Digital Rights Monopoly

Esther Mwema, Uffa Modey, Hanna Pischyk, Rachad Sanoussi

Digital Rights Monopoly is an interactive simulation game that prompts players to reflect on the digital ecosystem, co-created through the lived experiences and expertise of the Digital Grassroots global youth community. The game addresses the imbalance in a digital landscape dominated by global north, top-down and for-profit models that exclude young digital natives from shaping their digital future. This simulation shifts the power to the disenfranchised by serving as a pathway for communities with restricted digital connectivity or low representation in global Internet policy development processes to highlight digital inclusion challenges and solutions in their context. Through the use of personas modeled within these contexts, the game offers a unique and engaging way for the underserved in the digital rights and internet governance ecosystem to shape their future, autonomously, in an accessible, fun, and empowering way. The game is positioned as a transformative tool for imagining a decentralized digital ecosystem where power is given to the most excluded by utilizing gamification and edutainment to enhance digital literacy and foster the exchange of ideas among youth globally.

Explore the prototype

Concept

Themes:

Edutainment: The Digital Rights Monopoly game integrates educational content and entertainment to facilitate the learning of digital rights and internet governance concepts. Through gamification, the project aims to make complex topics accessible, engaging, and enjoyable for youth from marginalized communities.

Gamification of Digital Inclusion: The project utilizes gamification as a strategy to promote digital inclusion by creating a playful and interactive environment. By turning learning and collaboration into a game, the Digital Rights Monopoly aims to attract and retain the interest of youth from underrepresented regions in the global digital rights and internet governance ecosystem.

Community Building: The online version of the game serves as a platform for community building, allowing youth from diverse cultures to come together, learn, co-create, and contribute to an open-source project. The game fosters a sense of solidarity, providing a space for participants to share their experiences, challenges, and solutions related to digital rights abuses, challenges and opportunities.

Technological Tools:

AI for Player Personas – Stable Dreamer: The project employs AI to create player personas, such as “Stable Dreamer,” adding a personalized and dynamic element to the gaming experience. These personas likely enhance engagement by tailoring aspects of the game to individual players, creating a more immersive and relevant learning environment.

Hosting Project Code Repository – GitHub: GitHub is used as a platform to host the project’s code repository. This facilitates collaboration among developers, allowing them to contribute, review, and track changes efficiently. GitHub’s features support the open-source nature of the Digital Rights Monopoly project.

Web Hosting – Netlify: Netlify is utilized for web hosting, providing a platform that is scalable, secure, and easily accessible. This choice of hosting service ensures that the online version of the game is available to a wide audience, contributing to the goal of reaching youth from marginalized communities across the globe.

Zoho – Communication: Zoho is employed for communication purposes within the project. It likely includes features such as email, chat, or collaboration tools to facilitate effective communication among team members, contributors, and participants. This helps in coordinating efforts and maintaining a connected community around the Digital Rights Monopoly project.

Accessibility – Adobe: Adobe tools may be used to enhance the accessibility of the game, ensuring that it is usable by individuals with diverse needs and abilities. Features like alternative text for images or customizable interfaces can contribute to a more inclusive gaming experience, aligning with the project’s focus on digital rights and inclusion.

Digital Rights Monopoly originated as a board game in 2018, when members of the Digital Grassroots team (Esther Mwema, Uffa Modey and Noha Ashraf) created a digital rights version of the Monopoly game that centered the learning as much as playing. The Digital Rights Monopoly game was born out of a need: to address the skewed power dynamics of today’s digital landscape, where the narrative is predominantly shaped by a select few, sidelining marginalized voices. 

Rooted in the real stories and experiences of the Digital Grassroots global youth community from over 40 countries globe, the game set out as a board game that prompted players to delve deep into the intricacies of the digital ecosystem from the perspective of grassroots communities. In the preliminary open consultations with the Digital Grassroots community members, 36 internet governance and digital rights issues experienced by marginalized communities were identified. These were adapted to represent the streets, railroads, utilities and taxes spaces from the traditional monopoly game into the Digital Rights Monopoly game.  Digital Grassroots sought to innovate with this game in ways that we could seek to change the status quo, offering a space for youth with limited digital access and representation to learn, share, and tackle unique digital challenges head-on.

Elevated to the digital realm in 2023 through the support of C/Change’s 2nd Creative Research & Development Lab, the open-source game champions a decentralized perspective on the digital world, with a strong emphasis on inclusivity and equity. Each move on the board is set to engage the play further into the nuanced perspectives of digital rights and Internet Governance from the sidelined perspectives of the grassroots.

Process

Prototype:
The offline version of the Digital Rights Monopoly game was created in 2018. This version of the Digital Rights Monopoly game which can be viewed here. At this stage of the project, we carried out three rounds of community consultations on the Digital Rights Monopoly board at Mozilla Festival, RightsCon and the Internet Governance forum. Through a handcrafted game board and traditional beads, people from all backgrounds thoroughly enjoyed playing the game and gave us feedback to create a prototype.

