RECIPROCAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE NETWORKS

EVERYONE KNOWS SOMETHING
EVERYONE CAN TRANSMIT HIS OWN KNOWLEDGE

The networks of knowledge exchange, of reciprocal learning and of joint creation put people who want to learn some knowledge in touch with those who offer this knowledge.
Were When How APRIRSi
The voluntary association APRIRSi (which means to open in Italian) was born in Vicenza in November 2000. Its aim is to promote the creation and circulation in Italy of the Reciprocal Knowledge Exchange Networks among individuals, groups, associations, public administration and private firms.
The association is recognized by the Italian Government as a ONLUS (No Profit Social Utility Organization), and can therefore ask for public funds for advertising, books translation, and permanent learning of its members. All this is in order to help the existing networks and to promote the creation of new ones, giving the necessary material and allowing a coordination among the different local networks. The volunteers of the association APRIRSi are available to offer their competence to any group or individual, interested in the creation of a network in Italy.

Where

- The first creation of a network was in may 2000 at the GET (Local Educational Group) in Vicenza, via Maurisio. The exchanges were made, above all, in the domain of theatre and bricolage. Moreover a feast, called Scambilandia (Exchangeland), was organized together with the inhabitants and the structures of the neighbourhood.
- Another network was created in a class of the primary school in Longare, during the year 2001. The pupils could experiment the mutual help through the exchanges, concerning both school and free time knowledge.
- A group of parents of nursery-school children in Sarmego have done different exchanges: first concerning the school, then domestic knowledge, exchanges of clothes, …
- Since last year, the association collaborate with the municipal administration of Nanto (VI) in order to create a network connecting the different local associations, spontaneous groups, enterprises, in order to diffuse a new culture of participated democracy.
Immigrants of various ethnic populations, above all Africans, have settled down in this territory. The exchanges among different cultures have begun with the organisation of feasts, and then computer courses. But the purpose of this year is to develop exchanges, aiming at the integration of the immigrants in the local community.
- An exchange network has been created in the public library of Grisignano di Zocco. The aim of this network is to supply some services, connecting the school, the public administration and the citizens. At the beginning some school knowledge was exchanged among the children of the primary school, then some play knowledge was shared (chess, table games, etc…). Moreover some physical handicapped people were introduced in the work of the library: they used the computer facilities, helping people to find the books.

How

It is enough to formulate an offer or a request of knowledge and let it know to the nearest network.


When

We meet at Casa per la Pace in Vicenza every first Monday of the month, from 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm, from September until February, and from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm, from March until June. We publish a monthly bulletin, called aperture (openings), in order to keep the relations between the different networks and the association.

CHARTER OF RECIPROCAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE NETWORKS

This charter is the ethic reference for the Movement of the Reciprocal Knowledge Exchange Networks

Aim

• The Reciprocal Knowledge Exchange Networks are constituted by citizens, without any distinction of age, political or religious faith, or cultural or social origin.
• The aim of the network is to allow people to transmit and to receive some knowledge in a reciprocal exchange.
Reciprocity
• The network works in open reciprocity: it is possible to receive a knowledge from a different person from the one to whom one teaches.
The networks promote the possibility to connect people. It is possible to begin learning before beginning teaching (and viceversa) and it is possible to take some time before arriving to the essential reciprocity.

Exchanges without money

• The transmission of knowledge is done without any financial compensation. The one who gives its own knowledge does not loose its knowledge. The one who receives a knowledge is invited to offer his own knowledge. No hierarchy or scale is established to measure the value of the knowledge.

• The contents of any exchange, the methods used and the practical realization are decided by those who do the exchange. They arrange freely the exchange, according to their desires, their means, problems or availability. There is a connecting person, helping those who exchange to better define the contents, the methods and the evaluation criteria for any exchange.

• Any member of a network takes care of helping anyone to identify his own knowledge and means to transmit to the others…The desire of the others’ success is necessary to depeen one’s knowledge. This interaction among individuals is a source for the self learning and for personal valorization trough the others.

• No legal arrangement is suggested. There is no common code for the operation of a network, also regarding the financial sources. The reciprocity is the essential criterion to examine any project. Everyone should participate to the organization of the network, included the information elaboration, the decision power, the learning means and methods…

• The personal valorization within the network is a school of active citizenship. It is therefore important that the collective creation remains one of the principal aims of the network.

Animators

• People with the following requirements can be recognized as network animators:
- able to work in group with a common project for integration of new people;
-taking part in a multiethnic, multicultural society, with different ideologies, religions, …
-caring that the knowledge is exchanged in a tolerant environment…

In a movement

• The different networks will connect each other in a network of networks, within a movement. In this movement, any network is central for the others. The relation among networks is an essential condition for the recognition of any of them as a “Reciprocal Knowledge Exchange Networks”.