On 2 April 2022, 18 people from seven Greek think tanks (ENA, Eteron, Heinrich Böll Foundation Greece, mέta, Open Technology Alliance, P2P Lab, Poulantzas) and two universities met in Kalentzi, Tzoumerka, where one of the COSMOLOCALISM pilots is based. The goal was to discuss policies for technology and the commons in Greece.

Part I

The event started online. First, participants were tasked to contribute a 150-word-long text to a shared doc. The text included their two main focal points concerning technology and the commons. Next, Maro Pantazidou, the ex-Head of Global Impact and Learning at Amnesty International who would facilitate the in-person discussions, synthesized the participants’ contributions to provide starting points for the physical meeting.

Part II

The physical meeting started with every participant introducing their work and explaining why they decided to participate in the event. Then participants self-allocated to five groups according to their interests (energy, health, culture, etc.) as co-defined at the end of the introductory section. Within these five groups, discussions took place to formulate tentative ways of reaping the benefits of commons-based technologies and practices in each sphere of social life. Then a break for lunch followed.

After the break, each of the five groups presented the gist of their discussion. Then, the facilitator documented the trends, the challenges, and the potentialities of the ideas discussed. Next, based on the documentation mentioned above, three new, larger groups were created: a) The state and public policies for the commons; b) Digital transformation and the commons; c) Commons-based work and restructuring of the mode of production.

The participants had to co-formulate concrete policy proposals regarding their focus. After two hours, the groups were gathered together to present a summary of their policy proposals. A collective reflection on the policy proposals and the day’s discussions followed.

Part III

At the moment, the three groups are working on three shared google docs to provide a one-pager that would summarize their policy proposals and conclusions. Moreover, the facilitator has asked all participants to share their mid-term priorities and needs concerning technology and the commons. On this basis, this informal network/community may decide its future course of action. In any case, an important step has been made towards promoting the discussion for policies that might support an emerging sustainable economy based on the commons in Greece.