of August.

lecture: Jan Jongert - cycle modifier

« Cyclifier » creates multiple benefits for local stakeholders by connecting existing unused or useless flow in a smart way. This creates an urban ecosystem where operations are no longer divided and spatially limited. With « Cyclifier » the ever-changing flow of goods, energy, water, food and capital can provide more benefit to the place where they are created.

lecture: Harmen G. Zijp - Interfacing the commons

How does the world of The Commons connect to our common world? Reporting back the findings of a week long brainstorm.

lecture: Harmen G. Zijp & Matthijs Kooijman - Hypha - supporting self-organising events

Hypha is a website system intended to facilitate collaboration in small (distributed) project groups that want to share information within the group and publish (part of) it on a project website. The Koppelting website, for example, is powered by Hypha.

A current development in Hypha is a
"festival" module that facilitates organising festivals, conferences, and other events with registrations and a (participant-contributed) programme. Ideally, organising such an event would be completely automated: registrations, payments, generating a lineup, perhaps even a timetable? But also, sending out emails, reminders, generating press statements? How far can we take this? What things can a tool assist with, and what still needs (creative) input from people?

other: Marcel Pool - Freedom - Together

How can free minded people work and live together in best way? Together we investigate what the concepts freedom and together mean and we will practise it as well.

other: Federico Ferretti - Scientific quality in an era of highly distributed expertise

The recent transformation to information-age science has enabled new social practices and sources of commitment to emerge both within and outside established science. Koppelting is an incredible example of such science alternatives.
How scientific quality is being assessed in regards to such evolving practices that stand outside mainstream science?
How these practices collocate themselves inside the dominant scientific paradigm?
What are personal motivations behind these phenomena?
Participants of the festival will be able to reflect and express their views through an interactive installation.

other: Jiri Gregor - 3D concrete printer

Are you played off in printing with plastic ? Let go for the real thing……. Concrete

We have got an industrial robot (Kuka) and we have developed a suitable concrete mix which can be 3D printed.
If you want to make complex shape in concrete you need to make a mold, this is a fairly time costly method to make shapes with concrete.
3D printing gives the opportunity to work freeform with concrete.

lecture: Dirk van Vreeswijk & Ton Zijlstra - Leaving Gmail (and similar walled gardens)

Convenient services like Gmail and similar walled gardens (Dropbox for instance) are very easy to start using, but often much harder to stop using. Gmail and others are not only walled gardens, but also often single points of failure. Others control your data, and can cut your access to it.



Dirk and Ton have set out to leave Gmail, and found it a habit that was hard to kick. They will share their practical experiences and show you how they sought and found a different solution that is more fully under self control, and uses open source solutions.

lecture: Cindy Kohtala - Seeing is Believing: Environmental Issues in Fab Labs

in my talk I will summarize key issues from my doctoral research, where I have been studying Fab Labs and how they deal with socio-environmental issues

lecture: Joost Wesseling - Do it yourself Air Quality Measurements: Why and How

The quality of the air we breathe is important for our well being. Therefore it is monitored by government organizations. So, why bother? Well, for one thing: it is quite satisfactory to measure the air quality yourself. Secondly, the national networks do not cover every part of the world. If you want to know the details about the environment you live in, you will have to determine them yourself. Thats harder than you think, but is becoming easier.

lecture: Jeroen van der Sluijs - Risks and ethics of the novel genome editing technology CRISPR

A new technology named CRISPR CAS9 makes it possible to re-write the genetic code. It can be applied to all species, be it bacteria, plants or humans. It is seen as one of the biggest game changers in biology. The technology is low cost and easy to use and has yet been used by do it yourself biologists. What are the risks of this new technology and what ethical questions does it raise?

