Meet the Edgeryders Research Network – and its coordinator

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Anique Yael Vered is Edgeryders’s new research coordinator. Photo credit: @unknown_author

One thing we do at Edgeryders is research. We have to: we are trying to live by a book that no one has written, so we have to come up with it ourselves. People in the community are doing biohacking, autonomous health care, network bartering, co-living, open source disaster response, permaculture, participatory and citizen science, civic hacking with open data, digital ethnography, my own obsession network science, and much more. We do so often adopting wildly interdisciplinary stances – difficult, but potentially rewarding. Our dedication to documentation of everything we do and commitment to openness and sharing knowledge makes it quite natural for us to be part of research efforts. We are just now concluding a large EU-funded research project, which was a very positive experience for all of us. It is clear that this community has incredible potential for research. At the same time, our efforts are often disorganised, disconnected, and they operate at too small a scale. Some of the potential gets lost.

So, here’s the deal. We are setting up a business unit to develop research activities based on the community’s skills and projects. Our vision is to connect the Edgeryders community’s skills, activities and projects with the research community; to design together ambitious, high-impact research projects, fundraise around them, and execute them with the highest ethical standards.

As everything in Edgeryders, this “business unit” will actually be a network, and it will be led from the margins, not from the center. We invite those of you that feel close to the world of research to be nodes of that network. You may have projects, ideas, opportunities; we can bring to the table the Edgeryders corporate infrastructure and track record, and some proposal writing- and project management muscle. We also have ongoing deep collaboration with some of the best universities in the world.

As a first investment in the Edgeryders Research Network, we have hired someone. She will take the lead in mapping the community’s strengths and interests to funding opportunities, and driving forward our effort to become a bottom-up research powerhouse. I am honoured to introduce you to Anique Yael Vered, Edgeryders research coordinator.

Anique’s background is diverse, like that of so many of us. But, in essence, she is a strategist. We believe she can lend coherence, vision and intelligence to our work, and are looking forward to working with her. Also, she has taken to Edgeryders with great enthusiasm: those of you that were at the Open Village Festival have already appreciated her team spirit and generosity. The rest of you will no doubt have plenty of opportunities to get to know her.

So: if you have great ideas for research, you now have a natural ally in Anique. You can contact her through the Edgeryders platform or by writing to anique [dot] yael [at] edgeryders [dot] eu. We set up a workspace for the Edgeryders Research Network on this platform, that you should also join if you want to be involved. That is where you are welcome to upload links, proposal, start discussions or whatever. It may look messy initially, but trust us – decentralised groups work, and we have many years of experience in building them and participating in them. Ad maiora!

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Thank you @alberto - what a fantastic introduction to our growing research network.

And yes, to all and any of you interested in thinking at the limit of what research and action-based research might be possible - across our collaborations, any seed ideas, and your local contexts… please feel free to get in touch and we can arrange a skype/ zoom call to explore potential.

Exciting times ahead.

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Ciao Anique, benvenuta nella Comunità Edgeryders!

Leggo con estremo interesse e con grande soddisfazione che Edgeryders estenda e cerchi di strutturare con maggiori funzionalità di programmazione e di esecuzione il settore della Ricerca consolidando il lavoro svolto sino ad ora da @Alberto, @Noemi, Nadia e gli altri con estrema dedizione (e coraggio!) - Joining the Edgeryders management board - e che, allo stato, diviene opportuno rafforzare e consolidare per rispondere con maggiore efficacia ed efficienza ai dinamici scenari che tutta la nostra Comunità è chiamata ad affrontare e /possibilmente) vincere.

Premesso questo, lasciandoTi naturalmente il tempo per ambientarTi ed integrare al meglio le Tue abilità e competenze, mi chiedo se e quanto possa essere possibile definire una sorta di programma prossimo venturo sugli indirizzi e sulle modalità del “fare ricerca” che possa caratterizzare il cammino di Edgeryders.
Immagino di fatto un piano che individui le tendenze e che provi a contemplare le diverse modalità tramite le quali costruire sinergie e sviluppare strategie sia con l’infrastruttura istituzionale “consolidata” sia con le innumerevoli iniziative e sperimentazioni nate e cresciute nell’ambito della cultura open source e della condivisione della conoscenza.
Questo scenario cattura l’attenzione ed alimenta le aspettative dello scrivente! :smiley:

Con l’auspicio di incontrarci in occasione della Conferenza Conclusiva del Progetto OpenCare, prevista i prossimi 22 e 23 Novembre a Milano, Ti ringrazio per la lettura del mio post e per la replica che vorrai scrivermi in merito.

