Coronavirus is compelling the rise of the "emergency" or "urgency" commons—free, vital and fun stuff, provided cosmo-locally
From Commons Transition
We’d expect the P2P Foundation (led by Micheal Bauwens) to be thriving in this corona-moment, when - as we blogged last week - existing production and distribution systems will inevitably falter under the strain, and the distributing manufacturing model may begin to really prove its worth.
This week, P2P have given this a conceptual identity - the idea of an “emergency” or “urgency” commons, set up quickly to provide a shared resource to a community in need - and a rich page of Corona solidarity initiatives. Some selections below:
Medical Supplies
See the FAQ on Making Safe Medical Devices for the COVID-19 Crisis ; Summary of Open Source Designs and Projects To Fight the Covid-19 Outbreak
Testing Kits
Coronavirus / COVID-19 Testing For Everyone - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8wnPkC0wQU
Ventilators
guidelines for ventilators : https://www.appropedia.org/Open_source_ventilator
many technical details and requirements in this recent google doc: [18]
Ventilator Repair: https://nl.ifixit.com/Device/Ventilator?
Designs
Specifications for Simple Open Source Mechanical Ventilator ; * [20] , via Twitter: @julianbotta
The 1 Million Ventilators project of the Help With Covid initiative: "We need to develop a strategic reserve of 1,000,000+ emergency ventilators ASAP. The CDC Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) has only ~10,000 ventilators." See also: Producing and Distributing 1M Ventilators Roster
Project Open Air : https://www.projectopenair.org
Tools
See the overview maintained by Appropedia at https://www.appropedia.org/Collaborative_COVID-19_initiatives?
Summary of Open Source Designs and Projects To Fight the Covid-19 Outbreak; FAQ on Making Safe Medical Devices for the COVID-19 Crisis
3D Printing
Maps
Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps: "a Creative Commons licenced mapping and analysis tool for evaluating personal and social resilience"
Masks
From the Appropedia: https://www.appropedia.org/Simple_masks? ; https://www.appropedia.org/DIY_masks?
Research
Academic journal-and-book database JStor are making their public health journals free to anyone to access - click here
Articles
Robert Raymond in Shareable magazine, a beacon of sharing and collaboration in these trying times, monitoring Disaster Collectivism: Coronavirus catalyzes growing wave of grassroots action despite social distancing
Brian Davey: Coronavirus, Degrowth and Self Isolation: very good, and summarizes the research linking human social systems to disease vectors
The birth of Covid-19 mutual aid; UK: Citizen-Led Mutual Aid Groups have sprung up across the country to support those suffering from the effects and threat of the Coronavirus outbreak.
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💃 The Entertainment Commons
As we quoted Ian Bogost saying on March 2, our digital domestic caves have been training us for quarantine for quite a few years now… Yet a welcome development from those commercial entities—who usually want to make sure we’re spending for content—is their gifting of assets to nations locked-down in their houses.
It’s different kind of “urgency” commons than one providing ventilators and medical supplies, but a welcome display of collective generosity nevertheless. Here’s some choice examples we’ve found:
Free live symphonies
The Seattle Symphony Orchestra (YouTube and Facebook - next one Saturday, March 28, 2020, at 8pm, PST
Berlin Philharmonic - thirty-day free access to its entire library of performances. Just use the voucher code "BERLINPHIL" by March 31 at Digital Concert Hall.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York - every night at 7:30 p.m. EDT, “an outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers”. The schedule is here (next week, Wagner week), and the streaming channel is here.
Comedy
The comedy website Cosmic Shambles is programming its Stay At Home gigs - acts confirmed to appear include Robin Ince, Josie Long, Professor Brian Cox, Jo Brand, Stewart Lee, and many others
Rock
The advocacy site Global Citizen, with John Legend, has started #Together at Home, with performances from leading artists on Instagram (beginning with Chris Martin from Coldplay)
Books And Comics
Literature and research platforms are taking the price tag off their archives for Corona-dwellers - 30 days free from digital library Scribd (sign up here) and Storyweaver for kids.
For comix fans, Nerdist has this handy list of 100 comics published generously by creators in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Movies and Docs
Internet Archive’s movie portal - a collection of the weird, wonderful and - importantly - out of copyright