About

Our aim is to shape a new care-led digital infrastructure for a wide network of people that is not extractive and exploitative. We believe that we can work with Feminist practices as the building blocks to do this.

Here, digital infrastructure means a local based server (like the internet) that provides connected digital spaces (like the web). ddcommons.net is our connected digital space and our local server sits in a community cafe in Dundee.

By doing this we can highlight what a digital space could be like when shaped through local communities; providing connection, support and the sharing of knowledge in a non-extractive way; promoting digital access and literacy whilst prioritising inclusivity.

Why?

The internet, as we know it today, is not a safe space for everyone. It is not an equitable place. It was built within existing structures of power and coded with conscious and unconscious bias, making it already flawed as a truly inclusive digital environment. As it stands, the internet is marred by abuse, misinformation, and discrimination.

Driven by a quest for connection and information, those that can get online can access the boundless opportunities that the internet presents. Unfortunately, digital spaces also open up a whole world of abuse, false information, and prejudice. These spaces can also work like echo chambers that go on to reinforce the inequality and oppression that exists outside of these networks. Online experiences can sometimes be frightening and marginalised voices are often not heard. Rather than being free and empowered to shape digital infrastructures, people from marginalised communities are often driven away from online spaces, disempowering individuals and communities every day.

So what did we do ?

ddcommons grew out of a founding partnership between Cake or Dice, Scottish Refugee Council (Dundee), Scrap Antics, Dundee Makerspace, Abertay University Computer Arts, and In-Grid Collective.

Inspired by communities like the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN), the Feminist Principles of the Internet, and The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest (TITiPI), we developed a proposal outlining our vision:

A digital platform that is built, owned, and maintained by a network of women. A digital platform built on valued-based needs, from a place of care, offering a trusted space to connect, share resources, and engage in meaningful activities online.

We pitched our proposal to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), who awarded us capital funding to buy, build and install high speed fibre, a high spec server and other tech needed to turn this into reality. This support came from the Connecting Scotland: Place Based Digital Inclusion initiative, a collaboration between Scottish Government and SCVO to increase digital inclusion.

What will it do?

Our local server sits inside Cake or Dice, a community cafe and creative hub in Dundee. That location is not incidental. Cake or Dice is a space built around the same values we are trying to bring online: accessible, joyful, genuinely welcoming to everyone who walks through the door. Our digital infrastructure is physically rooted in that community.

The network provides connected digital spaces: tools for sharing, self-publishing, and collaboration; an internal social space; a digital library; and local storage. It is not extractive. We do not monetise your attention or your data.

Just like the web, there will be public and private spaces. It will consist of a variety of tools for self-publishing and sharing content. We aim to have an internal social network, a digital library and shared online storage where documents and files can be stored locally and on the cloud.

In the future we will deliver workshops and an on-site training programme built around the principles of community networks, digital commons and the tools available. Together, learning and sharing practical skills and gaining the confidence and empowerment to be rightfully affirmed online.

What comes next

We will continue to work with community members to grow the platform, design its spaces, and build the workshops and training that will sit alongside it. If you want to be part of shaping what a better internet looks like from the inside, we would love to hear from you.

Who this is for

This project began centred on women, because that is where the need was clearest and the founding community was strongest. Those roots remain and matter.

But the communities facing marginalisation, abuse, and exclusion online are not only women. Refugees and asylum seekers. Disabled people. LGBTQ+ communities. People from ethnic minority backgrounds. People in poverty. All face particular forms of digital harm, and all deserve something better.

ddcommons is building for those communities, together, intersectionally, and without ranking one community's needs above another's.

We welcome allies and collaborators who want to help build a safer, more caring, and more genuinely inclusive digital commons.

Here's where you can get involved

This project has been initially funded by Connecting Scotland: Place Based Digital Inclusion a collaboration between Scottish Government and SCVO to increase digital inclusion. Original development partnership was between Cake or Dice, Scottish Refugee Council (Dundee), Scrap Antics, Dundee Makerspace, Abertay University (Computer Arts), In-Grid Collective. This group is still learning and growing.