Enterpreneur in Residence

A virtual residency for founders with bold ideas for the internet

The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier

Howard Rheingold tours the 'virtual community' of online networking.Howard Rheingold has been called the First Citizen of the Internet. In this book he tou

The virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier

Howard Rheingold tours the "virtual community" of onlin…

Neighborhood Steward Fellowship | New_ Public

An eight-week program bringing together leaders of local-oriented online spaces to experiment with fun new practices and ideas

Local Digital Spaces Are Essential Civic Infrastructure (SSIR)

With traditional community spaces underfunded and neglected, investing in the health of our online gathering places has become essential. <meta property=

Gathering the Custodians of the Internet: Lessons from the First CivilServant Summit - Citizens and Technology Lab

An agenda for citizen behavioral science to maintain and protect the communities we love online.

On-Together: Virtual Co-Working

Virtual co-working with friends or strangers all over the world! Digital pals hang out at the bottom of the screen while you work, study, and get stuff done. Includes productivity tools, hangout spots, breaktime games, and more!

Metagov Short Talks (June 14, 2023) : Metagovernance Seminar

Nick Kaufmann and Matt Crittenden present Spectra: the virtual city that builds real cities, a talk discussing how to combine multi-scale cooperative...

we were online

Turn the internet into a living, shared space with real-time traces of people browsing.

New_ Public Invests in Local Online Spaces as Digital Civic Infrastru…

archived 11 Apr 2025 17:34:52 UTC

Architecture and the Internet: Designing places in cyberspace

Cyberspace, as the information space is called, has become accessible in the past decade through the World Wide Web. And although it can only be experienced through the mediation of computers, it is quickly becoming an alternative stage for everyday economic, cultural, and other human activities. As such, there is a potential and a need to design it according to place–like principles. Making places for human inhabitation is, of course, what architects, landscape architects, and town planners have been doing in physical space for thousands of years. It is curious, therefore, that Cyberspace designers have not capitalized on the theories, experiences, and practices that have been guiding physical place–making. While most 3D environments closely mimic physical spaces, they are, by and large, devoid of the essential characteristics that differentiate a ‘place’ from mere ‘space.’ And only rarely are they sensitive to, and take advantage of, the peculiarities of Cyberspace. We believe that this state of affairs is temporary, characteristic of early adoption stages of new technologies. As the Web matures, and as it assumes more fully its role as a destination rather than as means of communication, there will be a growing need to design it according to place–making principles. By looking at physical architecture as a case study and metaphor for organizing space into meaningful places, this paper explores the possibility of organizing Cyberspace into spatial settings that not only afford social interaction, but, like physical places, also embody and express cultural values. At the same time, because Cyberspace lacks materiality, is free from physical constraints, and because it can only be ‘inhabited’ by proxy, these ‘places’ may not necessarily resemble their physical counterparts.

Local Lab | New_ Public

Helping local communities create flourishing digital spaces

How to end your extremely online era

A somewhat practical guide

DWeb Virtual Meetup — Jan 2025 — Latest in the DWeb Ecosystem

DWeb Virtual Meetup (January 2026) featuring speakers sharing their latest DWeb product releases and community organizing efforts. SPEAKERSmauve signweaver, Awana Digital: Awana Digital supports those working to defend their human and environmental rights, but who lack the tools to do so. Their local partners represent marginalized communities worldwide, including Indigenous Peoples and ethnic minorities. They train local partners to use basic digital tools to gather, share, and manage information about environmental and human rights infractions. mauve presented CoMapeo Abare, an open-source local-first Android app designed with Indigenous communities, to enable non-technical users to easily map and document biodiversity, environmental threats, and human rights abuses.Blaine Cook, New_ Public: New_ Public is a nonprofit focused on building digital public spaces that foster connection, facilitate pluralism, and encourage civic engagement. Blaine presented Roundabout, their new social app and website to improve information sharing in rural and suburban towns, and city neighborhoods — areas with about 10,000-50,000 people.Afri Schoedon, Department of Decentralization (DoD): The Department of Decentralization is a collective of people from Berlin, who first assembled in 2018 to organize ETHBerlin hackathon. They aim to be an agnostic vehicle to drive adoption, educate newcomers, and raise awareness of the challenges and benefits of decentralization and open-source software. Afri shared their experience of previous DoD events and share the technologies and approaches that their collective sees as being on the horizon of network decentralization.Facilitated by DWeb Senior Organizer, mai ishikawa sutton

Creating a Flourishing Digital Public Space for Your Local Area | Notion

A how-to guide for admins and moderators of inclusive, uplifting, and public-spirited local Facebook groups, Discord servers, subreddits, and more...