Technopolitical democratization and Digital Commoning: the Case of the Digital Democracy and Data Commons (DDDC) pilot

Abstract

This document presents the theoretical background, general objectives, elements, and shape of the Digital Democracy and Data Commons pilot to be carried on in Barcelona, in the context of the DEcentralized Citizen Owned Data Ecosystems (DECODE) project. It explains the two threads of the pilot, the Digital Democracy thread and the Data Commons thread. The Digital Democracy thread is oriented to improve Digital Democracy by integrating DECODE technology with Decidim technology (Decidim is a free software for participatory democracy) and enabling better authenticated, more private, transparent and data enriched decision making. The Data Commons thread is oriented to explore alternatives to the current model of digital economy by using Decidim technology for deliberating upon data policies and deciding upon an experimental data commons constituted during the pilot. The document opens providing a theoretical background of the need for and potential shape of this type of alternatives in the current predicament, defined by datacracy in the political arena (where new big data techniques by powerful actors are strategically used for intervening into politics and culture) and data extractivism in the economic arena (where monopolistic actors exploit citizen¿s data undermining privacy as well as personal and collective autonomy for profit). Afterwards, the document presents the technical, social and theoretical objectives of the pilot, as well as some evaluation metrics. It then enumerates its various elements: its core theoretical frameworks and concepts, technologies, sociotechnical tools and practices (legal, social, economic), social actors, and data involved in the pilot. Finally, it describes the general shape of the pilot, its various stages, the resources mobilize for its development and some of its outputs.