"Remix the Commons" Videos Reflect on the Berlin Conference

The International Commons Conference in Berlin continues to generate some interesting follow-up work.  One of the most engaging is a series of videos shot by Alain Ambrosi of Remix the Commons.  The day after the conference, Alain interviewed ten commoners, including me, asking each of us the same questions, such as "What struck you most about this conference?"and "Would you say there is a commons movement?"

The Remix the Commons project is still a work-in-progress and won’t be fully operational for a few months.  However, in the meantime, two different series of videos are available:  “Define the Commons / Définir le Bien Commun / Definir el Procomùn,” and  “Framing the Commons in Berlin.”  The latter consists of a series of  nine separate interviews with  Silke Helfrich (Germany), Michel Bauwens (Thailand), Julio Lambing (Germany), Beatriz Busaniche (Argentina), Frédéric Sultan (France), Valérie Peugeot (France), Rosa Maria Fernanda (Ecuador), Alberto Acosta (Ecuador), Hervé Le Crosnier (France), and me.  Each interview is conducted in the interviewee’s native language.

I really like the short versions of “Define the Commons” because they beautifully convey the deep pluralism of the movement, yet also its hoped-for unity.  The effect of the video brings to mind the famous “Playing for Change” video, which had musicians from around the world playing “Stand By Me” and other songs, as a virtual band. 

The Remix the Commons videos are currently available on vimeo, but will soon be available also on Youtube, dailymotion and blip.tv.  Producer Alain Ambrosia invites everyone to remix the videos:  "According to the spirit of the remixthecommons project, each viewer/participant is invited to use the material to create his /her own version with subtitles.  Here is a link to a resource for preparing different language versions: http://universalsubtitles.org/videos.

Two other follow-ups to the Berlin conference:

I have written an interpretive summary of the event – available here as a pdf download – and my colleague at Commons Strategy Group, Beatriz Busaniche, has written an account of the conference in Spanish, available here, also as a pdf download.

Finally, George Pór of the Commons Knowledge Alliance has assembled a great collection of key documents generated by the conference, in its “Knowledge Garden.”  You can find many other videos and documents at the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s conference website and wiki.