This paper explores three cases of Do-It-Yourself, open-source technologies developed within the diverse array of topics and themes in the communities around the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab). These cases focus on aerial mapping, water quality monitoring and civic science practices. The techniques discussed have in common the use of accessible, community-built technologies for acquiring data. They are also concerned with embedding collaborative and open source principles into the objects, tools, social formations and data sharing practices that emerge from these inquiries. The focus is on developing processes of collaborative design and experimentation through material engagement with technology and issues of concern. Problem-solving, here, is a tactic, while the strategy is an ongoing engagement with the problem of participation in its technological, social and political dimensions especially considering the increasing centralization and specialization of scientific and technological expertise. The authors also discuss and reflect on the Public Lab's approach to civic science in light of ideas and practices of citizen/civic veillance, or "sousveillance", by emphasizing people before data, and by investigating the new ways of seeing and doing that this shift in perspective might provide.
sí, se trata de poner coto al derroche. Aunque sólo sea porque una obra pública que puede inaugurarse por 20 millones de euros acaba costando 100, la administración deja de invertir 80 de nuestros millones en obras menos vistosas, pero quizás más necesarias. [...] Urge, en definitiva devolver sensatez a la arquitectura, en especial a la que se levanta con inversión pública. Y, de paso, olvidarse por un tiempo de los milagros". Llàtzer Moix (2010): "Arquitectura milagrosa", pp. 256-257.
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