Platforms, Networks and Impact of Open Design

PLATFORMS, NETWORKS AND IMPACT
OF OPEN, DISTRIBUTED AND
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN AND MAKING
PROCESSES
Massimo Menichinelli
RMIT University – RMIT Europe
massimo.menichinelli@rmit.edu.au
Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture,
Department of Media, Aalto Media Lab
massimo.menichinelli@aalto.fi

●
Research Fellow @ RMIT University
– RMIT Europe
●
Doctoral candidate @ Aalto
University – School of Arts,
Design and Architecture –
Department of Media – Aalto Media
Lab
●
MSc in Industrial Design
@ Politecnico di Milano – School
of Design
●
4 years working in EU projects
●
15 years in practice + research
(project manager, foundation
director, lecturer,
consultant, ...)

MASSIMO MENICHINELLI
https://www.linkedin.com/in/massimomenichinelli/

DOCTORAL CANDIDATE @ MEDIA LAB HELSINKI
https://www.aalto.fi/en/aalto-university

https://www.aalto.fi/en/aalto-media-lab

https://research.aalto.fi/portal/massimo.menichinelli.html

RESEARCH FELLOW @ RMIT UNIVERSITY
https://www.rmit.edu.au/about

RMIT CHINA
https://www.rmitchina.cn/

RMIT EUROPE
http://www.rmit.eu/

ECP: GLOBAL BUSINESS INNOVATION
https://www.rmit.edu.au/research/research-expertise/our-focus/enabling-capability-platforms/global-business-innovation

HORIZON 2020: EU RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en

H2020-MSCA-RISE OPENINNOTRAIN
https://openinnotrain.eu/

OPEN, DISTRIBUTED,
COLLABORATIVE
DESIGN + MAKING

ROLES AND IDENTITIES OF MAKERS

SCALES AND DIMENSIONS OF MAKERS

SOFTWARE: BINARY CODE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/exlibris/2997090116/

SOFTWARE: SOURCE CODE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyoin/3342043239/

SOFTWARE: OPEN SOURCE
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ubuntu_10.04_LTS.png

OPEN HARDWARE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/todotoit/6436970145/in/photostream/

OPEN HARDWARE: DISTRIBUTED, IN PRACTICE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimo_menichinelli/7325704122/in/photostream

OPEN DESIGN, HARDWARE, SOFTWARE
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page

OPEN DESIGN...
http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ÈÉÊËĒĔĖ Ě Ȩ ḔḖ ḜẸẺẼỀẾỂỄỆĘ Ȅ Ȇ ḘḚ
èéêěèéêëēĕė ě ȩ ḕḕḗḗ ḝẹẻẽềếểễềếểễę ȅ ȇ ḙḛ
o̊ő ọoooo̧ǫ o oo̱ oooooooooooo oooo o oo
“‹«.:?!©*¶§&/( )[¦]{|}€†‡@®™¿¡;,»›”‖

OPEN DESIGN = PROCESS ?
http://www.studioswine.com/sea-chair-open-source

A CLOSED INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Microsoft_Windows

AN OPEN INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
http://futurist.se/gldt/

BOOKS ...
http://www.niggli.ch/en/fablab.html

BOOKS ...
https://www.quodlibet.it/libro/9788874628896

BOOKS ...
http://makersinquiry.org/edition01.html

BOOKS ...
http://make-it.io/book/
http://make-it.io/book/

PLATFORMS FOR
OPEN, DISTRIBUTED,
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
+ MAKING

PLATFORMS ...
https://github.com/

PLATFORMS ...
https://fablabs.io/

PLATFORMS ...
https://www.thingiverse.com/

PLATFORMS ...
https://www.3dhubs.com/

OPEN + P2P + DESIGN = ...
Menichinelli, M. (2016). A Framework for Understanding the Possible Intersections of Design with
Open, P2P, Diffuse, Distributed and Decentralized Systems. Disegno – The Journal of Design Culture, III(01–02), 44–71.
https://doi.org/10.21096/disegno_2016_1-2mm

A SOCIAL PROCESS
http://www.michaelogawa.com/research/storylines/

DESIGN PROCESSES
Design processes have been examined considering design
as the work done by designers, i.e. the actual practice:
●
Cross (2006) elaborated that there is a distinct
‘designerly’ form of activity and ways of knowing based
on 3 sources of knowledge: people, processes and
product. Designers learn and adopt a language that
connects and translate between different domains (needs
and design, meaning and design, and so on) by means of
a system of codes, but knowledge and awareness that
designers have of their practice is basically tacit,
making it thus difficult to elaborate, document and
share.
●
Green, Southee and Boult (2014) pointed out that
research on design processes has a relatively short
history, models are highly edited and rationalized
abstractions of reality but disconnected from the
actual practice and with limited consensus on their
structure.

DESIGN DOCUMENTATION (DD)
1.DD1: design as a process (“i.e. step by step
instructions”);
2.DD2: design as an organization (“i.e. networks of
interactions, work organization”);
3.DD3: design as a documentation (“i.e. blueprints”);
4.DD4: design as production (“i.e. files ready for
direct fabrication”);
5.DD5: design as an artifact (“the artifact and its
description”).
Menichinelli, M. (2018). A shared data format for describing collaborative design processes.
Cumulus Conference Proceedings Paris 2018 – To Get There: Designing Together,
Cumulus Conference Proceedings Series 03/2018 Paris, 190–215.
Retrieved from https://www.cumulusassociation.org/cumulus-conference-proceedings-paris-2018-to-get-there-designing-together/

DD1: DESIGN AS A PROCESS
http://www.instructables.com/id/Volca-Synth-Foldable-Case/

DD2: DESIGN AS AN ORGANIZATION
Menichinelli, M. (2017). A data-driven approach for understanding Open Design.
Mapping social interactions in collaborative processes on GitHub.
The Design Journal, 20(sup1), S3643–S3658. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352869

DD3: DESIGN AS A DOCUMENTATION
http://fabacademy.org/archives/2012/students/menichinelli.massimo/index.html#

DD4: DESIGN AS PRODUCTION
http://developers.shapeways.com/

DD5: DESIGN AS AN ARTIFACT
http://fabacademy.org/archives/2012/students/menichinelli.massimo/index.html#

DESIGN DOCUMENTATION (DD)
Perspectives DD1: Design
as an
organization
DD2: Design
as a process
DD3: Design
as a
documentation
DD4: Design
as a
production
DD5: Design
as an
artifact
Dimension Meta-Design Meta-Design Design Design Design
Focus Process Process Artefact Process Artefact
Examples Rebuilt from
files and
users’
activity on
online
platforms
...
Instructables
Fablabs.io
...
Blueprints
Sketches
...
Thingiverse
Shapeways API
GitHub
...
Pictures
Videos
3D scan
...
Data API,
databases
API,
databases
2D / 3D data
representing
an artifact
not yet
produced
API,
databases
2D / 3D data
representing
an existing
artifact
Process as Dialogue Execution of
activities
Execution of
the
documentation
Execution of
activities
Outcome of an
execution of
activities
and dialogues

DESIGN DOCUMENTATION (DD): APPROACHES
1.ADD1: processes are considered as the execution of
activities;
2.ADD2: processes are considered as a dialogue between
actors;
3.ADD3: processes are reconstructed from the reverse
engineering of artifacts and documents.

FRAMEWORK + PLATFORM: OpenMetaDesign
●
A data format for describing collaborative design
processes, building on existing literature and cases
and encoded in the development of an experimental
digital platform for the co-design of collaborative
processes.
●
This data format is a key component of a framework for
modelling, analysis, management and visualization of
design processes and such a framework could potentially
facilitate the design, understanding, management and
participation in open, collaborative and distributed
processes.

A PROPOSAL
●
Ontology: “a set of concepts and categories in a
subject area or domain that shows their properties and
the relations between them” (Oxford Dictionaries,
2018), a terminological framework that describes thus
design processes.
●
Common approach: input-process-output (IPO) models
(Green et al., 2014).
●
Focus: processes as a set of activities (ADD1)and
possibility of considering processes as a dialogue
(ADD2).
●
Conceptual basis: Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987), a
framework for orienting researchers in understanding
complex socio-technical phenomena, for understanding
the dialectic contradictions and continuous development
of individual contributions to collaborative
initiatives.

OpenMetaDesign
Menichinelli, M. (2018). Service design and activity theory for the meta-design of
collaborative design processes. ServDes2018. Service Design Proof of Concept,
Proceedings of the ServDes.2018 Conference, 18-20 June, Milano, Italy, 994–1008.
Retrieved from http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/article.asp?issue=150&article=083&volume=#

Tools Source Activity Time Participation Boundaries Resources Flows
Activity Theory Psychology X X
Gantt Management X X
Service
Blueprint
Service Design X X X X
System Map Service Design X X X X
Customer
Journey
Service Design X X
Participation
Level
Urbanism X
User Activity Data Visualization X X
OpenMetaDesign: tools and elements

OpenMetaDesign: tools, elements, platform

OpenMetaDesign
https://github.com/openp2pdesign/openmetadesign

CONNECTING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Redström, J. (2017). Making Design Theory. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/making-design-theory

CONNECTING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Menichinelli, M. (2019). A Research through Design Framework from the Evaluation of a
Meta-Design Platform for Open and Collaborative Design and Making Processes.
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design, 1(1), 21–30.
https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.5

… IN THE LIFE CYCLE OF A PROJECT
Menichinelli, M., & Valsecchi, F. (2016). The meta-design of systems: How design, data and software enable
the organizing of open, distributed, and collaborative processes. 6th IFDP - Systems & Design:
Beyond Processes and Thinking, 518–537. https://doi.org/10.4995/IFDP.2016.3301

NETWORKS OF
OPEN, DISTRIBUTED,
+ MAKING

A COMMUNITY, LIKE A CITY
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/347950

