Impact and economic sustainability of DECODE Ecosystem and future development

The document has two main purposes. It offers an evaluation of the DECODE pilots’ impact in terms of socioeconomic sustainability; secondly, draws a set of recommendations to consolidate the project ecosystem and its future development.

This report has five main parts. After the introduction, the second section of the document summarises the main learning results of the application of commons balance developed in report D2.1. “Multidisciplinary framework on commons-oriented sharing economy”. This framework focuses on the analysis of six dimensions: governance, economic model, technology, data policies, social responsibility and impact. These pro-democratic qualities of digital platforms have been tested empirically in a sample of one hundred cases with a presence in the city of Barcelona. The sample included a mix of platform experiences to reflect the heterogeneity of the platforms, taking into account projects promoted by different types of actors (public administration, companies, cooperatives, communities without legal format), in diverse areas (cultural, tourism, mobility), goals (knowledge co-creation, community engagement, business) and economic models (profit and non-profit oriented).

The third and fourth sections provide the methodology used to assess the socio-economic impact of the five DECODE pilots and the results obtained through the application of such methodology.
In the following section, the six dimensions of the commons balance, the learning results of the application of the common balance tool and the results obtained through the pilots’ assessments have been matched to draw recommendations useful for the sustainability and future development of DECODE ecosystem. Following the commons balance structure, the recommendations are organised into three main groups: governance and economic model, technological and data policies, and social responsibility and impact.