Over a day has passed since the Taxi to Praxi seminar at Goldsmiths University. People have discussed, moaned, laughed and tried to disseminate some kind of coherent theme that is relevant to us all whether that be for Art, PhD or a way of working that incorporates some kind of collaborative openness. We are all now back in our own countries, homes, domestic situations and some of us are probably, like myself, trying to edit and analyse the proceedings of that day.

For me, one major theme seemed to reoccur again and again, and this was one of ownership and dissemination of knowledge. From the individual researchers data collection, to projects such as Cel Crabeel’s thesis proposal that incorporated seven other participants within a theme of Documentary, the notion of who owns what and how we are all individually working around/within this, is fascinating. What came to light, was that there are no set hard and fast rules within the University system. Each institution having their own ideas over what constitutes ownership, and how much freedom that they are willing to offer the individual student with the manner in which they store, disseminate and publish their data, theories and theses.

In going back to the original introductory text of the day then, my questions now are:

Coalitions: How do we embed a collaborative open source culture into institutions that utilise a business ethos?

Technologies: How far can we make use of tools and technologies that incorporate multiple contributors, within an institutionalised system that holds copyright over individual work?

Solutions: What mechanisms, subversions and methodologies will allow us to work around and within an institution that recognises the sole author as one of its main output statistics?

My end thoughts on this initial text ramble are that

1) I hope that someone responds
2) Working within groups is the way forward
3) Lets not become institutionalised and loose sight of a potential new way of looking at or thinking about a problem.

Best wishes from a methodological meanderer.
Lindsay