For background information see this discussion in Nature:
http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-the-disruptor-1.17673

DIY kits for editing yeast or bacteria are for instance available here:
http://www.the-odin.com/diy-yeast-crispr-kit/
and;
http://www.the-odin.com/diy-bacterial-crispr-kit/

lecture: de Nieuwe Graanschuur - Consumer Supported Trade - an experiment

Coöperatie de Nieuwe Graanschuur is a Cooperation that wants to stimulate local organic agriculture and reduce wast by shorter supply-lines and reducing the amount of packaged products.
Most people agree that the way trade and consumption is constructed right now has some serious negative side effects on our environment and on social issues like fair income for workers.
The coop wants to challenge the current system by showing consumers, so that's all of us, that there are other ways to spend your money than by just buying what is offered by large companies. It is your actions that shape the world around you, after all. Not the entire world, but on a small scale, your personal spending pattern has a direct influence. Combine forces with likeminded people, and your influence grows.
First project of the coöp is a shop, that focusses on local (within 25 km) organic products and offers as many products as possible without packageing. People can bring their own jars, bags, tupperware, tins, drums, ... to fill at the shop. Objective is to offer everything a household needs, in a different way and show consumers other options than being led by clever product placement strategies. The shop also wants to be (or become) a platform for consumers to reclaim ownership over the way trade is constructed at this moment. Consumers can become co-owner of the shop by becoming a member of the coöperation.

lecture: Dirk Zijp - Capitalism 3.0

In the current neoliberal economic system the major global operating Public Corporations are supreme powerful. Through their lobbying power they exert substantial influence on national and international political decisions. This comes at the expense of the sustainable management of the ‘commons’, which is the classical term for the common property of a society, such as land, minerals, nature, air, water (and formerly the village green). Barnes describes an interesting solution to this problem, i.e. by introducing trusts to manage the commons. These trusts are politically independent institutions, somewhat similar to the water authorities and the independent administrative bodies in the Netherlands.

lecture: Dirk van Vreeswijk - Shenzhen Fab12 Conference debrief

Every year since the last 12 years the worldwide community of fablabs gather for a week long conference to celebrate and strengthen the fablab network. This year it took place from 8-14 august in Makerparadise Shenzhen China. Dirk is co-founder of the fablab network in the Benelux and will share his observations of fab12.

lecture: Mathijs de Bruin - Introducing the Decentralized Society Research Project

Having been frustrated for a long time about living as part of ‘the system’ (the economic and social structures that dominate our lives) I decided to exchange my house in Amsterdam for a more sustainable and humane form of life.

Within several (3-4) years my plan is to either join or found a sustainable community, being largely independent of dominating power structures forcing the exploitation of our planet and one another.

However, I do not know yet what this would look like.

What would be the best way to organize, how can we make sure all participants are fully represented?
* How can we allow sustainable forms of living to scale, allowing more people to live in harmony with their environment?
* What can be done to lower (economic) barriers for people to escape ‘the system’?

These and other questions I am trying to answer, while I am travelling around Europe visiting several sustainable communities or eco-villages but also hackerspaces and related events. Taking part in communnity life, contributing and talking to founders, philosophers, researchers and fellow travelers.

other: Diderik van Wingerden - Co-creating book: "Glimpses of a new society"

This thread is for people interested in co-authoring a book on contemporary Commons Transition-related cases and topics. Following a dialogue on Loomio: https://www.loomio.org/d/OWjG01cn/co-creating-book-glimpses-of-a-new-society-working-title

The exact topic(s) of the book is not defined yet as is the process in which the book will be written, as this is exactly the thing to be decided by interested co-authors together in this thread. Some ideas could be: case studies of successful cases, attractive design and lots of nice pictures, simple and elegant style, aimed at people interested in the topics but not 'inner circle', searching for overlapping themes of interest to the various co-authors, doing a 'Book Sprint' to write the thing in 1 week together.

Also, the title is merely a working title at the moment, to give a bit of a feeling where things might go.

