Convergence of Commoners Retreat
Beyond the Digital Illusion
Speakers


Adrian Bua is interested in the intersection of democratic theory, critical political economy and public policy. His focus is mainly on public participation, participatory governance and democratic innovation. His past work focussed on the design of participatory-deliberative institutions. Contemporarily, he is interested in the politics of participatory governance and the role of participation in (de)democratisation and broader social change within capitalism.


Digital researcher focused on social impact projects. Combines social science expertise and tech skills to develop methods for analyzing digital spaces, working with organizations to combat misinformation and hate while promoting the common good.
Komons Co-founder
Komons is a collective of technologists, social and digital researchers, practitioners, and activists founded with the intention of helping to transform the present. Embracing complexity and deeply aware of the multiple crises being confronted, Komons strives to drive social change and climate justice, paving the way for human flourishing and the emergence of desirable futures.
Komons has supported narrative change and power processes that led to the establishment of Strategic Communication Hubs across various countries in Europe and Africa, enabling progressive actors to navigate and influence embattled media landscapes.
Actively exploring and prototyping new forms of activism and citizen participation within emerging democratic mechanisms, Komons aims to enhance citizen agency and foster collective intelligence and action, with a strong focus this year on Climate Justice.
The work of Komons intersects disciplines such as digital and participatory research, strategic design, collective intelligence, digital communities, and collaborative technologies. Amid the hype surrounding Generative AI, Komons critically scrutinizes its implications while exploring its potential for catalyzing collective power.


Periodista pionero en la investigación de la desinformación en Internet. Ha desarrollado un método que utiliza software libre y análisis de redes para detectar en tiempo real la aparición de noticias falsas y operaciones de desinformación antes de que hagan daño. Y ahora analizo el uso de IA en tanto en la detección y prevención de desinformación


Philosopher, teacher and social activist. He is responsible for citizen mobilisation and advocacy at Platoniq. Palazzi teaches at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He also advises several social welfare organisations on ethical development. He has led several lecture series on social philosophy at the Informa't association, and is also a member of the Venture Board of Ashoka, a social entrepreneurship NGO. Palazzi is a member of the editorial boards of the journal Argumenta Philosophica (Editorial Herder) and the Journal of Applied Ethics (Ramon Llull University).


With 25 years of experience in both academia and management practice, I assist collectives ranging from small teams to large communities in designing, implementing and maintaining their very own fair, effective and purposeful governance. I limit my practice to the for-benefit sector (social enterprises & non-profits) and civic life (public agencies, political parties, labor unions). Let's help one another walk the talk ;)


Efraín Foglia es un diseñador indisciplinado, investigador y docente. Actualmente, es el coordinador científico del Medialab de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) en Barcelona. Es Doctor en Bellas Artes por la Universidad de Barcelona, especializado en New Media Design por la Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Su trabajo se sitúa en la intersección entre el diseño, el activismo de base y las tecnologías en red. Se ha centrado en el diseño de infraestructuras descentralizadas en red y en los nuevos paradigmas del diseño tecnopolítico. Su enfoque como diseñador se orienta hacia la Contracultura del Diseño, entendida como la proyección del diseño desde una perspectiva política en todas sus dimensiones.


Senabre Hidalgo is president of the Platoniq Foundation and co-founder of the civic crowdfunding and open source platform Goteo.org. He received his PhD in Sociology of the Information and Knowledge Society from the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) under the direction of Mayo Fuster Morell and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), researcher at the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN, University of Surrey), vice-president of the Observatory for CyberSociety and associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He is also a scrum master certified by the Scrum Alliance and a co-creation facilitator in international projects, such as European Creative or the Connected Action for the Commons network of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF).


Since 2011, I have been the coordinator of Remix the commons, a collaborative and evolving multimedia project. It aims to document and illustrate the key ideas and practices of commonning by remixing multimedia materials.
As activist, I am member of VECAM, a French nonprofit organization dealing with the impact of ICT (information and communication technologies) on society. I have been working for VECAM from 2000 until 2006. I have been involved in some international initiatives and projects for the appropriation of information and communication technology, such as “Fragments du monde,” “I-jumelages.” Since then I have still been involved in the activities of the association as a volunteer and sometimes provide services by the way of my company Gazibo. I am also member of AITEC a French nonprofit organisation dealing with citizenship expertise and strongly involved in Social Forum and Sciences and Democracy Forum. In 2009, I was involved in the process of writing the manifesto “Reclaim the commons” and was the coordinator for the first World Forum Science and Democracy. I am now a member of the International Initiative Committee of the World Forum Science and Democracy.


