«You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete» – Buckminster Fuller
How we form our opinions today is subject to the influence of analogue, but also digital sources. While we usually master the use of the former due to our education and intuition, the necessary skills in dealing with digital information are often insufficiently developed. The Digital Literacy Project teaches skills in a playful and immersive way for a safer opinion making in the digital space.
Digitization and the resulting automation are leading to major upheavals in our work environment. Ting meets this change with a community that allows its members time for further development. Through a joint account, members share more than a quarter of a million Swiss francs every year in order to secure themselves financially during personal advancement.
A journalistic research on Google and Google's role in Switzerland in collaboration with the online news magazine Republik and the research collective WAV.
Digitisation in administrations: From problem to prototype in 12 weeks
The Zurich City Council has set itself the goal of raising the level of digitalisation in the administration with the Digi+ programme from OIZ and Smart City. Together with the team of the city of Zurich, we have carried out a pilot project in the work integration organisation Nähwerk, which uses digital possibilities to support the employees in their daily routine.
Participatory design of an AI workshop for educational institutions
Together for a successful learning experience. With the workshop "AI in education - an interactive, critical discussion", developed together with the Dübendorf primary school, educational institutions are enabled to actively participate in the discourse around generative artificial intelligence, to recognise challenges and to develop strategies for dealing with these tools in the context of education.
Digitalization has been here for a long time. You can neither vote it out nor ignore it. But what does a digitalization that puts society at the centre look like? With the DigitalLabor, we travelled across Switzerland with the question: (How) do you want to digitize Switzerland?
Are you afraid of the internet? An audio guide leads you through a walk in Geneva. Five stops highlight how fundamentally digital technologies are changing our lives. The impact no longer ends when we close the laptop.
With the OK Klima, we are building a Switzerland-wide, regional climate rating and a platform that enables climate-conscious individuals and NGOs to take effective and direct action in their communities and cantons. A joint project with the Climate Alliance and Alliance Digitale.
Expedition Zukunft
Postcards from the climate-neutral future
Mobility in Switzerland is to be climate-neutral by 2050. But what exactly will that look like? Together with Expedition Zukunft, we have created five possible future scenarios in the form of postcards. This enabled parliamentarians to immerse themselves in possible futures during a policy sprint.
Digital participation for the Raiffeisen Cooperative Banks
Digital technologies enable participation that goes beyond the bratwurst at the neighbourhood festival. We have initiated this process at Raiffeisen and report on it here.
Strengthening digital opinion-forming with simulations
Digital literacy is a simulation for digital literacy. Dezentrum believes that promoting digital literacy among citizens is the key to addressing challenges such as disinformation, hate speech and filter bubbles. The project is a cooperation of the digital initiative APROPOS, the foundation Risiko-Dialog and the Canton of Zurich.
An innovative food brand with maximum transparency
We bring consumers, producers and distributors together directly in a digital participation process. Consumers determine which production criteria should apply to the individual food products and can thus assume their responsibility for sustainable food.
Satelleth is a blockchain-based autonomous entity that owns, manages, and independently interacts with its environment. Its goal is to travel around the world. For this journey, Satelleth collects money and pays people for their transportation.
Dezentrum developed Forum For Inclusion for the Prototype Fund. It is a web application where people without voting rights can share their opinion on national votes. Anonymously and via voice message. The project wants to question who is allowed to participate in the democratic discourse and at the same time experiment with the digital public. Once a year, Opendata.ch's Prototypefund supports projects that aim to strengthen digital participation.
Digital transformation and social innovation in Beverin Nature Park
How can the opportunities of digitalization be used in rural areas? To find that out, we have been supporting the Naturpark Beverin in building competencies and projects for social innovation and sustainable digitalization since 2021.
Opportunities and applications of eParticipation in cooperatives
For Idée Coopérative, Dezentrum has published a white paper on the topic of eParticipation in cooperatives. The report does not only highlight the importance of eParticipation, it also illustrates concrete examples of application as well as opportunities digitalised participation brings along.
SECO’s unemployment insurance compensation office is working on major projects to modernise the IT infrastructure of the unemployment insurance as well as public employment service. The efforts represent the beginning of a comprehensive digital transformation. To get it rolling, digitalisation related to the unemployment insurance compensation fund have been discussed. There was broad agreement on the need for cultural change. It shall be clarified though, to what extent the federal enforcement autonomy can be reconciled with the process harmonisation at national level.
Forum Alpbach
How can Digital Technologies strengthen our Democracies?