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Hello Anique, welcome to the Edgeryders Community!

I read with great interest and with great satisfaction that Edgeryders extends and tries to structure with greater programming and execution functions the Research sector consolidating the work carried out so far by @Alberto, @Noemi, Nadia and others with great dedication (and courage!) - Joining the Edgeryders management board - and that, at present, it becomes appropriate to strengthen and consolidate in order to respond more effectively and efficiently to the dynamic scenarios that our entire Community is.

Having said that, leaving you of course time to set yourself up and integrate your skills and competences in the best possible way, I wonder if and how much it might be possible to define a kind of future program on the directions and modalities of “doing research” that could characterize Edgeryders’ path.
I imagine in fact a plan that identifies trends and tries to contemplate the different ways through which to build synergies and develop strategies both with the institutional infrastructure “consolidated” and with the innumerable initiatives and experimentations born and raised in the field of open source culture and knowledge sharing.
This scenario captures the attention and feeds the expectations of the writer! :smiley:

With the hope to meet us at the final conference of the OpenCare Project, scheduled for 22 and 23 November in Milan, I thank you for reading my post and for the reply that you will write to me on this subject.

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Ciao @francesco_maria_zava, and what a pleasure to read and connect with you here. Thank you for taking the time to so deeply consider pathways for Edgeryders research and our ongoing collaboration with you!

In terms of: [quote=“francesco_maria_zava, post:3, topic:7602”]
how much it might be possible to define a kind of future program on the directions and modalities of “doing research” that could characterize Edgeryders’ path.
[/quote]
this is a pertinent and timely question. Indeed, as with all of our work, it is just as much a question of the how as the what - and I appreciate you foregrounding the importance of mapping out the landscapes with possible methodologies and postures that Edgeryders research might engage. Soon I’ll start a separate thread opening the question up to the community and will be sure to tag you as your insights will be appreciated.

As for: [quote=“francesco_maria_zava, post:3, topic:7602”]
a plan that identifies trends and tries to contemplate the different ways through which to build synergies and develop strategies both with the institutional infrastructure “consolidated” and with the innumerable initiatives and experimentations born and raised in the field of open source culture and knowledge sharing.
[/quote]
again you are spot on to foreground this here and I appreciate your approach. This is certainly something that will be core to the research unit’s work and one of the ripe opportunities we have. I’ve begun thinking about it across the scales of onsite // online // meta-strategic as I find this consolidates the various infrastructures and processes that encompass Edgeryders’ overarching projects with our networks P2P initiatives. I think the key will be balancing :
making sure that we keep listening to the collective intelligence of the network through emergent processes such that we sustain a ground-up responsiveness to research and action-based-research opportunities,
with
having a strategic, overarching vision that harnesses the shared processes and interconnected insights for long-term mutual benefit and social change. More on thinking collectively through how we do that soon!

Really look forward to collaborating more with you on this. Unfortunately I won’t be coming to Milan but perhaps we can arrange a video call to talk through our ideas in the coming weeks?

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Certainly Anique, you can count on my contribution… overcome the “little” difficulty of the English language spoken, I can’t see any other obstacles! :smiley:
In fact, you have to know that my English is at least scandalous and I honestly only cable in reading and listening to technical exhibitions in ict and complementary disciplines, while in the interactive phase I’m particularly out of training.
In short, a real handicap in relation to my ambitions to achieve something beautiful in a global and open context such as that of the Edgeryders Community.

