OpenCare as a Wikipedia-type system
Very interesting, @Ezio_Manzini! Here’s the money quote:
In principle, everybody can care for someone else […] in different forms […], but all of them require attention. Given that attention is a limited resource […] care […] is [also] a diffuse but limited resource.
This vision of care activities reminds me of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is quite a coherent object. It’s also very decentralized in scope and authorship; and tasks are allocated across contributors by self-selection, without central control.
Contributors are extremely diverse in their interests, experience, and in the time they contribute to Wikipedia. Some Wikipedians, like me, might fix a typos or repair a broken link here or there, and only very occasionally enter a factual information. Others take full stewardship for entries that are important to them. Others, still, make tens of edits a day. A lot of Wikipedia’s advantage comes from the fact that it can use effectively small contributions.
Open care might be the same. A mature open care ecosystem, I propose, is one where the natural human impulse to care and help can be easily translated into a contribution. One, in other words, where, if you can only contribute 30 minutes, you can, and your contribution will make a small, but tangible difference. Works?