Practice (as research)

Making Public!
What Is Urgent Publishing?

2019-20

forms of engagement

community of practice

The Making Public! research consortium brought together publishers, designers, developers, and researchers to work together on strengthening the position of independent publishing. Amateur Cities, Open! and Open Set, in collaboration with designer Niels Schrader and developer André Fincato, formed a subgroup focusing on how small publishing platforms can expand their reach by creating qualitative connections with one another. Despite the difference in topics addressed by each of the partners, we decided to use the Making Public! project as an opportunity to establish a network among the platforms involved, sharing the attention of our readers rather than trying to monopolise it. Our common goal was to provide relevant recommendations to our readers and enable them to navigate from platform to platform. This led us to develop a prototype of the Platform 2 Platform tool, which combines algorithmic recommendations and editorial decision-making in order to establish meaningful links between content items hosted by the participating platforms.

Available publication: Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing