MetaReciclagem
MetaReciclagem is an open network created in 2002 in Brazil. It has
been the result of intensive exchange through the internet of over a
hundred people from different sectors in a mailing list. At first a
collective in São Paulo proposing the reuse of donated electronic
equipment with free and open source software, soon MetaReciclagem
turned into a network of multiple identities working towards the
deconstruction of technology, taken in a broad sense, and its
re-purposing and re-signification in different contexts aiming at
social change. While opting not to follow the common path in Brazil -
creating an NGO and earning lots of money from the government by
repeating the same practices over and over again-, MetaReciclagem has
established distributed and deep dialog with projects in the government
and civil society, universities and businesses, proposing a
participatory approach to collaborative exchange between people and
institutions. Members of MetaReciclagem have been, in an emergent way,
an important influence to plenty of Brazilian projects related to
subjects such as digital inclusion and technological appropriation;
free and open source software, knowledge and culture; media and
technological education; open innovation networks and media arts; and
many others.
It has emerged as a typically Brazilian yet globally replicable way
to think and do human-centered technology development, supporting
ethical principles such as collaborative production and social uses of
technology. After five years, the network has become a reference in
technological appropriation in Brazil, counting hundreds of
collaborators, as well as being used as key methodology for the
elaboration and implementation of large-scale governmental projects
such as the Pontos de Cultura, Casas Brasil and others. More than a
technology project, it has aggregated educational perspective, artistic
experimentation and the development of alternate economic cycles,
having received honorary mentions on Prix Ars Electronica Digital
Communities in 2006 and on APC Betinho Communications Prize in 2005,
and being listed a finalist for the APC Chris Nicol FOSS prize in 2007.
The evolutionary and maturation processes of MetaReciclagem started
with a group of people in São Paulo who proposed the re-use of
second-hand computers, with the objective of creating informational
spaces in communities which did not have yet access to that kind of
infrastructure. Based on the perspective of technological
de-construction to create inclusive processes, not limited to offer
only access, but also foster the forging of networks of social
mobilization and distributed learning.
Over time, MetaReciclagem could no longer (or did not want to) be
understood only under the generic and opportunist definition of digital
inclusion, and its members started to look for more ellaborate levels
of critical action and the understanding of technology as social
phenomena. Concepts such as collaboration, collective knowledge
production, re-signification of technology and critical appropriation
became the fundaments for other levels of experimentation and
creativity. MetaReciclagem has transformed the way of defining itself
plenty of times, and that is one of the factors that allows it to
survive scale and still be creative and productive.