Apart from the jokes. I am particularly flattering because of the consideration you are subject to and this leads me to take further awareness of the contribution that I will be able to make to this activity.
Specifically, I share your vision and your operational approach. However, I would also like to see the need to define good practices that make Community sensitivities, indications and production effective and efficient. For some time I’ve been thinking about it, also in relation to my intention to create in Milan a sort of permanent #OpenVillage for the purposes of training and self-entrepreneurship promotion that concretely embody the theme of “Care” for people with a disability or who have become no longer self-sufficient or elderly but still able to self-determine themselves through a project of independently managed life, noting how mature the time is and at the same time urgently needing to find answers And this heritage certainly requires new paradigms that balance the propulsive thrust of collective intelligence with the necessary realism of economic sustainability as well as functional interactions with institutional, academic, productive and economic financial ecosystems, without betraying of course the authentic spirit of freedom and sharing that animates our Platform.
We will have the opportunity to talk about it.

For the moment thank you!

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@francesco_maria_zava solo una parola per dirti che ho una strategia simile alla tua con altre lingue, il francese e lo spagnolo. Li leggo entrambi senza problemi; con un computer e un po’ di tempo sono in grado di scriverli (decisamente bene i francese, decentemente lo spagnolo). Se devo corrispondere per mail, o scrivere su un forum come questo, posso partecipare senza troppi problemi in entrambe le lingue.

A parlare fluentemente, invece, faccio più fatica – ormai il francese lo parlo abbastanza bene, ma anche lì a volte mi blocco per cercare le parole. Lo spagnolo invece è peggiorato parecchio da quando studio francese!

Insomma, evviva la comunicazione scritta e online. :slight_smile:

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Già Alberto, se avessimo dei traduttori indossabili in tempo reale che la fantascienza ci ha abituato a desiderare probabilmente avremmo risolto molti dei problemi che stanno all’origine delle angustie e dei drammi dell’umanità - lasciando alla ricerca tecnologica il compito di risolvere le incomprensioni che accadono parlando la medesima lingua, dato che tale questione appare ben più complessa!
Al momento, per l’appunto, per sopperire a tale deficit mi avvalgo di un buon traduttore via web - DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator - affidandomi per il restante della questione ad attività basilari quali l’intensa lettura di testi in lingua inglese - inclusa la Piattaforma Edgeryders! :smiley: - e la fruizione di contenuti multimediali particolarmente tecnici.

Quanto detto, naturalmente, valga come semplice punto di contatto e di avvio per una crescente abilità che mi renda quanto meno in grado di affrontare al meglio gli impegni per i quali mi sono ripromesso di dedicare una parte importante delle mie energie e risorse.
Ebbene sì, nutro tale amizione! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Already Alberto, if we had translators wearable in real time that science fiction has accustomed us to desire, we would probably have solved many of the problems that are at the origin of the anxieties and tragedies of humanity - leaving it to technological research to solve the misunderstandings that happen when speaking the same language, since this issue seems much more complex!
At the moment, in order to make up for this deficit, I am using a good web translator - DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator - entrusting myself to basic activities such as the intensive reading of English texts - including the Edgeryders Platform! :smiley: - and the use of particularly technical multimedia content.

That said, of course, is a simple point of contact and starting point for a growing skill that makes me at least able to best meet the commitments for which I have promised to devote an important part of my energies and resources.
Yes, I have that love! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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You know I recently saw a video these ear buds you can wear that do live translation while you’re in a conversation - perhaps we need to invest in some of these! For now @francesco_maria_zava please know that I love to think with people in all kinds of ways and often even beyond the verbal language. So whilst I relate to how frustrating it can be to have limited capacities in a certain language (I feel this regularly when dialoguing and reading in French for example), I invite you to feel at ease with how you express yourself here.

As for your interest in seeing

I hear you. From what I understand that is indeed one aspect of what the platform and our research is intending to do: to harness and make sense out of the collective intelligence among these networks, discern connections between the diverse perspectives and approaches - as well as project outcomes - in order to clarify best practice. I think there’s always work to do here and in our globalized, hyperactive world it’s more important than ever. I appreciate you foreground best practice as frame of reference for the data analysis @alberto let’s note.

As for your point :[quote=“francesco_maria_zava, post:5, topic:7602”]
And this heritage certainly requires new paradigms that balance the propulsive thrust of collective intelligence with the necessary realism of economic sustainability as well as functional interactions with institutional, academic, productive and economic financial ecosystems, without betraying of course the authentic spirit of freedom and sharing that animates our Platform.
[/quote]
Absolutely. This is the edge we are on and one I continue to explore with you.