Civic Social Media
The Civic Social Media project focuses on researching, designing, and advocating for digital platforms that enable community members to communicate, collaborate, and exchange information safely and securely. These platforms are built on public values and are transparently developed and managed by organizations and initiatives with a social purpose.
Eva Oosterlaken and Martijn de Waal present Civic Social Media project at TICTeC Conference
On June 10, as part of the Civic Social Media project, researchers Eva Oosterlaken and Martijn de Waal will give a presentation on “Directions for ‘civic social media’: designing and managing trusted online community spaces” at the TICTeC 2025 conference in Mechelen and online. Amid growing concerns around mainstream platforms like Facebook and X, there is…
Civic Social Media project presented at re:publica 2025 panel discussion
Esther Hammelburg and Martijn de Waal will be representing the Civic Social Media project at re:publica 2025, taking place from May 26-28 in Berlin. They’ll be joining a panel discussion with the Rathenau Instituut and PublicSpaces titled: “Directions for civic social media: designing and managing trusted online community spaces” Recent developments at Facebook and X have shown the need for ‘civic social…
Students Redesigning PubHubs
In the fall of 2024, students from the UX Design and ‘’Het Internet is Stuk, maar we gaan het repareren’ minors at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences worked intensively on redesigning PubHubs. This platform provides a responsible solution for digital communication within public organizations. In collaboration with the product team at Radboud University and under the guidance…
Paper Presentation at AlgoSoc: Reimagining Digital Public Spaces
On April 10th, Esther Hammelburg will be presenting the paper, “Reimagining Digital Public Spaces: Co-creating Use Case Scenarios for Digital Infrastructure Grounded in Public Values“, at the AlgoSoc International Conference 2025, in Amsterdam. This paper showcases research from the 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗛𝘂𝗯𝘀 project, an initiative that seeks to develop non-profit community networks grounded in public values, providing…
Interview | PubHubs in practice: usage scenarios as key to success
Martijn de Waal, Professor at Civic Interaction Design Research Group, recently gave an interview to SIDNfonds about PubHubs, a community network based on public values that we are developing in collaboration with Utrecht University, Radboud University, the City of Amsterdam, and PublicSpaces. In this interview, Martijn shares how PubHubs aims to design a digital platform that strengthens rather than damages mutual trust…
Looking back at PubHubs workshop at PublicSpaces Conference
On June 7th, as part of the PubHubs project, the CivicIxD, in collaboration with partners from Utrecht University and Radboud University, hosted a dynamic workshop at the PublicSpacesConference. In four fast-paced rounds, participants created their own “digital” hubs from scratch using physical building blocks, pen, and paper. The workshop was not only engaging and lively, but also yielded valuable insights. Key…