Operational and pilot research support for the Digital Commons Policy Council

The Digital Commons Policy Council is an international think tank established in 2021 by Mathieu O’Neil thanks to the Ford and Sloan Foundations’ Critical Digital Infrastructure fund (2019-2020). The DCPC aims to increase the recognition of the benefits of digital infrastructure and of the volunteer labour which produces these common resources. It does so by producing evidence-based public reports. DCPC members conduct innovative research that combines computational analysis, surveys and ethnography. This grant from the Ford Foundation will enable DCPC to progress on two fronts:
1. Pilot research projects on corporate accountability
To what extent are industrial public goods really open? We propose to build on our analysis of the firm-project collaboration network on GitHub by developing several pilot projects. These projects will form the basis for the development of a larger project exploring a much larger-scale dataset e.g. Software Heritage.
2. Research dissemination, capacity-building, and networking
We are proposing to recruit a project manager to assist with website maintenance out outreach. The funding will also assist in releasing public reports. Finally we plan to organise a Living Lab / Policy Incubator on digital infrastructure and labour.