Collaborative Online Writing and Techno- Social Communities of Practice Around the Commons: The Case of Teixidora.net in Barcelona

Abstract

Teixidora.net is an informative, participatory initiative in the Barcelona area, which arose from a desire to follow the intense activity around the local commons and technosocial issues. Emphasising ethical and emancipatory viewpoints and encouraging criticism, Teixidora fosters debate, thought and knowledge. It is also a tool (with a digital semantic wiki platform at its centre) conceived to apply collaborative live-writing in events based on community mapping, engagement and participation. Analysing Teixidora’s participation in three specific events during its first year of existence, the article applies Foth and Hearn’s (2007) communication ecology framework to Teixidora. Through observational analysis and other conceptual frameworks, like urban informatics or Commons peer-production, the paper identifies some aspects of its social, technological and discursive layers, and the intersections among them and with each of the three events. In these cases close-knit relationships arise in the three different layers of the communicative ecology, with four transversal elements related to the commons: collective dimension, experimental dimension, sharing and re-elaborating. Three levels of learning are extracted in relation to: governance of the text, mapping communities of practice and interest and practising synchronous collaborative documentation of events. Finally, as a conclusion from these lessons, new means of action and development for the project are offered, and questions are raised regarding future research.