Designing in the commons: I cannot sketch either...

2. I cannot sketch either...

However, if you do not feel like sketching, nowadays it is very easy to find designs and open resources online that are free to use and remix. This is where the idea of the commons comes in.

The commons

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will read that this very course you are currently enrolled in was produced and released under a Creative Commons license. This means that is is free to use and distribute by anyone, as long as appropriate credit is given and it is shared under the same license.

The idea of the commons is one that sprung out of the development of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) communities.

In recent decades, the development of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) communities have grown new ways to creativity, based on collaboration and on exchanging knowledge freely. Later the management of open peer-to-peer (p2p) communities gave the impetus for the expansion of these ideas into many aspects of life, also outside the digital spectrum.

This peer-to-peer (p2p) method of management has created many goods that are characterised as being neither privately owned nor state owned. The name given to these goods are commons. These commons are freely available to anyone, based on a set of permissions governing their use, such as the Creative Commons (CC) or the General Public License (GPL). [1]

What distinguishes common goods from private and public goods?

private goods are produced and sold by businesses to consumers
public goods are regulated by governments for their citizens
common goods are preserved or produced for the use of everyone [2].

Some examples of the extension of this open-source and peer-to-peer production beyond the line of digital goods are the freely available designs of the community-designed 3D printers like the Rep-Rap.

_{Links for further reference:}

_[1]_{https://fest.commons.gr/en/about/}

_[2]_{https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Commons_FAQ}