Open Design: Collaborative Organization and Digital Democratization

Contemporary post-industrial development has changed the organizational make up of labour in every sector, with a shift towards flexible and collaborative networks of knowledge work, to address issues such as decentralization, coordination and participation. This paper relates to recent developments in the fields of design, technology, and the social sciences in the ‘networks’ that inform knowledge development and creativity in design. Since the rise of internet, and a knowledge-based society, the concept of “network” stands for a different scheme of organization -- from hierarchical structures towards more horizontal geometries, which can develop and spread forms of collaborative creativity. While the image of the designer/artist is often someone who works alone in his office, creating unique masterpieces, design in fact happens to be highly affected by the dynamics of networking. New technologies and their accessibility are shaping a society where ‘everybody’ cam design, enabling new critical experiences of participation and also activism. This contribution to the design literature will focus on the scenarios concerning the new roles of designer, facing society, and its organisational structure through networks, while experimenting on self-production. Here, design can play a new role as an intelligent actor in complex networks, not just giving solutions with a top-down approach, moreover, spreading and developing tools for collaboration.