Edgeryders is...
I understand it as a community
we are from all around Europe and
in a daily basis, collaborate through an online platform
it's a gathering of people who have diverse backgrounds and skills
but are all capable and
have a commitment to making the world better in some way
And a fairly aligned conception of what 'better' means
for me it is a community and a structure
to foster open consultancy
the best way I can explain it is
in terms of a shared response to systemic crisis
if you switch on the TV or you read the news
you see ecological, economic, and socio-political crises
that our society seems unable to
generate credible responses to
and really it's beyond the ability of any one person
any one decision maker, to be able to address them
you need collaboration on a massive scale in order to do that
1500+ community members CONNECTED - DIVERSE - CONSTRUCTIVE - OPEN - COMMUNICATIVE - CREATIVE
we're in a city in the south of Italy called Matera
this is the location of this year's Living On The Edge
a community-driven, community-organized, community-populated event
Matera is the place that has
proved a lot of forward-thinking and courage because it chose
to support one of our main community-borne projects which is called the unMonastery
10-20 diverse residents
co-living, co-working 3-6 month residencies
focused on local community projects
we are here to strengthen the ties with the local community
and find ways in which we can build
and co-design this project and see if it can be replicated in other parts of the
world as well
the idea for the unMonastery
came about in a room about 30 people
from quite disparate communities like social innovation, hacking,
makerspaces,
squatters, activists, and artists, who came together with the realization
that in order to continue to do the work that they were doing and not burn out
and not become alienated there was the need to build
infrastructure on which to do that work
the unMonastery is basically a structure
that enables you to not worry about roof over your head,
food, and be able to invest in that pre-market,
blue skies, 'you don't know the solution yet
so you're just trying to solve the problem' phase of the innovation process
I think our unplugging from everyday life for
period is a very potent way to get perspective
and to achieve something that would otherwise get distracted or stuck
Focus for the unMonastery
so the three primary issues
that the unMonastery is focused on is
high unemployment; a massive amount of unused
housing stock and commercial stock throughout Europe
and with the onset of austerity you see the rolling back of state service provision
and the need to plug that gap
if we are to continue. And then there's two other things which
are less primary, but that's brain drain from small towns and cities to capital cities
there's the desire to roll that back in some way.
there's a focus on resilient processes,
infrastructure, and ways of working that can
be sustainable in the event of future
and existing crises.
unMonastery Matera Projects February-May 2014
Community WiFi Mesh Network
Multi-generational play and learning
Re-engineering Matera's water cycle for urban farming
Open source system to drive solar panels
Real-time public transport information
How can Edgeryders and Materani work together towards these goals?
this is a big question -
how can we create solutions for
local problems, being global?
I don't know, but I believe we should try
but it will be a challenge
resilience is a deep thing
it can't be induced
it's not taught
there's no such thing as a teacher of resilience
it's the community that acquires, over time
the knowledge to learn how to react to catastrophic events
to economic crises, to social crises
but it's the community that does this.
as I see it the guests have to integrate themselves with the community
it can only work if they integrate themselves
Matera should experience
what the Edgeryders are bringing to this city
but the edgeryders should get to know our spirit
we came here -
one on the taglines on our posters was 'with minds wide open'
which for me it means that we are looking for different angles for collaborating with
the people here
and we not only... we want to feel well received, but we are also looking to
be proactive in establishing connections with the people here and
paying specific attention to what their needs are
and how exactly we can work together
if the people of Matera and the Edgeryders
have the same point of view
it will be a wonderful thing