open cities

00 (‘zero zero’)

Hub WestminsterLondon

CREATING CONDITIONS FOR INNOVATION

O en

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Open Economy =

The UK stands at the edge of creating a whole new, vertically-integrated lead market; infact a whole new sector: The Open Sector, to sit alongside the existing Public, Private andCitizen Sectors.

This is not some distant future - it is already beginning to happen. This is a near-future in which the UK will lever its extraordinary combination of a world class democracy, its globally unique data rich-heritage; itsworld leading social finance industry and one of the world most socially-networkedcitizenries to create the next Economic Revolution.

It will start here in the UK, in East London.

(WORLD CLASS DEMOCRACY) +

(WORLD LEADING OPEN DATA) +

(RICH INSTITUTIONAL HERITAGE) +

(WORLD LEADING IMPACT FINANCE INDUSTRY) +

(SOCIALLY NETWORKED CITIZENS)

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Open Everything.When we think about ‘open’, most of us think about of open source software. What emerged in the 1990 and 2000s as a small, niche culture of free code-sharing online has become a mainstream force in one of the most successful industries in the world, and foundation for global commons such as Wikipedia. If you use the internet, you use open source software.

We now know that those successes were not an accident. The principles behind OS – transparency, free access, peer-to-peer community production, open standards, open governance, the licenses and democratic constitutions, the wealth held in open commons for anyone to use, all apply not just to software, but also to hardware, to tools, institutions, businesses, to space and cities themselves. Abundant commons are a radical advantage.

For a long time, the question hanging over East London has been whether it can ever emulate Silicon Valley, constrained as it is by the limitations of the city. But shared, open, intense proximity – is what cities do best. London will never be able to match Silicon Valley, but it could leapfrog it altogether. It could turn the loud, diverse messiness of the city pavement from an inconvenience into a radical advantage, to deepen democracy, and to seed this next, open, economy.

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Towards an Open Economy.

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1624

Statute of Monopolies

1832

The Reform Act1855

Limited Liability1850-1960

‘The Age ofInstitutions’

1918

Representation of the People Act

1990s –

Open Source >2003

Creative Commons>1215

Magna Carta >

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The drive towards openness is not new. The UK has been at the leading edge of a movement towards greater openness, transparency and freedom in society for hundreds of years. It’s an overlooked history of structural freedoms which shaped our values, our institutions, our technology.

From Magna Carta in 1215 to the system of Universal Weights and Measures in 1825, we have long realised that when we have common rights and shared standards, we all do better: socially and economically.

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The Statute of Monopolies.

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1215

Magna Carta1832

The Reform Act1855



1918


1990s –

Open Source2003

Creative Commons1624


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1624. England follows other leading nations in instituting the a system of patents. Patents are now usually perceived as a restriction on openness, they were originally conceived as the opposite: a mechanism whereby inventors would publish and share their new innovations, in exchange for which they were given exclusive commercial rights guaranteed over a period of time.

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The Reform Act.

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01/

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Magna Carta >1624


1832

The Reform Act1855



1918


1990s –

Open Source >2003

Creative Commons

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1832. The Reform Act makes parliament more accountable to the population, by opening up the right to vote to an ever-wider section of society.

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Limited Liability..

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Magna Carta1624


1855



1918


1990s –

Open Source >2003

Creative Commons

>1832

The Reform Act

1855. Limited Liability is offered to British companies for the first time, offering security for innovators in exchange for accounting obligations, resulting in technological investment and greater transparency.

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1800

1890

1980

1810

1820

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

2010

2000

1990

Royal Institute1799

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Royal Society of the Arts1754

Royal Academy of the Arts1768

Royal Institute of British Architects1834

Royal Academy of Music1822

Royal Society1850

Royal College of Art1837

Reform Club1836

Atheneum1824

Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts1904

National Health Service1948

Peabody Trust1862

Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors 1862

The National Gallery1824

Victoria & Albert Musuem1852

Tate1897

Wikipedia2001

Octavia Hill Housing1865

Zoological Society of London1824

Scouting Movement 1907

Carnegie Trust1913

Institute of Mechanical Engineers1847

The Football Association1863

English Heritage1983

Natural History Museum1856

The British Museum1753

YMCA1844

The National Trust 1884

Royal Society of Medicine1834

Open University1969

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Magna Carta1624


1832

The Reform Act >1832




1918


1990s –

Open Source >2003

Creative Commons

>

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Representation of the People.

