Collective Wisdom in a time of Covid-19 crisis
We are witnessing unprecedented collective efforts to contain a global pandemic. From hyper-local efforts to global collaborations, co-creation has never been more relevant and urgent, and powered by the web.
Networks are strengthening, new groups are forming, and silos are collapsing as interdisciplinary approaches transcend borders and distances in the geography of virus-containment.
At the Co-Creation Studio, we’ve been tracking phenomenal efforts to co-create media responses to Covid-19 (we published the first-ever field study on media co-creation called Collective Wisdom last year). We are seeing movements emerge at three crucial scales, all of which depend on co-creative strategies: People are connecting with direct neighbours on a hyper-local level, (re)organizing labour/economy/distribution on national scales, and new types of teams are working globally to cross borders and disciplines to accelerate research and public trust.
Hyperlocal: street-by-street
On my street, we’ve followed this street-by-street model from the UK to reach out in analog ways to our neighbours and to organize ourselves through Facebook, WhatsApp, and email. It’s a simple principle: to use analog media to make sure we connect with those most vulnerable, who are less likely to be on social media. Physical letters are a great way to make sure no one gets left behind. We photocopied 130+ personalized letters, and distributed them to every household on our street. We asked them to fill out a questionnaire: can they help, do they need help, what can they offer, what is their contact info. We are now working through privacy issues, and how to organize next, especially when the pandemic hits our community hard in the coming weeks.
Labour (re)organizing in media-making on national and continental scales
On national scales, public media organizations are pivoting in phenomenal ways to reinvigorate their mandates. BBC has come out strong, confirming they will use all channels to inform, educate and entertain during the pandemic. Creative Capital is compiling arts events that have migrated online, and offers resources to artists. The National Endowment for the Arts has compiled Covid-19 resources for artists too. Performing arts have been hit particularly hard, and the National Arts Centre in Canada has responded quickly by funding a series of live performances with Facebook Canada.
Global co-creation
And on a global scale, co-creation is exploding in scientific research, where conventional systems of limited authorship often limit collaboration. We are witnessing never-seen-before levels of co-creation: groups of *hundreds* of researchers joining forces, working at breakneck speed to come up with treatment and vaccines. In another instance, highly responsive research teams in Senegal are working with manufacturers in the UK to deliver cheap tests.
Meanwhile, #covtech is a crowdsourced hashtag on twitter to organize the independent tech sector responding to the pandemic.
And to battle the spread of disinformation, THE TRUST PROJECT is an international consortium of news companies that’s developing transparency standards to help audiences easily assess the quality and credibility of journalism. At the scale of The Panama Papers, this group is becoming an invaluable resource in the time of a pandemic.
Why co-create now?
In Collective Wisdom, the studio’s field study on co-creation, we found that the top reasons people co-create include are to:
- Navigate uncharted territories;
- confront power systems that perpetuate inequality, and offer alternative, open, equitable, and just models of decision-making that are rooted in social movements;
- tackle complex problems, especially climate crisis in the epoch of the Anthropocene, with the commitment to finding solutions at the local level;
- deal with time differently, and recalibrate our sense of time, by insisting on responsiveness but at the same time expanding the timeframe of consequences;
- redefine concepts of the public good, civic trust, and the commons, including our public spaces, cities, platforms, and narratives.
Never before has this sense of urgency to co-create been so evident as we fight a pandemic, and growing inequality on our streets, across our countries and around the globe.
Here at Immerse we’re also talking about the most useful ways to organize and serve our network. Got an idea for us? Reach out on Twitter: @immersenow
This article is part of Collective Wisdom, an Immerse series created in collaboration with Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. Immerse’s series features excerpts from MIT Open Documentary Lab’s larger field study — Collective Wisdom: Co-Creating Media within Communities, across Disciplines and with Algorithms — as well as bonus interviews and exclusive content.
Immerse is an initiative of the MIT Open DocLab and The Fledgling Fund, and it receives funding from Just Films | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. IFP is our fiscal sponsor. Learn more here. We are committed to exploring and showcasing media projects that push the boundaries of media and tackle issues of social justice — and rely on friends like you to sustain ourselves and grow. Join us by making a gift today.