Charging the Commons is a 2-year project that investigates the design of digital platforms for resource communities. The project explores how a Situated-design approach can be employed to articulate the (social) values of resource communities. In addition, the project examines how these values can be translated into a design for the management of an urban commons.
Final Event | What design can contribute to commoning | July 4th, 2024
๐ง๐ต๐๐ฟ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐, ๐๐๐น๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ต | ๐ญ๐ฑ:๐ฌ๐ฌ-๐ญ๐ณ:๐ฌ๐ฌ | ๐๐๐น๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐น๐๐ฏ, ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป
After two years of research, we will present the conclusions of the Charging the Commons Research Project at this wrap-up event. Join us!
Upcoming Workshop | Relational Interfaces Design | June 14th, 2024
๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐, ๐๐๐ป๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐๐ต | ๐ฌ๐ต:๐ฏ๐ฌ-๐ญ๐ณ:๐ฏ๐ฌ | ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ก๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐๐๐ถ๐๐๐๐
How can society operate in more relational ways, reflecting our deep entanglements as humans with each other and the more-than-human world around us, and allow us to act in relationships of mutual care?
โThe City as a License: Design, rights and civics in a blockchain societyโ for Big Data & Society
AUAS – Civic Interaction Design Research Group has led the development of a special issue for Big Data & Society. “The issue is titled:ย The City as a License: Design, Rights and Civics in a Blockchain Society”. All contributions are available Open-Access and can be read here.
Paper | Commons-enabling digital platform technologies in practice: the case of carsharing communities in The Netherlands
The second scientific article resulting from our research project has been accepted by the Architecture Media Politics Society Conference ”Urban Futures – Cultural Pasts” to be held in Barcelona.
Verslag workshop Charging the Commons: Het ontwerp van digitale platformen voor de commons
Hoe ontwerp je een digitaal platform voor een commons als een autodeel-gemeenschap, die niet alleen functioneel is en het makkelijk maakt om een auto te reserveren, maar die tegelijkertijd ook de commons als gemeenschap versterkt? Die vraag stond centraal in de workshop die we op 4 april met partners uit het Charging the Commons-project hielden bij de HvA.
Student Prototypes of resource-sharing platforms for the commons
In the fall semester of 2023, students of the minor Het internet is stuk, maar we gaan het repareren, were asked to explore and design resource-sharing platform for the commons. The goal is to make a wide choice of electric cars and other forms of electric shared driving available in the neighborhood. When car owners switch to shared driving, parking spaces will be eliminated, and more space will be created in the neighborhood.โ
Rondtafel | Platforms voor de commons
Bekijk de laatste aflevering van de Charging the Commons rondetafelserie, waarin we het hadden over hoe digitale technologieรซn de commons kunnen ondersteunen.
Digital enablers -apps- for sharing and managing community resources๏ฟผ
In the last semester of 2022, students received an assignment to develop technology-based instruments that can support communities to share and manage their collective resources. This resulted in four apps in the domains of sharing food, spaces, mobility and โthingsโ.
Roundtable | Design for collective decision-making
Watch the 2nd episode of the Charging the Commons Roundtable Series, which explored a challenge faced by emerging commons communities:ย deciding on a means to make decisions together.
Workshop | Quadratic Voting
Through our situated research, we noticed there is desire amongst resource sharing communities for collective decision-making procedures that speak to both local community values, and the broader principles of the commons. To explore this further designer-researcher Tara Karpinski conducted a workshop with members of the Community Land Trust H-buurt.
Paper | โBecommoningโ: a design-framework for the initiation of new commons
Last October, Suzanna Tomor presented the paper “โBecommoningโ: a design-framework for the initiation of new commons” at the IASDR – International Associationย of Societies of Design Research. Read the full paper here.
Canvas | (Be)Commoning: A Framework for the Initiation of New Commons
This is a first iteration of the (Be)Commoning canvas – a framework that aims to provide insights for emergent resource communities and offer a useful tool for professional mediators / facilitators who can support commoners with an overarching guidance of becommoning.
Roundtable | Charging the Commons: From (Be)Commoning to Commoning
Watch the first episode of the Charging the Commons Roundtable Series, which centered around the process of becoming aย commons
Workshop | Charging the Commons workshop at Placemaking Week Europe 2023
The Charging the Commons research team organized a workshop at the Placemaking Week Europe 2023, under the titleย “Becommoning” – a design framework for the initiation of new commons”. Click here to find out more.
Expert Session with Consortium Partners
On September 21, an expert session was hosted at the HvA as part of the Charging the Commons (CtC) project. The goal of this session was to explore how our research insights and frameworks can help further the impact of the work of the SMEs involved in the project.
Workshop | Domestic Bliss
Charging the Commons team organised a workshop to explore withย the Community Land Trustย (Bijlmer, Amsterdam) members what and how they want to share, within the context of an urban commons community
Becommoning โ of hoe een commons een commons wordt
De afgelopen maanden heeft onderzoeker Suzanna Tomor literatuuronderzoek verricht naar de totstandkoming van collectieve woningbouwprojecten. Welke aspecten komen in dat proces aan bod, en wat zijn mogelijke succes- en faalfactoren?
Charging the Commons Research Cases
The Charging the Commons project investigates the design of the rules and (digital) tools for ‘resource communities’, also known as commons’. In this research, three cases have been identified so far: the H-buurt, De Warren and Commonwoods.
Circulate Movies
With the intention of documenting and disseminating the themes, research processes, and main outputs from the Circulate project, we created a series of short movies. Click here to watch.
Circulateโs Livecast Series: Rights to the blockchain city
with Pakhuis de Zwijger and Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Circulate project organised a series of three livecasts to discuss implications of blockchain and digital platforms for the management and governance of the urban commons.
Design Canvas Digital Platforms for Resource Communities
The canvas employs a Value Sensitive Design (VSD) framework that can help explore the values at stake, the affordances of technologies, and the motivations and interests of stakeholders. This canvas is one of the tools we designed to help designers and companies discover the values within a particular community, understand which values should be made explicit and how they can be aligned with the affordances of the technologies.
Horison, a dashboard and app for the promotion of C02 neutral living.
In May 2020 Students of the minor User Experience Design were involved in a Circulate student project. They were asked to engage a fictional community in balancing energy usage and production by visualising the (private and collective) usage and availability of energy.
Ener-geyser
The Ener-geyser (or Schoonschip Geyser) is a data-driven (floating) fountain that visualises peak times: times when there is a high demand for energy on the communal energy smart-grid of an Amsterdam-based resource community called Schoonschip. By visualising energy levels in real-time, the Geyser helps the community make decisions about when to turn on appliances, in order to achieve their agreed sustainability goals.
Neighbours: Using serious games as a tool for community building & research
‘Neighbours’ is a game created to help community members and facilitators to explore the values within a community, with the ultimate goal of providing valuable insights for community regulations and the development of platforms to promote the production, sharing and management of their common resources.
Peak Shaving Time – shedding light on the social ramifications of smart technologies.
As part of the first workpackage of circulate we conducted several probes exploring the underlying economic and social values within resource communities, and how these values can be given a role in the development of digital platforms to aid these communities. Peak Shaving time is one such probe.