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01/

>> > > >1215

Magna Carta1624


1832


The Reform Act1855

Limited Liability >1850-1960


1990s –

Open Source >2003

Creative Commons

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1918


The Representation of the People Acts edged the UK closer to universal suffrage by extending the right to vote first to all men regardless of background, and in 1918, to women.

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Open Source.

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01/

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Magna Carta1624


1832


The Reform Act1855



>1918


>2003

Creative Commons

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1990s –

Open Source

During the 90s and 2000s, lead by Linus Torvalds and documented by Eric S Raymond, the ‘Free’ and OS code movement begins to become an ever-more powerful and mainstream force in software production, with code being shared under open licenses to be freely used, adapted and improved by anyone. In the 2010s this is expanding into hardware, such as RepRap and Arduino.

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Creative Commons.

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Magna Carta1624


1832


The Reform Act1855



1918


>1990s –

Open Source

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2003

Creative Commons

Creative Commons Foundation was formed in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Eric Eldred. It presents a spectrum of alternatives to ‘copyrights’ - allowing creative content to be licensed under varying degrees of openness.

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The future of work? -

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Platforms for innovators.-

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Cities as innovation engines.‘The world is not flat’, Even as the web reaches more widely, and technology allows greater dispersal, cities are emerging still more powerfully as super-nodes for production and innovation. But with rising inequality, and continuing disconnection between citizens, state, market and institutions, the potential of cities is being massively inhibited. The rules of the old closed / fragmented economy don’t work in a world where success comes from collaboration and innovation.

GLOBAL DRIVERS

Climate changeUrbanisationPopulation growthInequalityReforming capitalismOpen governmentDemocratisation of productionEmerging economiesUbiquitous technology /massive dataUK Manufacturing

CITIZENS

Rising rents Falling incomesRising inequalityConcentrated diversityConsumers to makersSocially-networkedPeer-to-peer

BABY BOOMERS+

Skills SurplusAnticipatory healthAgeing population

VISITORS

AccessVisibilityIdentityCuriosityDelight

YOUNG PEOPLE

EducationAccess to opportunityReal-estate lock out

UNIVERSITIES

Rising cost & falling value of traditional qualificationsNew forms of learningImpact R&DResearch data

CORPORATIONS

Access to innovationRevision of the social-corporate contractUsers not consumers

INVESTORS

Capital / TrustReturn on investmentImpact investing

PUBLIC SECTOR

AssetsDataDemocratic mandateLong view investment

INSTITUTIONS

Curating innovationPublic access

STARTUPS

Access to supportAffordable spaceFinance

PROPERTY

SECTOR

InflationGentrification

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East London. East London is primed to be the lead market for the open economy, with hundreds of new startups, a hugely diverse, micro-scale economy, and entrepreneurs exploring the UK’s abundant (8000 plus) open datasets, all in close proximity.

But it also faces the challenge of rising property prices and market exclusion, a familiar scenario of economic gentrification, and the influx of large, establish corporates locking-out young people and new ventures.

Sitting at the centre of it all, Old Street roundabout is an extraordinary undiscovered opportunity : capacity to create London’s next great public space – at present, a neglected underpass, but passed-through by 20 million pedestrians every year, and over 15 million vehicles. It sits at the connecting point between a design district, the financial district, the emergent technology cluster, makers, and the vast, experimental micro retail economy of East London.

FINANCE

DESIGNERS

MICRO

RETAIL

ECONOMY

TECH

STARTUPS

MAKERS

NATIONAL

RAIL

LINKS

LOCAL &

NATIONAL

GOV.

LEADERSHIP

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Open Finance

Open R&D

Open Manufacturing

Open Business

Open Services

Open Streets

The Open Sector.Imagine using this capacity to build resources for influencers, leaders and early adopters across every industry: innovators, investors and experimenters brought into close proximity, and access given to everyone; not just isolated startups, but the first prototype of a whole economy, emerging in the UK.

Open Government

Open Education

Open Retail

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Open Manufacturing

The factory of the future is everywhere. With ever cheaper access to digital fabrication tools such as 3D printers and CNC machines, it is now possible to share, download and fabricate products locally.

