Our goals

ASK-Solutions works to keep knowledge and technology understandable, shareable and useful. We want people and organisations to have realistic opportunities to learn, participate, repair, adapt and make informed choices about the systems and objects they depend on.

Our work brings technical, educational and social questions together. That is deliberate. Knowledge cannot remain shared when nobody can practise it. A device is not meaningfully owned when it cannot be repaired or maintained. Digital independence is difficult without usable knowledge, transferable systems and people who can help one another learn.

The goals below describe the changes we work towards. They are broader than one service, project, location or public label.

Knowledge and free technology

Preserve and share practical knowledge, software, hardware designs and documentation so that others can study, use, adapt and continue them.

Explore knowledge and free technology

Digital freedom and self-reliance

Help people and organisations retain control over their data, accounts, websites, software and technical infrastructure.

Explore digital freedom and self-reliance

Repair, ownership and reuse

Support meaningful ownership through repairability, access to knowledge and parts, longer useful lives and responsible reuse.

Explore repair, ownership and reuse

Learning, development and participation

Create practical routes through which people can learn, regain confidence, share experience and participate at a sustainable pace.

Explore learning, development and participation

Goals, topics and projects have different roles

These pages explain why ASK-Solutions exists and what the organisation tries to achieve. They do not replace our public topic pages. Pages such as Knowledge, Privacy, Freedom and Right to Repair introduce the subjects themselves, present our wider philosophy and provide a place to group related articles and developments.

Our projects show how the goals become concrete. Some projects produce software or hardware. Others preserve technical history, support education, create practical environments, make repair possible or develop ways for people to learn and participate.

One organisation, several kinds of work

ASK-Solutions is one public-benefit organisation. Technical development, digital support, education, repair, publishing and social work are not separate companies placed next to one another. They are connected ways of working towards the same underlying goals.

ASK-Media-Solutions, ASK-ICT-Solutions and ASK-Technology-Solutions provide specialised public routes to information about particular areas of this work. They are not separate companies or independent organisations. The activities presented through these names are carried out by ASK-Solutions as part of its technical, educational and social mission.

How the goals become practice

Depending on the subject and situation, ASK-Solutions works towards these goals through:

free software, free hardware and openly documented technical development;
articles, topic pages and public information;
repair, reuse, diagnostics and practical technical support;
workshops, mentoring, internships and learning through real projects;
local environments such as The Owl’s Nest, where knowledge and practical facilities can come together;
cooperation with schools, public bodies, organisations, companies and individual knowledge holders;
long-term preservation of project histories, source material and technical experience.

Not every activity serves every goal equally. The relationship becomes clear on the individual goals pages and in the projects and annual reporting that document the work.