Approach to Medialab-Prado: Michel Bauwens

...of course, my experience there was VERY POSITIVE, but apart from that, I don't know the center very well ...
 
What matters to me would be to keep a good balance between high quality thinking, with hands on workshop and seminars in 'open making' in all fields .. from following, though with an absent eye <g>, your facebook pages, that seems pretty much what you have been doing all along.
 
How would the new place change that? that's hard for me to say, but my first thinking would be to just continue <g>
 
A few questions:
 
- Have you profited, being in the capital of spain, from a position that could possibly mean preferential linkages with latin america, if not, who else is doing this, and why not you? another geographic option, I don't know how attractive that is for spanish people, is the southern european cluster, which is seems to me, shares quite a bit of similar conditions.
 
- Is it not time perhaps to think beyond p2p practices and maker trends, to its political implications, i.e. of course not in a partisan way, but as a pluralist platform? I think that in an area of frontal assault on public services through sovereign debt, we will see a big increase in people seeking alternatives, and a center like yours could help politicians, policy makers and active citizens think through the political implications and necessities of a shift towards the open.
 
- The economy of the commons and open business models: increasingly, sustainability is becoming an issue, how can your institution help in creating knowledge and shared experiences so that people active in open, p2p, commons activities can actually make a living and go beyond precarity.
 
- If you have an advisory board, I'd  be happy to be on it, formally or informally, and to suggests participants for your activities, as I have an increasingly dense network in many related areas.
 
In conclusion, some recommendations:
 
- Think a bit about geographic focus outside of spain
 
- Continue to support quality thinking and concrete doing/making
 
- Build experience and knowledge around open business models and the economy of the commons

- Build experience about commons-oriented policy making