This is driving a new generation of open source hardware designs, and a global maker movement, which promises to radically democratise manufacturing, and make the UK once more into a nation of ‘makers’.14

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Open R&D

The world’s biggest design team. As large universities share more and more of their research and academic content freely online, open-source mass collaborative design communities are emerging, pushing boundaries in almost every sector, from biotechnology, prosthetics, construction and even musical instruments.

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ADAPT

VERSION 2.0

SHARE

IMPROVE

DESIGN VERSION 1.0

VERSION 1.1IMPROVE

SHARE

SHARE

VERSION 1.2

ADAPT

VERSION 3.0

SHARE

SHARE

Forking. Communities collaborate by means of copying, adapting, improving and iterating fast – outperforming slow, closed teams. Often the communities consist not just professionals, but users, testing and customising products.

Open R&D

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_.Ltd_.LLP_.LP_.PLC_.CIC_.CIO

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Text

_.OLC Open Limited Company

Open BusinessRadical Openness. From emerging open business models such as FabLab, can we begin to imagine new forms of contract between society and businesses; offering deep transparency, open access and making a scaleable contribution to the commons?

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Open Education

Universities without walls . As the edges of formal education institutions blur to respond to new challenges and technology, new forms of peer-to-peer learning institutions are emerging across age-groups and disciplines, for example Trade School, General Assembly or the School in the Cloud.

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>Open Finance

Closed

Centralised power-lenders and investors, with monopoly over finance.

Open

Peer-to-peer lending and finance, from Crowdfunding (e.g Kickstarter) and peer-to-peer lending (e.g Zoho) to peer currencies (e.g BitCoin)

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Open RetailYou are never just a consumer. New low-threshold selling infrastructures such as Ebay and Square have already begun to open the field of retail. Will we begin to see new open platforms using cheap and virtual selling infrastructure - retail businesses with open operating models, open franchises, common infrastructure and transparent supply chains. (e.g The People’s Supermarket)

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>Open Streets

Tonight the streets are ours. Urban space is – or should be – the most universally accessible piece of the commons, something which is owned by everyone and to which everyone has rights of use.

We need serviced public spaces with open constitutions; a simple, easy physical and legal framework of rules for all to organise and host events or sell products.

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Open Gov.Git-gov With open data forming the foundation for new social enterprises, open apps, and allowing citizens to participate in public services, could the open source platforms and constitutions for mass collaboration be used increasingly to build the software framework of a more participative democracy, including even the drafting of legislation? (For example, Open City Apps)

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04/

Seeding the open economy.

GUILDS

CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

UNIVERSITIES

PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING

BROADBAND

LOW -THRESHOLD SPACETOOLS

MEDIATED PLATFORMS

MENTORING

TRANSPORTATION

VISIBILITY

ABUNDANCE

Institutions

Education

Infrastructure

Incubators

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As with all emerging economies and movements, success depends on the ‘thickness’ of the institutional platforms supporting it. Shared infrastructures and programmes are catalysts for engagement, knowledge sharing, and platforms for intense proximity and serendipity.

They need to be structured to offer value to their users without prescribing their use – they must be designed to resist top-down ownership or control, and avoid the process of ossification and the risk of being ‘hijacked’ or ‘locked’ in favour of incumbents in future. How can new institutional commons remain permanently democratic and open to change?

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The case for urban commons. DISPERSED

e.g Wikipedia, WikiHouse

+Scaleable, ubiquitous access, weak-ties, mediated trust, high accountability. Low initial capital cost. Resists control.

- Limited provision of common resources (software only). Deliberate, individual interaction only. Low intensity.

LOCATED

e.g The Bazaar

+High intensity / proximity. Shared physical resources & infrastructure. Ambient. Machine for unintended ‘happy accidents’.

- Limited range. Risk of tacit inclosure / ossification. High initial capital cost.

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OPEN GOVERNANCECommunity-interest company constitution

OPEN INFRASTRUCTUREShared space & resources

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London Commons.A new open commons in East London: a civic platform acting both as a cultural platform and a kind of ‘open source university’ – owned by and for everyone. An extension of the pavement.

