The rise of social networking and open source technology development, and the return of community-focused activities and creative collectives across the fields of the visual and performing arts and design, have reawakened the discourse around human capital, flat structures and collectives as a means for ‘making’ the things of everyday life. In July 2010 the RMIT Design Archives and RMIT Design Research Institute hosted a two-day Symposium at RMIT University Melbourne on the past, present and future of the design collective. The symposium hoped to uncover historical and contemporary examples: real, virtual or theoretical; cultural and organisational theories; and associated collective modes of practice and their ramifications for gender and political activism.