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From humanitarian relief to the environment, public health to education, microfinance to intellectual property, non-proft organizations
are increasingly at the forefront of developments shaping the lives of millions of people around the world. The approach of GP3 Korea
has been based on non-market strategy and the possibilities presented by “commons-based collaboration.” We adapted commons-based framework to enhance social awareness of the public. Our social awareness campaign harnesses networked volunteers who contribute
themselves in producing and sharing information. Connected individuals also exchange creative ideas on how to beat a vicious cycle of
global poverty.
At first, we questioned: What is the most effective way that keeps volunteers connected and combined ? Our project has intended to put common-based production strategy into practice in terms of raising social awareness to fight global poverty. We see that coordinating common-based strategy is an effective method for online information campaign. Ever since its inception, a number of volunteers have
contributed themselves for us in producing and sharing poverty-related knowledge. Many individuals participate and get involved in a common task, coordinated through software and communication tools for collaboration.
A book, The Wealth of Networks, authored by Yochai Benkler, has coined a term “common-based peer production.” According to
Benkler, peer production is strongly related to the emergence of a globally distributed network for the production and sharing of
knowledge. The idea, in simple language, is that groups of motivated individuals are able to successfully collaborate on large-scale
projects following non-market based motivational drives and social psychology of altruism, rather than remuneration. Vibrant,
innovative and productive collaboration has been an engine of a series of social production in the digital networks. Participants of
online collaborations are not organized likewise in firms. They freely and voluntarily choose their projects. Therefore social production fosters participatory culture, and reduces cost from the distribution of information flows.
Currently open, free, and easily-accessible knowledge are being produced by both market and nonproprietary principles. Thousands of
volunteers from all over the world have been effectively cooperating in diverse types of peer-production projects including free or open source software development (the GNU/Linux operating system, and the Apache web servers), Wikipedia, the Open Directory Project,
and Project Gutenberg. SETI@home project is a scientific experiment organized by NASA that uses Internet-connected computers in a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). SETI@home project has harnessed the computer processing cycles of millions of
volunteers to process vast data sets from radio telescope observations. These common-based peer production frameworks take advantage
of some combination of technical, organizational, and social conditions of online volunteers. Most of all, committed volunteers who got involved in common-based peer production become active creators rather than merely to accept what was already there.
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