OPEN BUSINESS MODELSustainable use / revenue

OPEN OPERATING SYSTEMOpen platform software

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OPEN LICENSEOpen brand / license to support replication

OPEN LIBRARYCurating the commons

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Open governance.

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OPEN VENTURES

MarketOPEN COMMUNITY

‘Town hall’

OPEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Space & Resources

OPEN EDUCATION

Knowledge & opportunity

ETHICS

PARTNERS

Delivery

Transport for LondonLB IslingtonLB Hackney

Greater London Authority10 Downing Street

Community Partners

The London Commons will be owned as a Community Interest Company, (CIC) with a founding board of partners including not just the asset holders (such as TfL and London Boroughs, but also representatives of the local residential and business communities.)

Though operated on an everyday level by a team of hosts and an executive team, it will be governed according to a democratic constitution, incorporating the voices of members, fellows and town hall meetings (both in physical space and online) to which all are invited.

The constitution itself will be published in the form of a ‘Wiki’, inviting all to discuss and propose amendments, and setting out founding principles.

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An open business model.

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Pay for access

Free, pay for exclusivity

From

To

Closed & regulated.

Open & peer-to-peer.

The Open Institute will be run for community benefit, however it must always have a sustainable revenue model and be able to invest in future growth.

There are a number of approaches towards doing this, ranging from selling value which is over & above that which is free in the commons (for example, services, training etc.) to ‘Freemium’ models, whereby different kinds of user pay varying tariffs depending on their use of it (for example, Commercial=paid / non-commercial=free). Other commons are sustained by donations and the work of the community (for example, Wikipedia).

The core innovation for the London Commons will be to replace the traditional rental model whereby one must pay for access to a space or resource, to one whereby it is free for all to use, but with the opportunity to pay to be the exclusive user for a period of time. In each case, this would be governed by a simple set of rules.

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1. FELLOWS

‘Professors’ as generous thematic knowledge aggregators. Seeds projects, curates networks, open IP.

2. OPEN CURATORS

‘Broadcasters’ - processing raw data and knowledge and disseminating meaning.

3. OPEN FUND

Investors activating investment both in entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs (innovators within existing corporations & public sector)

4. OPEN LIBRARIAN

Processing open IP, data, and making it useful.

5. OPEN AUDITORS

Data collection, impact analysis, feedback and ethics commentator.

6. HOSTS

Approachable operator in ‘concierge’ role, helping by co-ordinating, suggesting, introducing and responding to need.

THEMATICS

DesignLawGovernanceMarketsTechnologyFinanceEthicsScienceMedicineBehaviour. . .

OpenOS.

The platform is conceived not unlike a typical smartphone. It will consist of:

1. Hardware The physical kit2. Operating system (rules and running software)3. ‘Apps’ by third parties, such as programmes, uses, events or software. (e.g Hackspace)

‘APPS’ BY THIRD PARTIES

LabsIncubatorsBusinessesOrganisationsEducation programmesEventsLecturesCivic surfaceWebMobile. . .

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Operating team responsible for management, operation & maintenance.

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OpenLicense.The institution’s model and brand is itself entirely open, including legal documents, software and operating model. This means that other groups can more easily replicate it in other cities under the same constitution.

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OpenLibrary.

Datasets

TfLONSODI. . .

Content

Live mapsVideosBooksDocumentation/ IPPhotographsPress materialHistory

Legals

Business & financial modelsContracts

Code

Operating softwareAPIs

Open is not just about ‘making available’ – what is shared must be understandable, standardised and easy to use.

The vast quantity of data, content, code and documentation is such that this requires at least one resourced full-time position, keeping organisations accountable to open standards and helping manage, curate and get access / linked to open content, even where it is held by others.

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INDIVIDUALS

EDUCATION CITIZENSHIP ENTERPRISE

CROWD

TEAMS

ORGANISATIONS

MOOCs Broadcasting Open licenses

Expo / Beta sandbox

Global investment

Micro courses

Incubators

MentoringOpen labsP2P learning

Collab. researchKnowledge exchange

‘Zero Zero ‘

Hub WestminsterNew Zealand House80 HaymarketLondonSW1Y 4TE

T 0207 739 2230www.architecture00.net

Team Indy JoharDavid SaxbyAlastair Parvin

Typeface AkkuratIcon credits Marco Davanzo and Jon Caserta via The Noun Project

License

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