Courses
Public values in the digital domain
Course overview
This course focuses on restoring and strengthening public values on the internet. Using the Public Stack model, you will learn to critically examine digital technology as a set of choices (such as design, governance, ownership and values).
The course is:
– Accessible to everyone (no prior technical knowledge required)
– Flexible (you may follow all modules or select specific ones)
– Practice-oriented and action-driven
– Designed for a wide range of participants, including designers, developers, policymakers, educators, journalists and citizens
It aims to support participants in contributing to a fairer, more transparent and sustainable internet.
Course content
The course is structured around key questions that explore different layers of digital technology, such as:
Who makes decisions?
What is being optimised?
What does governance look like?
Who is protected, and who is overlooked?
Core elements include:
Introductory videos (including contributions from Marleen Stikker)
The Public Stack model as an analytical framework
Practical assignments and mini-missions
Reflection exercises
A self-selected case study
Examples from research and art projects
A knowledge base with additional resources and tools
The course combines theory with hands-on experimentation and collaborative learning through forums or shared platforms.
Learning outcomes
You will get insights, examples and, above all, practical assignments to research, design and imagine for yourself what an Internet based on public values could look like. And what you can contribute to that.
Each core strategic question seeks to deepen a layer of the Public Stack. Marleen Stikker, founder of Waag Futurelab, opens each dimension with a short video providing background and context. But above all, you learn by doing yourself: through assignments, mini-missions and reflection exercises from the minor The Internet is broken, but we’re going to fix it (AUAS), and with tools and working methods from applied research at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Waag Futurelab and its partners.
The focus is on doing. Through playful, hands-on activity you will develop an alternative view of the Internet. For each key question you will find:
- Practical examples of AUAS and Waag Futurelab research and partner projects
- Art projects that make you look at things differently
- Assignments that challenge you to experiment and design
- Mini-missions that you can immediately apply in your daily life
- You work in your own context – private or professional – and share your insights via a public forum or shared wikis.
- Seeing each other’s work creates exchanges and the collective imagination of an Internet based on public values.
More in-depth?
Do you want to know more or dig deeper? Each core question contains a knowledge base with additional resources, tools, articles and practical guidance. It is supplemented periodically, including tips from participants like you.
Above all, we hope you will get moving. That you will explore something, invent something, change something. The future of the Internet starts with how you use it today.
Please note for registration:
You can apply via the Enroll button below.