Foundation Phase:
Among the first tasks identified during the kickoff call were crucial technical setups for cloud hosting and the initiation of recruitment processes for designers, developers, and a project manager. A detailed workplan was crafted, outlining tasks, responsibilities, and timelines for the Foundation Phase.
We also conducted the first round of community consultations, providing a platform for marginalized youth to share their experiences, challenges, and aspirations within the digital ecosystem. Stipends were distributed to participants in recognition of their time and contributions during the community consultations. The information gathered from community consultations was applied to enhance the game design. This includes determining properties and spaces featured in the game, establishing best practices for user stories and user experience, defining scenarios for chance and community chest, and adopting an accessible UX design based on community feedback.
In summary, the Foundation Phase set the groundwork for the project, involving key stakeholders, establishing technical and human resource foundations, and initiating a thoughtful and inclusive community consultation process. The structured approach, clear timelines, and commitment to ongoing communication and feedback are indicative of a well-planned and executed project.

Discovery Phase:
Informed by insights gathered during community consultations, the team defined the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to address the specific needs and aspirations of the target audience. User stories were developed to articulate the functionalities and features that the MVP would encompass, ensuring alignment with user needs.
The technical architecture and build plan for the project were developed in detail, providing a roadmap for the development phase. The UI/UX team completed the design of the product, ensuring a user-friendly and visually appealing interface aligned with the project’s goals.

Building Phase:
Regular check-ins on the progress of the product’s development were conducted to address any issues promptly and ensure alignment with the project goals.

Testing Phase:
An internal demonstration of the product was conducted to gather feedback, identify potential issues, and ensure the product met internal standards. A feedback meeting for the second round of community consultations occurred, involving participants in the iterative development process. The Digital Grassroots team also presented the project in San Francisco, providing an opportunity to showcase the project on a broader stage.

Next Steps:
The final product will be launched and made accessible to users from the global majority, therefore marking the culmination of the project and showcasing the outcomes of the team’s efforts. As the project moves into its next phase, further development becomes imperative to enhance the usability of the Digital Rights Monopoly project among the target audience. The insights gained from the product launch, user engagement, and community feedback will serve as a foundation for continuous improvement. Addressing identified challenges and incorporating user preferences will be at the forefront of future development efforts. The goal is to iteratively refine the project, making it more user-friendly, accessible, and aligned with the unique needs of the global majority, especially those in marginalized communities. Following the product launch, a blog post will be crafted to document and highlight the key outcomes, learnings, and impacts of the Digital Rights Monopoly project. This blog post serves as an important communication tool, sharing insights with a wider audience and providing context for the project’s relevance in advancing digital literacy and inclusivity.

The Digital Rights Monopoly game was originally designed for a board game. The spaces on the game based on an initial consultation with our community in 2018. Given the quickly changing digital ecosystem and the advent of Artificial Intelligence, we had to have new consultations in 2023 to ensure that the online Digital Rights Monopoly game reflected emerging digital issues at the grassroots level. Building a physical board game is more technical than designing a digital one, so we had to pivot and ensure we diversified our consultation methods to include video interviews, surveys, and feedback from global Internet Governance events we had participated in.

Through the handcrafted board game and traditional beads, people from all backgrounds thoroughly enjoyed playing the game and gave us feedback that there was a need to create the digital prototype. Initially, we aimed to replicate the game as is but, through the process, understood storytelling was a tool that was a necessary part of the game. This was so that the essence of playing the board game of Digital Rights Monopoly with others could be reflected in the digital version. We used persona’s to embed storytelling into the gameplay, adopting the use of artificial intelligence and technology tools to output at least 12 persona’s featured in the game. It was important for us to innovate the design to capture the elements of the game.

Lessons

As a feminist and youth-led organisation, we use internet innovation to build a futuristic internet that is suited to the local communities who are supposed to adopt it. Therefore relying on gamification as a pedagogy for digital literacy and online cultural exchange through the Digital Rights Monopoly game offered great lessons on inclusive design, sourcing local talent, and navigating challenges such as budgeting, banking, and travel.

Future

In the future, the Digital Rights Monopoly Game envisions evolving into a groundbreaking prototype for a grassroots-led digital ecosystem. This ecosystem will be a dynamic space, fostering collaboration, innovation, and active participation from a diverse global community. It will represent a decentralized model that challenges traditional top-down structures, giving power and agency to marginalized youth. As the digital landscape transforms, the prototype will serve as a beacon for inclusive digital governance, showcasing how local communities can effectively shape and contribute to the broader digital narrative.

Looking ahead, the Digital Rights Monopoly Game aims to be more than just a game; it aspires to become a transformative experience for youth worldwide. In the future, the game will serve as a vibrant platform for learning, co-creation, and cultural exchange among marginalized youth. Participants from diverse backgrounds will engage in meaningful interactions, sharing perspectives, and collectively shaping the digital future. The game’s impact will extend beyond its virtual borders, fostering a global community of digitally literate and empowered youth who collaborate on shaping an inclusive and diverse online culture.

In the envisioned future, the Digital Rights Monopoly Game’s online community hub will have flourished into a robust and inclusive digital space. This hub will be a thriving ecosystem where participants actively contribute to the open-source project, elevating their digital literacy and understanding of internet governance. The platform will be a testament to the collaborative power of youth, showcasing how digital spaces can be harnessed to build solidarity, foster diversity, and contribute to the development of a more open and inclusive online culture. The hub will continue to be a dynamic nexus, connecting individuals across the globe who are passionate about digital rights and internet governance.

* The opinions expressed in the project documentation are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Goethe-Institut San Francisco, Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, or Gray Area