Our democracies are under pressure. How should we respond? This question was part of a workshop series during the European Forum Alpbach 2020, organised by Dezentrum and foraus in collaboration with the Open Think Tank Network and Mercator Foundation Switzerland. The aim of the workshops in Zurich, London, Vienna and Berlin was to work on Europe-wide future scenarios.
SwissCovid App Facts
SwissCovid App Facts
For the official SwissCovid Tracing App we have provided an information website which answers the most important questions about privacy, security and technology. Questions such as "Does the app bring me into the sights of the tech companies?" or "Will hackers get into my mobile phone? The campaign was realized together with an alliance of civil society organizations.
GZA
Evaluation of the Greater Zurich Area's Development Potential
How will the Greater Zurich Area develop as a location and economically? This question was explored in a workshop using the scenario technique. In the end, various future scenarios for the growth of the GZA were developed.
KOKON
A digital conference on co-creation in the theatre
For the Festspiele Zurich, we conceived and realised a digital conference on the idea and applicability of co-creation to the classical theatre business together with STRIDE and Benedikt Wyss. Co-creation was not only the theme, but also the programme: versatile formats experimented with forms of digital co-creation and participatory documentation.
Social Muscle Club online
Making culture, exchange and togetherness digitally tangible
The Social Mucle Club revolves around two questions: What do you want to give? What do you wish for? After international excursions, the club has landed in virtual reality - to build a new stage for the arts, to enable a lived solidarity digitally.
CooperativeSuisse
Scenario workshop: Who owns the digital space?
On behalf of CooperativeSuisse, we conducted a workshop on the question of "Who owns digital space?" as part of the "Property of the Future" series of events. The participants developed desirable future scenarios of what public space and public infrastructure might look like in 2030.
Lecture Series
Joint Academic Lecture Series UZH & Trust Square
Every month, Dezentrum organizes academic lectures in the field of Blockchain, Internet of Things and Distributed Ledger Technology together with the UZH Blockchain Center and Trust Square. The lectures are currently held in the online format. The aim is to promote scientific exchange between universities, start-ups and investors.
Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are developing at a rapid pace. The next evolutionary step for the internet - the internet of values - represents significant potential with implications for technology and society. With the students of the CAS Blockchain at the FFHS, we take an in-depth look at the basics of these technologies, programme a smart contract and develop a use case over the course of the semester. At the FHGR, we dive into the fascinating world of blockchain technology with the participants of the Executive MBA.The application development is part of the mandate from the CAS Blockchain at ZHAW.
In 2018, Dezentrum co-founded the Trust Square on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. The hub connects companies, start-ups, investors and academics who are specialized in blockchain. The Dezentrum actively helped to shape the Trust Square, for example by organizing lecture series or events on Digital Day.
Digitalization can and will change all of our lives profoundly. The only question that remains is how. In our podcast "Digitalsalat" we try to answer this question and come up with not only probable but also desirable answers. On an ongoing basis, we get exciting guests in front of the microphone and dive with them into a wide variety of topics at the intersection of technology and society. The podcast is a collaboration between Dezentrum and Mercator Foundation Switzerland.
Together with wemakeit and the association Dein Grundeinkommen (your basic income), the Dezentrum has launched the project Together Now. This initiative started only days after it became clear that the measures to contain the Covid-19 virus would have serious financial consequences for countless people. Together Now is raising money to help these people by providing them with a bridging income.
Transparency in the Dairy Industry through Blockchain
Foodchain is a research project of the University of Zurich, Foodways and Dezentrum. The aim is to improve the traceability and transparency of products in the dairy industry. A solution was developed to link the information of the various stakeholders from agriculture, dairy companies, logistics and intermediate trade and to make it available to all participants in the value chain.
Hybrid Teaching at ETH
Digital Tools for Collaborative Creation
For the ETH Chair of Architecture & Urban Transformation, together with Prof. Freek Persyn and his team, Dezentrum has tested hybrid teaching methods. With the help of Miro-Boards, presence robots and remote interviews, the digital space was expanded: What happens if we explore a room through cameras only? What is the significance of reality in an entirely digital world? Collaboration tools were not only tested but also questioned.
Labyrinth 2020
Dancing in Quarantine!
In cooperation with the association Kunst und & Tanz Königsfelden we developed the platform «Labyrinth 2020». The platform let up to 150 teenagers engage with each other sharing their thoughts and notes on the dance and art project.
Since 2021, we have been accompanying and advising the dance festival ZÜRICH TANZT on the topic of digitality. Digital and hybrid measures are intended to make the festival more accessible and dance and dance makers more visible.
