Digital Ecosystems: Aligning Communities and Infrastructures

Introduction

An ecosystem is a biological system made up of a community of living organisms and the physical environment where they interact. These organisms are interdependent and share the same habitat, forming chains that show the fundamental links of life within the system. Linked to the environment, we know various ecosystems that tell us about their physical and biological components: aquatic, marine, terrestrial, forest, herbaceous.

Inspired by natural ecosystems, the digital ecosystem is a socio-technical system that adapts and distributes to generate relationships and collaborations from the digital with a positive impact on the offline. To do this, there are interconnected information technologies such as applications, platforms, programs, servers, and analysis tools as well as a methodology focused on communication, efficiency, feedback, connection and users.

In this course, we will reflect on the creation of digital ecosystems that promote belonging, connection and well-being of the people who interact; we will learn proposals that enable groups to work intelligently together, even beyond the online; and we will acquire tools to apply current technology for an efficient and effective organization towards social transformation.

Learning objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the concepts of a digital ecosystem.
• Analyze the dynamics of communities in digital ecosystems.
• Use tools for the development of safe and effective digital communities to achieve their policy objectives.
• Organize and structure work teams in the digital environment;
• Apply tools to generate ownership and prevent conflicts in digital spheres;
• Organize hybrid decision-making flows and spaces;
• Identify and use open source tools to create digital communities.

Core readings

• Barandiaran, X., Calleja-López, A., Romero, C., and Monterde, A. Decidim, a Technopolitical Network for Participatory Democracy (Springer: Briefs in Political Science, 2023): 1 – 28.
• Garcia P., Nacho (Coord) Community Facilitation for Nonviolent Ecosocial Transitions: F-NET (NOVACT, 2019): 19 -29.