The Turin Scenario, Augmented Commoning, is focused on Case del Quartiere (CdQs, Houses of the Neighbourhood), community hubs that host a wide spectrum of activities and services in different fields (from welfare to culture, from education to environment), co-produced and co-managed with citizens and local grassroots organisations. The three CdQs involved in CO3 (Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario, Cecchi Point and PiùSpazioQuattro) have experienced several disruptions of service during the Covid emergency, being among the first services to be shut down in March 2020 and among the last to be opened again, even if with limitations, in June 2020. A second closure took place in October 2020, while the Case del Quartiere finally re-opened in July 2021.During lockdowns, the only service that was operating in the CdQs was the collection and distribution of food to people in need, together with educational activities for children that were allowed in some periods. Gatherings, cultural activities, courses and citizens participation in general could not take place during most of this period and implementation of CO3 services had to be postponed.
The Turin Scenario includes four different use cases:
- Augmented content: augmented spaces where CdQ managers, associations and citizens can create and visualize different contents (artistic content, information about activities and events, information about CdQ spaces and services, blockchain objects);
- Prepaid card with the CdQ’s coin: virtual blockchain currency and prepaid cards, managed via a wallet app for making transactions for enhancing the services and inviting people to participate more.
- Management of volunteering activities: Augmented Reality, First Life and the blockchain wallet used to advertise, manage and reward volunteering activities.
- Use of coins for participation in the planning of the yearly programme: citizens will participate in some of the decisions regarding the programme, through decision tokens.
During the first lockdown the CdQs staff hypothesised adaptations of the Turin pilot by adding new use cases of the CO3 technologies, in new ways inspired by the Covid emergency. The 3rd case was proposed for helping in recruiting the volunteers for food distribution, but this would have required an already existing users community in place; this was not the case due to the Engagement plan schedule. The 2nd case was proposed to support crowdfundings, to finance the food collection activity, and pre-registration for future activities and courses, so to help associations and cultural organisations to survive the lockdown. This would require a payment system, which is not planned in the CO3 wallet. As per the previous case, the building of a user base for CO3 would have been difficult during the lockdown.
Next Steps of the Pilot will foresee a second round of meetings to be organized at the Casa del Quartiere in September, during which the Houses manager will experience a real walkthrought of the whole technological features of the App. Technical partners are actually working on the finalization of missing features. New feedback from House Managers together with members of Associations working at RCQ will be collected. The public launch will probably take place during the last week of September and the experimentation will last until the end of the year. During the public launch, first preliminary questionnaires will be submitted to the managers as well as to the general public, in agreement with the engagement plan previously defined. In case an event in presence will not be possible, the questionnaires will be sent to the users.