Analista y asesora de políticas digitales y tecnológicas. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Investigadora y filósofa centrada en el impacto causado por la innovación y la interacción con las nuevas tecnologías a nivel cultural, ético y social. Sus campos de interés son principalmente las tecnologías emergentes y los sistemas digitales y su intersección con el poder. Trabaja con teorías decoloniales del género y feminismos revolucionarios y cibernéticos como marcos conceptuales, acompañados de metodologías CTS


Advising and working with leaders in complex systems. Participatory funding, governance and collaboration specialist. World-building and grounded futurism.


Socióloga. Doctora en Políticas Públicas (UAB). Mis intereses se centran en la relación de los actores de la sociedad civil (movimientos sociales, plataformas ciudadanas, etc.) con el gobierno y administración pública local. Y cómo esta colaboración entre agentes de diferente naturaleza genera nuevos espacios para la participación ciudadana, la innovación democrática y contribuye a la difusión de la cultura colaborativa en la administración pública


Marta Poblet Balcell is an Associate Professor at RMIT University’s Graduate School of Business and Law and Director of the Social Change Enabling Capabilities Platform.
She is one of the co-founders of the Institute of Law and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and past researcher at ICREA (Catalonia). Marta holds a JSD in law (Stanford University 2002) and a Master in International Legal Studies (Stanford University 2000). Her research interests cut across many disciplines, including political science, law, technology and sociology.
She is also interested in the connections between technology developments (AI, blockchain, human computer interaction) and different theories of democracy and citizenship. Her particular area of interest is in how technologies can provide outcomes for citizens in the areas of justice, security, privacy, disaster relief or emergency management and she is also working on the influence of emerging technologies such as crowd sourcing and domain mapping.
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Researcher, designer, and project manager dedicated to digital civic participation, particularly emphasizing consent-driven, open-source technologies. My focus involves leveraging open-source platforms to enhance user experiences and develop solutions that bolster accessibility, transparency, and participation.
Has been working on ecological and social sustainability initiatives for over 20 years, including at the European Center for Nature Conservation, Stichting DOEN, Drawdown Europe and The Biomimicry Institute. Since 2019, she has been working as a programme director at the Schumacher Center for New Economics. Natasha works on strengthening the Commons movement in the Netherlands and Europe. With Schumacher colleague David Bollier, she is working on Commons-Based finance and land governance.
Natasha is also one of the initiators of the citizen initiative Voedselpark Amsterdam, where she is committed to the conservation of agricultural land and the creation of a large-scale urban agro-ecological food parks.


I am research communication manager at the Centre for Future Natures, Institute of Development Studies, UK. I'm responsible for convening stories and content for an international network of researchers, artists & commoners. My background is in research communication and sustainability. I am interested in ideas about commoning and relationships to nature.


It designs strategies for co-constructing tomorrow's public policies and territories. He is currently developing the citizen advocacy impact framework ‘Crowdvocacy’, a coordinated process between participation platforms where civic initiatives amplify their influence, obtaining resources, and stimulating leadership. Member of the Board of Trustees of the Civio Citizens' Foundation.


Reema Patel is a thought-leader in the fields of technology, data and AI ethics, public engagement and participation, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She is an engaging speaker on subjects including technology ethics, diversity, AI-emerging tech, future of healthcare, among others.


Associate Professor in Public Policy at the University of Birmingham. She is scientific coordinator of the INSPIRE project on co-creating inclusive participation for social change. Sonia has written and led research on participatory governance, youth democracy, coproduction and public-commons partnerships. In her empirical work she uses participatory and creative research methods. She co-edited the volume Reclaiming Participatory Governance - Social Movements and the Reinvention of Democratic Innovation. She is co-editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy.


Research Fellow at the Research Unit of Democratic Innovations at Goethe University Frankfurt and a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations at Central European University, Vienna. Her research interests lie at the intersection of foreign policy and cultural diplomacy with particular attention to emerging practices of civil society involvement. More broadly, her research interests include interpretive methodologies and ethnographic methods; critical policy studies; participatory approaches; and ‘global easts’ as epistemic space. She is the founder of Local Operators’ Platform (LOCOP), a network and research platform for cultural policies; and a co-initiator of the EUROGLOT Research Network within South/South Movement, an independent transnational collective centring around research on the global souths.