The research project »Civic Tech as Commons« addresses the potentials and challenges of citizen-centered technologies, short Civic Tech, that aims at the expansion of sovereignty on side of citizens using open technologies. Due to their openness and adaptability, the technologies have the potential to become a digital common (Gosh, 2006; Ostrom & Helfrich, 2011) so that citizens can use and learn from them, as well as develop them further, depending on their needs. The project is initialized by the design researcher Jennifer Schubert and funded by the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano for a duration of 2 years.

After the first phase of analysis of already existing civic tech projects, the technologies were analyzed through various mapping tools, which were further elaborated through external (Cyprus Workshop) and internal exchange sessions (with Alastair Fuad-Luke and Seçil Uğur Yavuz, January 2020). The process got additionally informed by events, like the Semester Inaugural Talk about »Digital Commons« in September 2020, through which the topic was discussed with external experts from various fields such as social sciences, politics, or design practice. In the end, the gained and synthesized knowledge will get synthesized in a book publication.