Hi. We’re Good Commons.
We want to help you build strong communities with the knowledge, spaces, and tools they need to participate, connect, and belong.
Are you also looking for better spaces for communication, civic participation, and information-sharing? Together, we can shape the systems that make communities more open, connected, safe, and fair — from journalism to civic life to digital spaces.
We would love to hear from you.
Read a case study
This is where we feature the communities around the world that inspire us
Sign up for a Good Commons workshop
Ask us now how to build a robust tech stack, a healthy human stack, and help your community pivot to action.
Sign up for a workshop where we walk you through the principles and process.
How to help
What else can I do with Good Commons?
We’re only just getting started, and we need your expertise!
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Articulate principles
Help the community define shared principles that guide how we design and apply public interest infrastructure.
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Build global networks
Help connect people across journalism, civic tech, research, and community organising.
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Create resources
Help create, enable, and share practical tools, guides, and resources for real-world use.
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Convene communities
Help convene workshops, forums, and events that enable people to learn, collaborate, and act.
About us
What helps a society take care of its people?
Our mission
Good Commons helps you build strong communities with the knowledge, spaces, and tools they need to participate, connect, and belong.
Behind open societies lie quiet, essential systems — from public knowledge to civic spaces to digital tools. Together, these form what some call public interest infrastructure — the shared building blocks that support trust, access, participation, and equity.
Good Commons exists to help you strengthen this civic fabric. We work with journalists, researchers, civic technologists, and community builders to:
articulate shared principles
create practical resources
build global networks
convene communities of action
So that more people, in more places, can take part — and belong.
FAQ
Is Good Commons anti-social media or Big Tech?
We’re not against Very Large Online Platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, or Amazon, and many of us have good reasons to use them. But they’re not designing for your community — you are.
It’s hard to feel inspired by tech giants these days, and some people are struggling to imagine alternatives. But we see Good Commons everywhere — in the solutions people like you have come up with to share quality information and help people act on it, whether it’s through a festival or a fediverse server.
Help us tell the world what you’ve been up to.
Do you have more questions? We have more FAQs here.
About us
Good Commons is a collective run by IMS, JamiiAfrica, and Splice.
We work across several countries and communities around the world.
We’re bound by a need to help communities build public interest infrastructure that enables access to the knowledge, spaces, and tools that support participation, connection, and belonging.
Who is Good Commons for?
Are you building resources, spaces, solutions, or civic tech anywhere in the world? Good Commons is for you.
Tell us who you are.
Read the report
Public interest infrastructure
This IMS report from March 2023 examines why digital infrastructures are crucial to the work and survival of independent media, particularly in Majority World countries, and why the current infrastructures are a serious threat to press freedom, access to information and democracy.
Join the community
Interested in helping us build better communities? We’re just getting started.
When you sign up, you will receive occasional emails from us when we have events, case studies, and inspiration to share.
We will also be in touch to ask for your ideas. We can’t wait to hear from you!
FAQs
Why is this called ‘Good Commons’?
Here’s how we thought about the name of this movement:
The word commons refers to resources and systems shared by everyone — the foundations of civic life. Adding good signals intent and tone: this is about making those commons stronger, more open, more supportive of all people.
We thought the name was universal, cross-cultural, human — easy to understand across languages and regions.
We felt that it reframes the rather clunky term public interest infrastructure into more accessible, everyday language — bringing warmth, care, and civic purpose to what can otherwise be a technocratic term.
It supports our core theory of change: helping people build strong communities by strengthening the shared systems that support public life.
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We work with journalists and anyone else with a mission to speak to and for their community. We support high standards of accuracy, independence, and empathy in conventional media settings and beyond.
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Not yet. We may build in grants and funding at a later stage.
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Thank you for asking!
You can explore our resources, join our workshops and forums, contribute to the growing network of ideas and practice, or partner with us on new projects.
We’re building these out slowly, and we will ask for your help. We welcome collaboration, ideas, and support.
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Public interest infrastructure is the systems, services, and resources that support an open, fair, and inclusive society. This can include public knowledge, digital tools, civic spaces, and community services — the building blocks that help people take part in civic life.
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Strong civic systems make societies more open, fair, and resilient. When these systems are weak or missing, trust breaks down, participation drops, and people are excluded. Good Commons helps people build the systems that hold us together — for the benefit of all.
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We’re not against Very Large Online Platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, or Amazon, and many of us have good reasons to use them. But they’re not designing for your community — you are.
It’s hard to feel inspired by tech giants these days, and some people are struggling to imagine alternatives.
But we see Good Commons everywhere — in the solutions people like you have come up with to share quality information and help people act on it, whether it’s through a festival or a fediverse server. Help us tell the world what you’ve been up to.