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+ Valley of the Commons emerges from years of hands-on experimentation with long-format community events. From co-organizing Zu-villages and Invisible Gardens to bootstrapping the commons hub, our team has ample experience in prototyping early nodes of future societies.
+ Over the last few years, popups have evolved into a cultural phenomenon: distributed communities gathering for multiple weeks to test new forms of living, governance, and collective purpose. These experiments have produced invaluable insights into technical innovations, governance mechanisms and financial tools enabling future network societies.
+ Building on that momentum, we believe it's time to shift gears - to make the social, productive, and infrastructural commons as tangible as the tech stack beneath.
+ The Popup is designed as a practice-oriented phase of preparation toward our own permanence. Over four weeks, participants will actively explore central aspects of a future settlement in theory and practice, while building relationships, clarifying shared priorities, and co-shaping the first real building blocks of the commons-centric network society waiting to be born.
+ The program will revolve around three guiding themes, positioned in the context of current global transformations and the renewed relevance of the commons:
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+ - Cosmo-local production & open value accounting
+ - Nomad-friendly communal life in housing co-ops
+ - Horizontal governance & funding mechanisms
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+ Beyond these core tracks, participants are invited to introduce complementary topics they see relevant, and explore how their individual projects might integrate with the perspectives we weave as a community.
+ This popup is not a simulation. It is a real co-living community taking steps toward valley transformation. At the same time, its outcomes feed back into the broader conversation on transitioning network societies from temporary concentrations of talent into durable, regenerative forms of collective life.
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+ The Return of the Commons
+ Across Europe and beyond, digital workers, post-corporate professionals, and remote-friendly entrepreneurs seek grounded, cooperative ways of living, beyond the isolation of the metropolis and the fragility of atomized nomadism.
+ This turn toward intentional communities is a structural process enabled by remote work, motivated by a longing for connection and nature, and driven by the need to hedge against rising volatility from climate shocks, fragile supply chains, precarious employment, and social or environmental degradation.
+ As corporate capitalism fails harder and harder, the urgent need for socio-technical systems, resilient enough to endure the coming decades, becomes apparent. The concepts are here, but we need real places, shared practices, and long-term structures to anchor them in daily life. This is why we build the Valley of the Commons.
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+ As an experimental playground for regenerative systems design, the commons hub explores the liberatory potential of emerging technologies and social techniques that facilitate horizontal communities.
+ Drawing on years of experience in managing creative chaos, it provides the stability and freedom to let emerging communities bloom. Its facilities – versatile event spaces, a fablab, atelier, and outdoor gym – are complemented by self-organizing practices, gently guiding creative energy into productive flows.
+ In short, this village does not start from zero. It sprouts from a living, breathing center of the commons movement that offers an economic engine, a platform for entrepreneurship, and a beacon for metamodern thought and praxis.
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+ Location: Höllental
+ Just an hour south of Vienna, Höllental closes the gentle Danube basin with a dramatic landscape of high peaks, steep cliffs, and cold rushing streams framed by dense forests. It feels remote, almost untouched, yet remains remarkably accessible: nearly 10 million people live within a three-hour drive, and Vienna’s international airport is under two hours away by rail.
+ Formerly a famed imperial summer retreat and wood-industry hub, the valley spent the last century dormant, its villages slowly decaying.
+ Recent signs of reversal point to a shift toward outdoor tourism, as hotels renovate and factories close for good. And yet, real estate remains affordable, with many houses and villas still awaiting new purpose.
+ Adding to its beauty and accessibility, the opportunities on the ground make this valley ideal for building for permanence.
+ Explore the Valley →
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+ Schedule
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The four-week popup follows a simple rhythm: mornings are structured learning paths, afternoons host workshops, field visits, and working groups, and evenings are reserved for shared life, reflection, and communal time.
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Weekends remain open for exploration and connection with local initiatives. Life happens in between: shared meals, scenic hikes, river plunges, mushroom foraging, fire circles, late-night conversations under alpine stars, and much more.
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We create these moments together, each contributing their own skills, energy, and quirks to the village.
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READ MORE v
+
Week 1
Return of the Commons
+
24 – 30 August 2026
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+ To set the scene, we begin with a five‑day course led by Michel Bauwens and Adam Arvidsson, two of the most insightful and engaging contemporary thinkers on the commons. Expect a wild ride through history, economic and sociological theory, peppered with anecdotes, examples, and insights.
+ Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation, brings a visionary lens, exploring the transformative potential of commons-based systems and their central role in post-capitalist collaboration. Arvidsson’s work instead turns the focus to how commons emerge in everyday production and social life where capitalism fails. Together, their perspectives offer both inspiration and grounded insight: a visionary account of the commons’ civilizational potential, and a practical, historically informed view of how commons-based social and productive forms can arise as capitalism’s reach and allure contract. Afternoons provide a practical counterpart: workshops, small-group exercises, and working sessions allow participants to translate theory into practice, exploring how commons ideas can be operationalized in daily life, collaborative projects, and the emerging Valley of the Commons.
