12.7 Open Source Urbanism
267
In fact, citizens are keen to be not just consumers, but co-creators of their future
and co-producers of their urban habitats. Some of them already experiment with opensourcing urban design by collecting, improving, and sharing their Do-It-Yourself
design blueprints and manuals on the Internet. The maker movement as well promotes
community-driven design, prototyping, and fabrication to solve local and global
challenges by improving lives in local communities around the planet.
Such examples are presently still dispersed, and, therefore, not yet able to shift
cities effectively towards more inclusive urban development on a global scale. For
this, one would need a socio-technical platform to consolidate and strengthen the
nascent movement. Such a platform could promote the exchange of best practices and
solutions to frequently occurring problems. The results would be a digital commons
designed to satisfy the citizens’ needs.
103
All in all, Open Source Urbanism could take our cities and societies to a new
level. In particular, the approach could help to create better living conditions in
developing countries, refugee camps, and regions suffering from war and disaster.
It could, however, also help to improve the quality of living in local city quarters
around the world.
104
Acknowledgements This work was partially supported by the European Research Council (ERC)
under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement
No 833168). The support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
1. D.H. Meadows, Limits to Growth (Signet, 1972).
2. A. King, B. Schneider, The First Global Revolution: A Report (Simon & Schuster Ltd., 1991),
p. 85.
3. F. Pasquale, The Black Box Society (Harvard University Press, 2016).
4. D. Helbing, Big Data Society: Age of Reputation or Age of Discrimination? In: D. Helbing
(ed.) Thinking Ahead (Springer, 2015).
5. T. Vigen, Spurious Correlations (Hachette, 2015).
6. D. Helbing, The dream of controlling the world – and why it often fails (February 2017) https://
www.researchgate.net/publication/313895579.
7. D. Helbing, Interaction Support Processor – And Why the Patenting System Is Broken (June
2020) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342040513.
8. H.W. Chesbrough, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from
Technology (Harvard Business Review Press, 2006).
9. S.E. Page, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools,
and Societies (Princeton University, 2008).
10. E. Bonabeau, M. Dorigo and G. Theraulaz, Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial
Systems (Oxford University Press, 1999).
11. A. Dussutour, V. Fourcassie, D. Helbing, and J.-L. Deneubourg, Optimal traffic organization
in ants under crowded conditions, Nature 428, 70–73 (2004).
103 Schrijver [40]
104 It does not have to end with “Guerilla Gardening”, which, in fact, has made many streets a lot
more beautiful, which also many politicians and urban planners had to admit…
267
In fact, citizens are keen to be not just consumers, but co-creators of their future
and co-producers of their urban habitats. Some of them already experiment with opensourcing urban design by collecting, improving, and sharing their Do-It-Yourself
design blueprints and manuals on the Internet. The maker movement as well promotes
community-driven design, prototyping, and fabrication to solve local and global
challenges by improving lives in local communities around the planet.
Such examples are presently still dispersed, and, therefore, not yet able to shift
cities effectively towards more inclusive urban development on a global scale. For
this, one would need a socio-technical platform to consolidate and strengthen the
nascent movement. Such a platform could promote the exchange of best practices and
solutions to frequently occurring problems. The results would be a digital commons
designed to satisfy the citizens’ needs.
103
All in all, Open Source Urbanism could take our cities and societies to a new
level. In particular, the approach could help to create better living conditions in
developing countries, refugee camps, and regions suffering from war and disaster.
It could, however, also help to improve the quality of living in local city quarters
around the world.
104
Acknowledgements This work was partially supported by the European Research Council (ERC)
under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement
No 833168). The support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
1. D.H. Meadows, Limits to Growth (Signet, 1972).
2. A. King, B. Schneider, The First Global Revolution: A Report (Simon & Schuster Ltd., 1991),
p. 85.
3. F. Pasquale, The Black Box Society (Harvard University Press, 2016).
4. D. Helbing, Big Data Society: Age of Reputation or Age of Discrimination? In: D. Helbing
(ed.) Thinking Ahead (Springer, 2015).
5. T. Vigen, Spurious Correlations (Hachette, 2015).
6. D. Helbing, The dream of controlling the world – and why it often fails (February 2017) https://
www.researchgate.net/publication/313895579.
7. D. Helbing, Interaction Support Processor – And Why the Patenting System Is Broken (June
2020) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342040513.
8. H.W. Chesbrough, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from
Technology (Harvard Business Review Press, 2006).
9. S.E. Page, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools,
and Societies (Princeton University, 2008).
10. E. Bonabeau, M. Dorigo and G. Theraulaz, Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial
Systems (Oxford University Press, 1999).
11. A. Dussutour, V. Fourcassie, D. Helbing, and J.-L. Deneubourg, Optimal traffic organization
in ants under crowded conditions, Nature 428, 70–73 (2004).
103 Schrijver [40]
104 It does not have to end with “Guerilla Gardening”, which, in fact, has made many streets a lot
more beautiful, which also many politicians and urban planners had to admit…