The FKI has initiated and participated in many projects to advance its mission. In most cases this has been done in collaboration with partners; while in some others it was the FKI initiating or convening parties to join a new project idea and make it a reality. Some projects have been funded by external funders for a specific duration, while others have been going on also after the funded period was over. Yet other projects have been started up by the foundation and have in a later stage been transferred to other organisations more adequate to take care of the initiative in a more mature phase. In the first part we describe some projects and initiatives of the last decade. The second part, instead, lists some of the main projects we worked on in a further away past.

CommonsCloudan online collaborative platform, the alternative to proprietary software platforms, respectful with privacy and doesn’t commercialise data. Developed as a collective initiative, with a group of organisations in Barcelona, among them femProcomuns (of which FKI is a founding member) opened a campaign at the Goteo crowdfunding platform to put the platform into action. femProcomuns raised 12.965! CommonsCloud.coop is continued by femProcomuns under both the CommonsCloud brand and the Catalan name <a target=_blank href=”https://somnuvol.coop/”“SomNuvol”</a> (“We are cloud” in Catalan).

 

La Comunificadora was a support programme for the transition of Collaborative-Commons Economy from BarcelonaActiva, the city’s economic development agency. It targeted new, or already existing projects that need support to function in a social and solidarity commons-oriented economy. Fifteen projects took part in the first edition (November 2016 - January 2017) a second edition was conducted (October 2017 - January 2018) and the third edition is took place between October 2018 - April 2019 exploring the viability of a commons collaborative economy, looking at its social impact and seeking to establish fair relationships among agents. The fourth and last edition ended in 2020.

femProcomuns is a multistakeholder cooperative for commoners to overcome legal, economic and management hurdles to develop their projects. Set up in Barcelona in 2017 together with a bunch of friends and colleagues. If you’d like to be part of it too, please contact us or femProcomuns.coop directly.</a>

 

 

 

The Things Network (TTNCat) is a community network for the Internet of Things. The idea is to lay the foundations for a smart city built bottom-up and managed by citizens (commons). TTNCat aims to foster technological independence and social autonomy by building smart cities connecting sensors and actuators to the network.

 

 

 

BarCola is the node concerned with Collaborative Economy and Commons Based Peer Production in Barcelona. It is a working group with key people from the municipality and of cooperative-commons grassroots organisations in the city. Barcola is host to the Commons Collaborative Economies event (Procomuns), focused on commons-oriented peer production and the collaborative economy. FKI organised several sessions.

 

 

 

Past Projects

Digital do it yourself (DiDIY)is a new socio-technological phenomenon in which the widespread availability of digital devices supporting the convergence of physical and informational components and the growing accessibility of knowledge and data through open online communities presage scenarios in which the distinction between users and producers of physical artifacts is fuzzy and new opportunities and threats emerge.

 

 

 

Free Technology Academy(FTA) was initially developed as an online master levelprogrammewith course modules about Free Technologies. It was funded as a “virtual campus” project under the Lifelong Learning Programme by the European Commission (2008-2010), led by the FKI. After the EC-funded period, the FTA continued to offer online courses on the same topics and the participating universities have integrated part of the courses into their course programmes. All course materials developed and used by the FTA are freely licensed resources and can be downloaded free of charge, for self study or reuse.

 

 

 

OpenSE( Open educational framework for Computer Science and Software Engineering) was a project that ran from 2009 till 2012 and was cofunded by the EC’s Lifelong Learning Programme. The FKI participated in all workpackages and was responsible for theOpenSE Content Frameworkand policies for free licensing and open standards.

 

 

 

SELF was an international project that developed a blueprint and prototype of a platform for the collaborative sharing and construction of open educational resources and training materials about Free Software and Open Standards.

 

 

 

Free Culture ForumThe event gathered around 200 representatives from grass roots and civil society organisations around the world to develop policy recommendations for the digital society. Organised bySimona Levi / eXgae, the FKI was a co-organiser of the event.

 

 

 

FKFT Conference, the Free Knowledge, Free Technology Education for a free information society - SELF International Conference 2008 was the first international event that focused on the production and sharing of free educational and training materials about Free Software.

 

Talks and courses promoting change in key areas: