The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives

Launch of massive encyclopedia on social change driven by Indignados and Occupy movement

Via Bernardo Gutierrez:

15M.cc is up and running

Background

On 15 May 2011 massive spontaneous protests across Spain signalled the birth of a movement which was dubbed 15M, after the date, and was also known as the Spanish Revolution. The “indignados” (the indignant) were fed up with soaring unemployment, the ongoing recession and a political system perceived as unrepresentative and corrupt. A year later the 15M movement is alive and kicking and has spawned diverse grassroots initiatives, from campaigns to prevent evictions to a recent crowdfunding which, in under 24 hours, raised the money needed to sue those responsible for the colossal loses of Bankia.

In September 2011 an innovative project was launched with the aim of documenting and transmitting the myriad activities of the 15M movement to the widest audience possible. 15M.cc is an ongoing experiment in collaborative, transmedia and copyleft creation and, over the past eight months, the project has evolved in ways its three founders, Stéphane M. Grueso, Patricia Horrillo and Pablo Soto, could not have imagined.

Initially, the intention was to produce a documentary, a book and a website but, as the scope of the project widened, sister projects in Malaga and Seville were set up.

The 15M.cc website then became an umbrella for a cluster of 15M projects and the original idea of the project’s founders became Madrid.15M.cc. An important point is that 15M.cc does not represent the 15M movement; its purpose is to document and raise awareness about the movement and its rich ecology.

Update

On 6 June 2012, the latest additions to the platform were unveiled. At the fifth meeting of the project’s work groups, held yesterday in Matadero Madrid, 15M.cc announced the launch of new online tools and invited the community to explore them. The design and testing phase have concluded successfully and the project is now fully operational and open to the community

Madrid, 7 June 2012. At the 5th meeting of work groups which was held yesterday in Matadero Madrid, 15M.cc announced the successful conclusion of the design and testing of the latest additions to this exciting and dynamic platform. 15M.cc is now fully operational and open to the online community.

15M.cc is being developed collaboratively and forms an umbrella for projects relating to 15M, the movement which ignited the Spanish people’s indignation on 15 May 2011. This project has three aims: first, to document and host all kinds of narratives concerning this movement; second, to provide tools so that users can create the story of their own 15M experiences; and third, to transmit the collective experience of this historic moment for Spain.

To make all this possible, three collaborative tools which structure the project, both technically and conceptually, have just been launched and, like all 15M.cc tools, everyone can participate in their development and contribute material:

The «bank of ideas » has a twofold function; it has been designed to both store and visualize material related to the 15M movement (texts, photos, audio and videos, all with copyleft license). Users can freely avail of these materials (the only condition is to respect the CC BY/SA license), and can also create an account and upload their own 15M materials to share with the community. What distinguishes the bank from the other online tools is that contributions are credited and not edited, and can include opinions and original material. It is also envisaged that the bank of ideas will provide a kind of wikisource for the 15Mpedia and the wililibro (wikibook). To this end, users are requested to date, locate and tag their contributions, via a simple and intuitive interface. This information will enable the visualization of all material in different ways: a timeline, geolocation, and through a combination of tags allowing users to create their own personalized 15m story.
The «15Mpedia» is a free encyclopedia focusing specifically on the 15M movement, and it can be used in the same way as Wikipedia. Material should neutral in the sense that it does not take sides but explains the issues fairly and without bias, and should be referenced. 15Mpedia articles could use materials from the bank of ideas in order to build up a more complete body of knowledge. Articles will not be credited and may be edited and the intention is to create a constantly updated body of knowledge on the 15M movement.
The «wikilibro» (wikibook) is based on a skeleton or ideas tree which has been created to facilitate participation by the community. The idea is to create a coherent and referenced narrative, which will draw on the 15Mpedia, the bank of ideas and other sources (as long as they have a CC BY/SA licence). Material will include both opinions and more neutral information, but in all cases should be referenced; it may be edited and will not be individually credited.

To date, three 15M projects are in progress:

These projects form part of the 15M.cc umbrella and share three characteristics: 1) they are structured rather than just being a simple collection of, for example, photos and videos; 2) they focus on the 15M movement and the myriad initiatives which have arisen from it; 3) they have a creative commons licence. For more information see www.15M.cc.

15M.cc is an independent cultural project and does not in any way represent the 15M movement nor any of its commissions.

For more information contact:

Patricia Horrillo

[+34] 609 261 142

comunicacion@15m.cc

patricia@15M.cc | @15M_cc | www.15M.cc