An eco system for commons

collection of simple yet powerful digital tools for collective management

Commons are platforms where people come together to engage in a productive activity under shared management, such as collectively managing forests or lakes, growing vegetables, organising events, sharing mobility or housing, etc. Shared management promotes sustainable, resilient and local cooperation. Thus, commons are an intrinsically circular mode of production.

Although the phenomenon has been on the rise in recent years, it remains rather rare. One of the reasons may be the complexity: even the simplest tasks quickly become complicated with a large number of stakeholders. Digitisation offers numerous new possibilities for making things a lot simpler, both in terms of communication and organisation. Unfortunately, these digital solutions do not come cheap.

With this project, Ghent University, in collaboration with Media Belgium and Harvestgoed CSA, wants to work on an application that will considerably simplify the complexity of commons management.

Through a survey of the sector, a series of simple but powerful basic shared needs were first identified, such as profile management, automatic follow-up of payments, matchmaking and the creation of a complementary currency. Next, a working prototype was tested at the Oogstgoed self-harvesting farm in Gentbrugge, a farm where participants produce local, ecological and fair food together with farmers.

That digital platform can serve as a prototype for a commons ecosystem. In time, this could lead to the full integration of commons in the economy.