19/11/2025 –, Main Room
This presentation introduces ThingData, an open protocol and database building a "material commons" of structured data essential for physical goods, their repair, and reuse. We argue that open access to this standardized data functions as a crucial digital public good, directly enabling the circular economy and the Right to Repair movement, and significantly contributing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) like responsible consumption, innovation, and economic growth. The talk will detail the tangible economic impacts of this open data infrastructure. These include stimulating the creation of new repair and reuse businesses by providing necessary information, reducing waste disposal costs through better material recovery, fostering innovation in product design for longevity and new service models, and establishing more transparent and efficient secondary markets for used goods and components. ThingData serves as a compelling practical case study, illustrating how open data infrastructure, when treated as a digital public good, can generate substantial economic value within a vital sector while simultaneously advancing global sustainability targets. We will discuss the technical approach and the importance of open governance in realizing this economic and social potential.
This presentation introduces ThingData, an open protocol and database building a "material commons" of structured data essential for physical goods, their repair, and reuse. ThingData serves as a compelling practical case study, illustrating how open data infrastructure, when treated as a digital public good, can generate substantial economic value within a vital sector while simultaneously advancing global sustainability targets. The talk will discuss the technical approach and the importance of open governance in realizing this economic and social potential. It also argues that open access to this standardized data functions as a crucial digital public good, directly enabling the circular economy and the Right to Repair movement, and significantly contributing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) like responsible consumption, innovation, and economic growth. The talk will further detail the tangible economic impacts of this open data infrastructure. These include stimulating the creation of new repair and reuse businesses by providing necessary information, reducing waste disposal costs through better material recovery, fostering innovation in product design for longevity and new service models, and establishing more transparent and efficient secondary markets for used goods and components.
I am Dr. Felipe Schmidt Fonseca, an experienced Berlin-based Brazilian advocate for social-environmental innovation and free/open-source technologies turned researcher. I am the founder of Reuse City studio and a co-creator of semente, a toolkit for community projects; as well as the co-founder and lead articulator of the Tropixel network; and an active member of organisations such as GIG and Circular Berlin.
Between 2019 and 2022, I was a Marie Curie Early Stage Research Fellow (Northumbria University / Mozilla Foundation). I have recently engaged in collaborations such as ID21, fonte.wiki, ALGO-BR, and CODE.
I have a PhD in Design from Northumbria University (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK). The title of my thesis successfully defended in September 2023 is "Generous cities – weaving commons-oriented systems for the reuse of excess materials in urban contexts". Before that, I got an MA in Scientific and Cultural Dissemination from Labjor at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil, acquired with a dissertation about networked experimental labs.