Fab City Collective: working towards definitions

Since the Bali Fab Fest, which took place in October 2022, the reactivation effort of the Fab City Collective has been in place. In Bali, like-minded experts and activists on Fab City-related topics gathered in a workshop and began conversations about rearticulating the Fab City Collective with representatives from all continents.

This group has been meeting since. During the last meeting, which took place on April 26, historical collective members were invited to join and bring the previous group’s experience. 

Previously to the meeting, the Fab City Foundation conducted a survey with 23 historical collective members who were requested to select how they would like to get involved in this new phase of the Fab City Collective, depending on their interest and availability. Four main engagement options were provided: active participation, support group, staying informed, and not engaging with the collective anymore. As a result, two historical members chose to engage actively in the collective’s design and help run it. The rest opted to help shape a support group, being frequently informed of collective’s issues and having the opportunity to give their opinion and provide specific support when needed.

At the April 26 meeting, Tomas Diez, Executive Director of the Fab City Foundation, briefly introduced how the collective was initiated and the aim of the reactivation effort. Next, Vicent Guimas, a historical collective member, shared his previous experience with the collective and some suggestions for further developing the group. Finally, Thais Costa, a member that joined since Bali, briefly shared the main discussions since then, the proposal generated by the group, and the main open points for discussion. One proposal, for instance, is for the collective to organise itself into seven working groups tackling topics pertinent to each Fab City Full Stack layer.

The main open questions pointed out to be tackled throughout 2023 were: What is the role and relationship of the collective with the Fab City Global Initiative? Why is the collective a vital entity for the Fab City Network and Global Initiative? What are the engagement levels within the FC Collective, and what is expected from members of each level? How does the collective organise itself on Slack? Who moderates the channel(s)?

Finally, collective members agreed to continue meeting once per month to discuss Fab City topics (based on the Full Stack layers) and dedicate a networking space during each meeting to know what others are doing and identify possible collaborations.

The next collective meeting will take place on May 25, 2023.