Sounds interesting enough? Let's go!

lecture: Jo van der Spek - We Are Here, Four More Years

We Are Here is a group of refugees in Amsterdam that does not get any housing provided by the government but also is not allowed to work and therefore should live on the street. The group decided to make the inhumane situation that they have to live in visible, by no longer hiding, but showing the situation of refugees that are out of procedure in The Netherlands. Thanks to the power of the refugees and the help of many supporters, the group exists already for around four years.

workshop: Jeremy Crowlesmith - Commoning in het wild

Tijdens deze workshop van (Un)usual Business gaan we in discussie over de dilemma's die je tegenkomt wanneer je in het wilde westen van de echte wereld, idealen probeert af te stemmen op de praktische mogelijkheden van vandaag.

Wat doe je bijvoorbeeld je als iets wilt commonen, maar de gecommonde technologie is te complex; gebruikersonvriendelijk of bestaat niet eens? Hoe kunnen we er voor zorgen dat onze (gecommonde) technieken of projecten het beste ten dienste worden geplaatst van andere commoning initiatieven? We gaan op zoek naar oplossingen aan de hand van ons onderzoek naar commoninginitiatieven in Utrecht; onze eigen ervaringen met de ontwikkeling van een website; en de ervaringen van de op Koppelting aanwezige projecten.

other: Erik Sjödin - The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project

In The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project artists, researchers, farmers, gardeners, chefs and scientists experiment with cooking and cultivating the water fern Azolla. Azolla is one of the world's fastest growing plants and a rich source of nutrients. Yet it is virtually unexplored as a foodstuff for human consumption.

lecture: Tommy Ryan - Preserving Anarchist texts

Sinds enige tijd wordt er gewerkt aan het project Anarchisme.nl. Tommy
Ryan is initiator van dit semi-open wiki-project dat dient als bron van
informatie over het anarchisme. Idee achter de site is het aan de ene
kant een database is van historisch relevante als wel hedendaagse
teksten met daarbij een bron van achtergrondinformatie. De structuur van
de website maakt het mogelijk dat deze informatie direct gekoppeld kan
worden binnen bijvb. literatuurbronnen.

Doel van het project is om literatuur die bijna in de vergetelheid is
geraakt, en slecht toegankelijk is, weer publiek beschikbaar te stellen.
Online is het lastig Nederlandstalige anarchistische literatuur te
vinden. Veel is versnippert over uitgaven uit de jaren '70 en '80. In
deze bespreking een verhaal over de keuzes die gemaakt worden wat
betreft auteursrecht, methoden tot digitalisering, bronnen etc. en
hopelijk uitwisseling over ervaringen en kennis.

workshop: Jaap Vermaas - Micro:Bit

De BBC Micro:Bit wordt in Groot Brittanië aan alle
basisschool-leerlingen in groep 8 verstrekt. Ook veel volwassenen zijn
inmiddels met het bordje aan de slag gegaan. Maar wat is de Micro:Bit eigenlijk? Wat kan je ermee? Is het een serieus
alternatief voor de Arduino, of eerder een aanvulling? Eén ding is zeker: met zo veel gebruikers moet het aanbod aan
onderwijsmateriaal en hacks vanzelf wel heel groot worden. In deze hands-on workshop kan je de Micro:Bit zelf uitproberen.

other: Lunch

Lunch

other: Breakfast

Breakfast

demonstration: Monique de Wilt & Dirk van Vreeswijk - Hospital bed hack for Nepal Earthquake relief

Traditional humanitarian supply chains are extremely long and complex, which adds to cost, time delays and they can often lack resilience. For example, a lot of aid was sent to Nepal after the earthquake, but surprisingly little got through as every aid item was being sent through a small, poorly organised international airport - a bottleneck in the supply chain formed, and this had huge knock on implications.
Last monday 15th of August we kicked off here at Koppelting to design a hospital bed for Nepal that can be manufactured in Nepal itself by local manufacturers.
We will demonstrate what we accomplished in one week.

workshop: Monique de Wilt - How would you like your mowi 3d printer?

The mowi 3d printer is a foldable 3d printer with a double extruder. It is small when folded but it's buildvolume is bigger than an ultimaker. It has also the nice clean wooden look of an ultimaker. I tried to design most parts for lasercutting. I would like to brainstorm on some problems and i would like to hear your wishes for your next 3d printer. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdC9KxD-