“Innovation is always social, otherwise it is speculating on the ignorance of others,” is the Scuola Open Source motto.

This ambitious project – a dream in the words of its promoters – adopted an open-source awareness and philosophy from the planning stage, the proposal being devised and defined in an open document (→ goo.gl/axZLHE) and form, allowing people to co-design the school by contributing their own ideas or funding the project.

In very “open” spirit, the school will be a work-in-progress, engaging, communicating, adding and increasing. There will be single theme and technical contributions but also support initiatives, as in this “campaign” for votes and support – distinctive, viral and generative in the style of FF3300, the Bari design and communication studio spearheading the SOS promoters.

It will be an educational institute and a centre for research and consultancy in art and technology for industry, trade and the handicrafts (digital and non-digital). People are looking to the future but the university is unable to provide an answer. There is a demand for “smart” professionals but few know what the word really means. In response to the need for change in the educational processes that has emerged during the ongoing crisis in the Italian education system, SOS will be a social space of aggregation and education, a connective, working and human place where knowledge is boosted by the osmosis of different skills.

The basic methodology was generated by educational experience gained in the XYLAB research and co-design labs, where participants worked with teachers and tutors on research projects, sharing knowledge and skills to make existing production segments more efficient, lower production costs, stimulate self-production as a form of self-employment and develop hybrid design abilities as a result of cross-pollination between the professions.

The Scuola Open Source will adopt the teaching methodology experimented by XYLAB, a research and co-planning lab held by the SOS founders in 2014. This unprecedented experience prompted participants, teachers and tutors to join forces on research projects, in a fluid sharing of knowledge and skills to make existing production segments more efficient, lower production costs, stimulate self-production as a form of self-employment and develop hybrid design abilities as a result of cross-pollination between the professions.

The “Learn as you go” principle is found in declared reference models such as Gropius’ legendary Bauhaus, Adriano Olivetti’s factory and the Roycroft Community.

The Scuola Open Source is a new experience where the humanistic and scientific cultures live side by side and in which to learn and try out – errors are permitted – socially and technologically innovative projects and processes.

It is a hacker-space, a place where likeminded people in the fields of craft, technology, science, visual and poetic arts, publishing, robotics, home automation, biology, electronics and more can meet up, socialise and/or cooperate; a reuse promotion centre with a collection service for objects with obsolete technology that promotes their intelligent reuse; it is a FabLab, a small workshop offering personalised digital manufacturing services and equipped with prototyping tools (3D printing, laser cutting etc.)

Its promoters want the school to be open 24/7, always accessible and co-planned via an XYZ  incipit lab.