What kind of people were in the audience?
‘The conference lasted a total of three days and had around 300 participants. There were 108 sessions where the majority of participants spoke on topics related to the governance and polycentric approach within communities. The participants came from all over the world with diverse expertise: academics from universities and universities of applied sciences but also experts from the field or governments.’
What research by you and the professorship Organisations and Social Media did you talk about?
‘During the conference, I have chaired and presented during a specific session on the future of ‘commons research’ in the field of Web3. Here I presented a case study in which, for the first time, Ostrom's IAD framework was applied to organisations working with influencers, so-called Influencer Management Organisations.
The case study highlights how Influencer Management Organisations work value-driven in an offline context and in collaboration between influencers and followers online. The single case study concerns INSTINCT3 in Berlin, which I have been researching for the past 16 months to get more insights on how people in the influencer economy are setting up value-driven organisations, what they are up against, and whether and how they are sharing their values with members or followers of their online influencer communities.
A very exciting study in line with our European Influencers Academy initiative, where we also work with influencers on themes around responsible leadership. This pilot case study therefore aims to show, on a best practice basis, how responsible leadership is put into practice in this emerging economy. The case study is also included as an article in the Digital Library of the Commons: an ‘open access’ database that includes all relevant studies working with the Ostrom approach.’
Finally, what did it bring you and NHL Stenden?
‘Besides many new contacts, I received valuable tips from researchers who are already very experienced in applying Ostrom's framework. Best advice is and remains that the framework is flexible and that we should never take it for granted, but use it more as a ‘guide’ to better understand specific topics, to seek solutions by asking good questions. This is very appealing to me personally because we are researching a field that is constantly evolving.
What I am also super proud of is that I have been asked to come back as a visiting scholar and to work with the scholars at the Ostrom Workshop. Moreover, they are also curious about NHL Stenden, so I can imagine us visiting each other more in the coming years.
We will also collaborate and help the Ostrom Workshop to bring all the beautiful work from the past 50 years to the attention of an (even) wider audience. For this, we are going to collaborate with colleagues and students from our Creative Business programme, among others.
Last but not least, I have also been asked to submit the presented paper for a book publication on the knowledge commons, to be published next year by Cambridge University Press. This was the second study for me where I applied Ostrom’s IAD framework. I now know for sure that we will work with this more often in our professorship and that it can also be an interesting approach for students supporting Design Based Education and Research. Not only at our academy, but for many more programmes at NHL Stenden.’