One of the things that we still find hard to replace when working in hybrid collaborative research workshop settings is key collaborative work environments such as GoogleDocs and Zoom, which are commercial, prorietary and often paid for tools/platforms. Within the Copim community and with the Experimental Publishing Group we have been experimenting with open source alternatives. For example we have been using different kinds of pads to write collaboratively such as Cryptpad (https://cryptpad.fr/) and Etherpad (https://etherpad.org/) or online conferencing platforms such as Kmeet (https://kmeet.infomaniak.com/).
Knowledge is repeatedly framed through a market-oriented lens. Owango asks, “What contribution does indigenous knowledge contribute to research, innovation, and commercialization?” rather than posing questions about community ownership or non-market values. The initiative openly promotes the link between indigenous knowledge and intellectual property, stating: “We want to support commercialization and the patents that come out of it.” This perspective reduces cultural heritage to an economic asset, aligning with a commodification logic rather than resisting it.