Ressources numériques en sciences humaines et sociales OpenEdition Nos plateformes OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypothèses Calenda Bibliothèques OpenEdition Freemium Suivez-nous

Takeaways from the DCPC/CIS Policy Lab, May 2024

Fostering Public Support for Digital Commons

The Digital Commons Policy Council (DCPC) conducts scientific research to increase recognition for the digital commons and the voluntary work that creates these common goods. The DCPC is an informal think tank which was founded in 2021 at the University of Canberra, and builds on the earlier work of the Journal of Peer Production. The DCPC produces public reports based on empirical data, submissions to lawmakers, educational resources for schools, and scientific articles.

In 2022 the Société des Communs held two Policy Labs bringing together digital commons project representatives and members of government entities. Building on this work, the DCPC-CIS 2024 Policy Lab was held in Paris on May 30 and 31, in partnership with the Centre Internet et Société (CIS) of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). The Policy Lab was organised by Mathieu O’Neil, University of Canberra, with support from the Digital Infrastructure Insight Fund’s Katharina Meyer and from CIS Director Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay. The event was facilitated by O’Neil, and held thanks to the financial support of the Ford Foundation’s Technology and Society program and the Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund.

The event brought together thirty digital commons experts from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK. They included representatives from digital commons communities, e.g., Civic Data Coop Liverpool, Framasoft, La Coop des Communs, Open Food Facts, Wikimedia France; from public organisations, e.g., Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires (ANCT), Direction Interministérielle du Numérique (DINUM), Sovereign Tech Fund; from civil society organisations, e.g., Collectif pour une Société des Communs, Inno3, Open Forum Europe, Open Future, Open Knowledge Foundation; and from academia, e.g., Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Fondazione Bruno Kessler – Digital Commons Lab, University of Dundee, Université Paris 8, Université de Technologie de Compiègne. Ramya Chandrasekhar represented ODECO in this workshop. It was a chance for participants to share experiences, present their work, and discuss long-term challenges and opportunities. New connections were made, and new plans were hatched.

The main purpose of the DCPC-CIS 2024 Policy Lab was to identify best practices and opportunities in the public institutions-digital commons communities space, and to develop tools for increasing their cooperation. Participants identified problems and solutions on Day 1, and sorted themselves into groups on Day 2 to collaboratively develop three resources.

  1. Public Support Best Practices Guide: The first group is identifying and documenting successful public support mechanisms in different countries that could be replicated elsewhere. Categories include government-led commons initiatives during emergencies (e.g., Italy’s open-source Covid contact-tracing app), academic-government collaboration projects (e.g., UK’s Data Trusts project), and public funding opportunities (e.g., France’s Call for commons or Appels à communs). This group is led by Angela Daly, University of Dundee, and Riccardo Nanni, Fondazione Bruno Kessler – Digital Commons Lab. Ramya Chandrasekhar and Melanie Dulong de Rosnay are contributors.
  2. Policy Proposals Mapping: The second group is mapping existing policy proposals to support the digital commons, starting with recommendations from participating entities and other key proposals. The goal is to create a list on Wikipedia for policymakers and advocates to access easily. Participants working on conversion into Wikidata reported that this was doable, if time-consuming. List variables include “addressee” (e.g., Local, National, Transnational), “policy instrument” (e.g., Nodality, Authority, Treasure, Organisation) and “approach to digital commons” (e.g., holistic, or specific: open source; open science; open hardware; open knowledge; open infrastructure; data commons). This group is led by Tom Fredrik Blenning of Electronic Frontier Norway, Valérian Guillier of the CIS-CNRS, and Jan Krewer from Open Future.
  3. Public Procurement Guide: The third group is creating a guide on public procurement issues for digital commons. This guide will compile policy proposals, legal procedures, and practical solutions to better integrate digital commons into public procurement processes. The group leaders are Célya Gruson Daniel from Inno3, Bastien Guerry from the French Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM), and Sébastien Schulz from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne. They plan to add more information to the guide through a hackathon organised by DINUM in Paris in the second half of 2024.

The DCPC will incorporate key findings from the Policy Lab in a forthcoming activity report. In addition, two easy-to-read DCPC Handbooks on Public Support Best Practice and on Procurement will be co-developed with group leads and released in several languages.

During a final debrief session Policy Lab participants reviewed how the event was organised, with debates informing future editions. Indeed, all present agreed that the Policy Lab was a useful event which should happen again. DCPC therefore plans to facilitate a follow-up event in September / October 2025, possibly in the UK, to continue bringing together researchers and practitioners working on the digital commons, and to develop new opportunities for collaboration. This will also provide an opportunity to incorporate more perspectives from the Global South and from indigenous communities (eg., Canada, NZ).

CIS will continue to be involved in future editions of the Policy Lab, to foster more research and public engagement on the digital and data commons.

[Cross-posted from https://dcpc.info/lab24/]

Participants from CIS:

Valérian Guillier
Valérian Guillier | Postdoctoral researcher (NGI Commons)
Ramya Chandrasekhar | Legal Researcher
Ramya Chandrasekhar | Legal Researcher (ODECO)
Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay | Director of research


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Ramya Chandrasekhar (5 septembre 2024). Takeaways from the DCPC/CIS Policy Lab, May 2024. Open Knowledge. Consulté le 10 février 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/135d7


Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *

Ce site utilise Akismet pour réduire les indésirables. En savoir plus sur comment les données de vos commentaires sont utilisées.