Responsible Business Models

How do we define the public space now that human life is partially taking place online? The public space on the street is easy to imagine, and public debate in traditional media is well regulated. The notion of a digital public space can be hard to imagine. The online world is largely a commercial and private space. Even though an unprecedented amount of human interaction takes place in the digital realm, the digital environment is created and dictated by the design choices, filtering algorithms, preferences and, above all, interests of big tech companies.

In this project, funded by ClickNL, Waag Futurlab and the HvA investigated the conditions for digital public spaces and the fundamental aspects of responsible business models. We investigated what responsible business models are, starting from the non-extractive, sustainable, and non-monopolistic alternatives to the business models of large tech companies. We looked at how responsible business models can contribute to an open and heterogeneous, digital public space.

As part of this research, we:

• interviewed value-driven initiatives such as GebiedOnline, PublicRoam and The Syllabus about their business models and the role public values play in them;
• interviewed experts dr. Gohar Isakhanyan, dr. Melanie Rieback and Wouter Tebbens about their research on different value-driven business models and their experiences in supporting initiatives in establishing their business models;
• designed a Responsible Business Model Canvas and developed an accompanying workshop method to support initiatives in designing a responsible business model;
• held co-creation sessions with Yivi and AMdEX, among others, to test our canvas and workshop methods; and
• held a panel discussion and a workshop at the PublicSpaces conference on our research and the canvas. The panel discussion featured Paul Francissen of PublicRoam and Marco Ferri of The Syllabus; moderation was provided by Dr. Mathilde Sanders. A recording of the panel discussion is available on the PublicSpaces website.

We published our Responsible Business Model Canvas on the Public Stack website, Cultuur-Ondernemen and with Cultuurloket DigitALL. Soon, you can also find our insights and Canvas in the magazines of Baaz and Holland Management Review.