Title of submitted project: MetaReciclagem
Year the work was created:
Type of project: Community-Projekt
Description of project:
MetaReciclagem is not an independent collective. MetaReciclagem is not
(and as for today never needed to be) a formal NGO - even though it is
effectively an organization that is both non-governmental and
nonprofit. MetaReciclagem does not define a group of people, but
instead a name that some people use to identify and refer to an open
methodology about the re-appropriation of technology to foster social
transformation in different parts of Brasil. MetaReciclagem becomes
concrete in three kinds of instances:
1)Spores are physical labs
where people develop MetaReciclagem, both in technical and theoretical
aspects. Since 2002, nearly ten different spores have been created in
different cities.
2)MetaReciclagem Online Infrastructure is the
environment where conversations about MetaReciclagem take place. It is
responsible for the maintenance of a strong connection between all the
main instances of such a decentralized project. It consists also of
some online environments created to face the demand for interaction
environments in which people can exchange information and practices
related to MetaReciclagem.
3)ConecTAZes are permanent or temporary
labs that “benefit” from MetaReciclagem actions. They range from a
lowtech paper-and-pencil collaboration workshop to a Linux InstallFest
or a video installation in an arts festival. ConecTAZes often (but not
always) become or generate independent multimedia telecenters.
Running
across all the three levels of MetaReciclagem are some special projects
that require resources from more than one spore or that consist of
plenty of ConecTAZes. Examples are the development of brasilian
Ministry of Culture's Cultural Points – 600 multimedia centers spread
around the country, the Ministry of Communication's GESAC program -
satellite internet access - or the Casas Brasil project – 90 expanded
telecenters, with multimedia infrastructure and computer recycling
labs. MetaReciclagem actions and members influenced these three
projects, among many others.
URL of the work: http://metareciclagem.org [3]
Project Details
Objectives:
The collective objective of MetaReciclagem, if it's possible to name
one, is to develop a de-constructive approach to the technological
discourse, promoting the re-appropriation of ICTs upon processes which
lead to a closer relationship between people and technology. Most
people join MetaReciclagem network because of a special interest in a
particular subject related to technology or media appropriation, and
soon starts collaborating in an emergent organization that allows the
expansion of their own ideas. What most members of MetaReciclagem
project have in common is a need to develop free (open) infrastructure
and new uses to technology.
Language and context:
MetaReciclagem is deeply related to different kinds of local context in
Brasil: from projects based on the paradigm of digital inclusion to
ones related to multimedia production and art interventions. For
instance, a spore of MetaReciclagem has been created in a communitary
center in Sacadura Cabral, a slum in Santo André, and maintained
for
almost an year by people from the community. Other spore of
MetaReciclagem has been developed together with the Brasilian Organized
Hip Hop Movement (MHHOB) in Teresina, Piauí, providing the
infrastructure for the creation of three telecenters. Piauí is
the
poorest state in Brasil. On the other hand, MetaReciclagem is also
planning an experimental laboratory inside USP, one of the largest
universities in Brasil, and members of MetaReciclagem often provide the
infrastructure for artistic interventions or collective celebrations
(a.k.a. parties). And there are at least a dozen other places in which
MetaReciclagem is being developed and applied.
Project History:
MetaReciclagem was created as the infrastructure solution to a wide
range of demands from Projeto Metá:Fora, a “collaborative
incubator”
that in 2002-2003 aggregated almost two hundred people all around
Brasil around the development of projects that dealt with art, media,
education and technology, under a perspective that knowledge should be
free and re-usable. Its members came from different areas: journalists,
artists, designers, software developers, social scientists and others.
Nearly 25 projects have been created, structured and developed
collectively. Among them, the first brasilian Tactical Media event
(prov0s, 2002), a collaborative website about nonprofits and
entrepreneurship (metaong.info), an online publication on technology,
economy and society (buzzine), research related to a de-centralized
laboratory of language, narratives and art experimentation (memelab),
public interventions (recicle1politico), webradio experiences and
conecTAZes – multimedia celebrations, like neuromob :: book xchange, a
party / bookcrossing.
During projeto Metá:Fora's short life
span, we reached a point where we needed some kind of infrastructure to
develop the projects. At the time, we were trying to bring the
perspective of collaborative production and collective creativity to
the world of digital inclusion, and we needed computers to test some
hypothesis. We thought of asking for a donation to a north-american
institution that got used computers from companies and delivered them
to NGOs, but the bureaucracy was too complex. Someone reminded us that
brasilian companies also dumped lots of computers every year, and the
idea of MetaReciclagem was born: we would get those computers, recycle
them using F(L)OSS and deliver them to social projects.
At
first, we made an agreement with Agente Cidadão, an NGO that
manages
donations in São Paulo: we would take care of every
technological
device they received (from computers to old VCRs or faxes), in exchange
for a place to work and internet connection. We then started working
within their network of nearly one hundred NGOs. With time, we
conquered other spaces: the Parque Escola (School Park), in Santo
André, and a laboratory downtown São Paulo, in Olido
Gallery.
