Systems for Sharing

Everyone and everything are part of at least one system. Our track, Systems for Sharing (S4S), focuses on social systems, believing they should be based on human rights and public values. We do this by working on/with technological systems to facilitate and contribute sharing ideas, information and resources while adapting collaboration as a leading value.

We look critically into those systems and we examine their paradoxes, complexity and relation(s) with other systems.

What makes the website you are browsing now ‘a website’? It is the collection and the relation between all the webpages. It is also the thread connecting the ideas and the relation between the sections. This is an example of a system.

In the S4S track we look into all different systems: human systems, like families and communities, computing systems, organizational systems and others. The common ground for all the systems we work with: 1. human rights, based on the UN declaration of Human Rights, and 2. public values, guiding concepts in theory and practice meant to serve better the public. Even when the main focus of the project might seem technological, those aspects are the underground beliefs we work with.

In all our projects there is a technological aspect as well. In today’s world technology is not a question of ‘if’ but of ‘how’. Those who did not deal with technology earlier needed to do so due to COVID-19 and suddenly for millions of people the ‘if’ turned to ‘how’. The internet is becoming a basic need. Therefore, all our projects have a technological system or aspect as part of the solution. Not because it is a nice to have, but because this is a must have when trying to resolve specific challenges in today’s world.

Yet, we try not to re-invent the wheel and create more systems, unless the one we need does not exist. While from an educational perspective it might be tempting to create more for learning better, we believe in the power of sharing instead. This way stimulates saving design-waste, encourages creativity, and works according to one of the main values of our track: sharing.

Sharing ideas, information and resources is one of the ways to move forward in our aspiration to create a more sustainable world. Sharing plays a central role not only by the act of sharing itself. Furthermore, it is also the underlying layer for sharing to take place. For example, Freedom and Trust are essential for sharing to happen, and having a safe environment is a crucial element for the sharing to take place within a system and across systems.

While striving for solutions, we keep a critical mindset. We do that by stepping back and examining the system from outside. In addition to inspiring innovation, by doing so, we also try to see what the challenges are. Are we dealing with the real challenges or the symptoms of it? During the process we look into the paradoxes, complexity and relation(s) with other systems.

Finally, we would like to share with… a smile 🙂 we try to embed within our systems as well!