In the newsletter this week, next to the notions of news, I reflect on the commons as part of new neighbourhood services and the virtual engaging neighbour. And I thought it would be interesting to connect it to the ending of project Titan, the long awaited Apple Car.
Triggered thought
With ThingsCon we are partner in a research project of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Civic Interaction Design research group on Charging the Commons that investigates the design of digital platforms for resource communities. Last week they organised an evening to reflect on digital platforms for car sharing. Next to some first findings from research, there were three citizen-initiated car-sharing solutions initiatives. However a couple of them used the same platform (or better, service provider), the way it was organised and managed differed. Just ‘users’ to cooperative and therefor shared ownership.
One conclusion was that the extra services and social structure in which the solution is embedded makes much more of a difference than the car sharing services themselves. We see that also in another research project Cities of Things is involved in on a neighbourhood hub in the center of Amsterdam: the success of the logistic-oriented services will be in social added value of the hub, of the collaborative actions made possible.
That makes the commons as a model interesting. Self organising and initiating is a powerful driver. The platforms are more governance providers than service providers. As was mentioned at the evening event: the features of reserving, opening a car etc are the basics, the social and governance and even more, an intelligent variant is what makes a difference (makes me think about an exploration of DAOs and protocol economy I did a year ago for a financial organisation).
How does this relate to the Apple Car project? What triggered my thinking how there is potential role for future car makers, to have this incorporated in the identity of their cars. Cars can become a fleet of self organising services that not only service the dwellers of a neighbourhood, it can become an active part of that communities. I am not thinking Apple is able to create these type of software; the track record of social-structure-supporting software is a problem, but as a platform/framework that enables it would have been an interesting pivot in the way we think about cars (improve the Lynk&Co execution).
But, maybe better after all, hope it will remain a bottom-up commons initiative.
Check the Notions from the news and more via the newsletter.
target is new 