Based
on our defense of the idea of free knowledge, in a given moment we
realized that MetaReciclagem was not a group identity for some people
in São Paulo, but rather a de-centralized methodology that
should be
appropriated, replicated and re-created everywhere, by whoever would
want to. Since then, MetaReciclagem has got many different faces: from
a one-man spore with no computer in the coast of Bahia to a educational
approach strategically adopted by huge projects developed by the
Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Communications.
People:
The access to MetaReciclagem project is completely open: we have a
mailing list and a wiki, and most colllective decisions are made there.
There are not fixed positions or responsabilities, as everything is
de-centralized and self-organized. Hierarchy, if there is any, is based
on reputation. Some of the people who created MetaReciclagem have some
influence over the others, but the same is true for others who joined
the network six months ago. There's usually a group of nearly a dozen
engaged people, who dedicate a good part of their lives to develop
MetaReciclagem, another twenty or thirty who collaborate, say, once a
week or twice a month, and the other hundred lurkers. But these numbers
vary from time to time. The mailing list (today) has 158 members, and
plenty of other people develop MetaReciclagem in the spores.
Lessons learned:
Since the project started, we have faced a lot of difficulties. Perhaps
the worst is the fact that we developed a way of organizing that has no
legal counterpart. We took a while to decide for an emergent approach:
there is a set of principles on what is MetaReciclagem, based on which
anyone can decide whether what they do is or ain't part of the project.
The advantage of that positioning is that we were able to be present in
different organizations: some NGOs, one or other companies, the
Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Communications, universities, the
city administration of São Paulo. If we were to incorporate into
one
NGO, we could not have the autonomy to be in all those places. We
organized MetaReciclagem not as an organization, but a movement
instead. The downside is that we always have problems in getting
funding, as we have no legal existence as a group. That makes us too
dependent on political issues of specific partnerships. We are not able
to force collective decisions, because in every instance we are, we're
more individuals than a group. Sometimes, the fragmentation overcomes
the threshold of understandable complexity. But then again, there are
more advantages: since we don't have a static structure, there is no
routine, and creative dynamics is maintained. We are always
re-inventing what MetaReciclagem is and what it does. The collective
innovation is an ongoing process.
Technical Information
Technological Basis:
Since the beginning, MetaReciclagem decided to use free and open source
software for everything, not only for economical reasons, but because
of its flexibility and freedom to understand the code. It is true even
for uses that are not that easy of software: for the autolabs project,
a project on mediatic alfabetization, and later for the Pontos de
Cultura project, MetaReciclagem members had to struggle against the
resistance of people who were already used to buy pirated software to
their projects. There was always the excuse that using pirated software
was a tactical, protest use of technology, with which we never agreed:
teaching 300 youngsters to use pirated software, we're creating a new
generations of slaves to the proprietary software. If we use free and
open source software instead, we are bringin more people to its
development, even if their only contribution is test software.
In
that sense, all the projects we have developed are based on GNU/Linux
environments and f(l)oss. Audio workstations are configured with Jack +
Ardour, rezound, audacity, hydrogen and many others; graphic
workstation with scribus, sodipodi, the gimp, blender and inkscape; and
video workstations with kino, cinelerra, jahshaka and others. The
telecenters often use a TC-TS (Thin Client - Thick Server) to optimize
the use of old computers. All of our online environments are developed
with free scripts for LAMP, such as drupal, wordpress, scuttle, mailman
and others.
Solutions: : MetaReciclagem
is not exactly a software, but a de-constructive approach to all
possibles uses of technology, including software. Our uses of software
usually look for the development of different ways to make people talk
to each other. In that sense, a telecenter running on Linux with
instant messenger clients or a mailing list available on the web are
the same thing.
Implementations: Our online environments are
available on the world wide web:
http://wiki.metareciclagem.org [4]
http://lista.metareciclagem.org [5]
http://agregador.metareciclagem.org [6]
http://blog.metareciclagem.org [7]
Local
implementations of MetaReciclagem tech methodology can be found in all
the current spores and ConecTAZes: Galeria Olido, in São Paulo
downtown; Centro de Referência do Movimento Hip Hop, in Teresina;
Bailux in Arraial d'Ajuda; the development center for the Pontos de
Cultura project, west zone of São Paulo; IP media center, in
Lapa, Rio
de Janeiro; the Humanist Place in Santa Cecília, São
Paulo; and many
others.
Users: Anyone willing to create
different uses of information technology – from a charity aiming at
providing internet access for its community to artists who wish to
experiment the limits of technology and human interaction.
License:
Everything we develop is published under open licenses, even
non-technical production. All the documentation in our wiki is under a
GNU-FDL license, including the projects, methodologies and texts.
Statement of Reasons:
Because we are successfully influencing thousands of people about how
to handle technology in a more human way and made them aware that
technology is not a black magic box (it might be, but then everyone can
be its wizard).
Planned use of prize money:
MetaReciclagem, as a network, has many needs. The most important are
developing further the methodology and ellaborating documentation. We
have already started to draft an outline of the Green Book on
MetaReciclagem, but we must provide ways for people to dedicate to it.
If we get prize, the Green Book would be product of the prize money.