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TERRITORY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barcelona_ISS009-E-9987.jpg

A MAP FOR NAVIGATING THE COMPLEXITY
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlaCerda1859b.jpg

ITALIAN MAKER COMMUNITY ON FACEBOOK (2013)

INTERACTIONS ON GITHUB IN OPEN DESIGN
Menichinelli, M. (2017). A data-driven approach for understanding Open Design.
Mapping social interactions in collaborative processes on GitHub.
The Design Journal, 20(sup1), S3643–S3658. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352869

pip install platform_analysis
https://github.com/openp2pdesign/platform_analysis

MAKER LABORATORIES ON TWITTER: COMMUNITIES
Menichinelli, M. (2016). Mapping the structure of the global maker laboratories community
through Twitter connections. In C. Levallois, M. Marchand, T. Mata, & A. Panisson (Eds.),
Twitter for Research Handbook 2015 – 2016 (pp. 47–62).
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.44882

MORE COMMUNITIES

DEGREE CENTRALITY

BETWEENNESS CENTRALITY

TRUST: EIGENVECTOR - PAGERANK

CENTRALIZED, DECENTRALIZED, DISTRIBUTED...
Baran, P. (1964). On distributed communications.
Retrieved from RAND Corporation website: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/RM3420.html

CENTRALIZED, DECENTRALIZED, DISTRIBUTED...

DESIGN AND DECENTRALIZATION
Menichinelli, M., & Ferronato, P. (2019). The Decentralization Turns in Design:
An Exploration Through the Maker Movement. In S. Colombo, Y. Lim, M. Bruns Alonso, L.-L. Chen,
T. Djajadiningrat, L. Feijs, … D. Steffen (Eds.), Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (pp. 43–49).
Retrieved from https://desform19.org/DeSForM_2019_Proceedings.pdf

IMPACT OF
OPEN, DISTRIBUTED,
+ MAKING

HOW MANY MAKERS AND WHERE?
Menichinelli, M., Gerson Saltiel Schmidt, A., & Ferronato, P. (Forthcoming).
Mapping strategies for distributed, social and collaborative design systems of makers,
designers and social entrepreneurs. ADIM2019 Academy for Design Innovation Management.
Presented at the ADIM2019 Academy for Design Innovation Management.
Retrieved from https://www.conftool.org/adim2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=104#paperID378

IMPACT OVER CITIES: A PROTOTYPE
http://dashboard.fab.city/

ASSESSING IMPACT OVER CITIES: A MODEL

IMPACT OVER CITIES: A STRATEGY

IMPACT OVER CITIES: RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN

EXPLORING SIA: SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Menichinelli, M., & Gerson Saltiel Schmidt, A. (2019). Measuring the Social Impact of Maker Initiatives.
Frameworks and Guidelines for Scaling the Assessment on Digital Platforms.
In B. Tejerina, C. M. de Almeida, & I. Perugorría (Eds.), Sharing Society. The Impact of Collaborative
Collective Actions in the Transformation of Contemporary Societies. (pp. 526–537).
Retrieved from https://sharingsocietyproject.org/2019/05/08/conference-proceedings/

MULTI-COMPOSITE INDEXES
https://www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org/

SIA + PLATFORMS + MULTI-COMPOSITE INDEX
Menichinelli, M., & Gerson Saltiel Schmidt, A. (2019). Measuring the Social Impact of Maker Initiatives.
Frameworks and Guidelines for Scaling the Assessment on Digital Platforms.
In B. Tejerina, C. M. de Almeida, & I. Perugorría (Eds.), Sharing Society. The Impact of Collaborative
Collective Actions in the Transformation of Contemporary Societies. (pp. 526–537).
Retrieved from https://sharingsocietyproject.org/2019/05/08/conference-proceedings/
1) State of the art: research and comparison of existing SIA framework with real-life cases.
2) Theoretical framework: provides the basis for the selection and combination of variables.
3) Data ontology: integration of the SIA framework into a first structured data format that connects
them.
4) Data selection: based on the analytical soundness, measurability and relevance.
5) Imputation of missing data: to provide a complete dataset.
6) Multivariate analysis: to study the overall structure of the dataset.
7) Normalization: to render the variables comparable.
8) Weighting and aggregation: following the underlying theoretical framework.
9) Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis: to assess the robustness of the composite indicator.
10)Back to the data: to reveal the main drivers for the overall results.
11)Links to other indicators: to correlate the composite indicator (or its dimensions) with existing
(simple or composite) indicators.
12)Visualization of the results: to enhance interpretability.
13)Implementation: development of the software functionalities for data entry (user interface,
database), analysis (algorithm, computing services), visualization and discussion.
14)Validation: testing the resulting digital tools and platforms with stakeholders and real-life
cases.

SDGs + MAKING / DESIGN PROJECTS
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

THANK YOU!
RMIT University – RMIT Europe
massimo.menichinelli@rmit.edu.au
Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture,
Department of Media, Aalto Media Lab
massimo.menichinelli@aalto.fi

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