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READ MORE v
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Week 2
Cosmo-local Production & Open Value Accounting (OVA)
+
31 August – 6 September 2026
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+ In the second week, we shift from macro-narratives to the mechanics of how a village economy could actually function. Through a mix of theory sessions and hands-on workshops, participants explore how global knowledge commons and local production capacities can sustain livelihoods, small-scale industry, and community resilience.
+ We look at business models for cosmo-local manufacturing, mutual credit and community currencies, distributed supply chains, and the workflows that make small-scale fabrication viable. Alongside the economic layer, we dive into open value accounting: reviewing existing models, examining where they succeed (or fail), and collectively selecting a pragmatic framework that we can begin testing immediately. The emphasis throughout the week is on feasibility rather than perfection, focusing on economic structures that real people can actually use. Afternoons extend these concepts into practice: prototyping small production workflows, mapping local resources, drafting economic scenarios, and experimenting with simple Open Value Accounting tools that could underpin the emerging Valley of the Commons. This week is where abstract ideas meet tangible economic strategy.
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Week 3
Future Living
+
7 – 13 September 2026
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+ Week three turns toward how we might actually live together – architecturally, legally, ecologically, and socially. We explore cooperative housing concepts, map local resources and unused buildings, and examine the ecological potentials of the valley as a site for long-term habitation.
+ Sessions cover sustainable renovation techniques, cooperative ownership structures (from co-housing to time-share to hybrid models), and governance frameworks for housing clusters grounded in subsidiarity and shared stewardship. The week’s aim is to converge on minimal, resilient living systems suited to the 21st century: homes that are affordable, adaptable, energy-efficient, and embedded in community. Afternoons translate ideas into grounded work: from site visits to sketches and spatial planning, we will develop early drafts of what a first housing cluster could look like. This is where speculative idealism meets architectural, legal, and economic reality.
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READ MORE v
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Week 4
Governance & Funding Models
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14 – 20 September 2026
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+ The fourth week brings everything into the domain of stewardship: how we organize, decide, invest, and protect what we build together. We explore participatory governance frameworks, cooperative legal structures, long-term investment models, and mechanisms for holding shared assets in trust.
+ Drawing on lessons from ecovillages, DAOs, co-ops, and community land trusts, participants map what actually works, and where idealistic models tend to fail in practice. Afternoons shift into applied design: drafting governance charters, testing decision-making protocols, sketching legal wrappers, and evaluating funding pathways that balance autonomy, flexibility, and long-term resilience. The week culminates in a coherent set of next steps: populating the Valley of the Commons association, defining its initial governance and funding architecture, and - potentially - outlining the first concrete co-living project. This final stretch lays the groundwork for the governance of a future permanent village.
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Explore the Valley
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Get involved
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Join as a partner, theme curator, or sponsor.
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Together, we can turn vision into reality.
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Model Choice & AI Infrastructure
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Current Model: Mistral Devstral-2
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+ We use Mistral Devstral-2 via
+ Vercel AI Gateway.
+ This is a cost-effective model suitable for MVP testing.
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Why This Model?
+
+ - Free tier: Available on Vercel AI Gateway free tier
+ - Fast response times: Optimized for real-time dialogue
+ - Open-source roadmap: We're committed to migrating to open-weights or self-hosted models
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Long-term Vision
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+ Note: Some models used in MVP are proprietary APIs.
+ Our long-term roadmap includes migration to open-weights or self-hosted models
+ to align with open commons principles.
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Data Tracking & Privacy
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What We Track
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+ - Server logs: Basic request metadata (method, timestamp, message count) for debugging and monitoring
+ - Shared ideas: If you choose to share an idea or conversation to GitHub, it becomes part of the public repository
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+
What We Do NOT Save
+
+ - We do NOT save conversations: Your dialogue with the game master is processed temporarily to generate responses, but we do not store conversations in any database or persistent storage
+ - We do NOT track conversations: Conversations exist only in your browser session and are not saved by us
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+
AI Provider Tracking
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+ Important: While we do not save your conversations, the AI provider
+ (Mistral via Vercel AI Gateway) may track conversations according to their own privacy policy.
+ We have no control over their data collection practices. For details, see
+ Mistral's Privacy Policy
+ and Vercel's Privacy Policy.
+
+
+
What We Do NOT Track
+
+ - No user accounts: No registration, no login, no personal profiles
+ - No cookies: No tracking cookies, no analytics cookies, no advertising trackers
+ - No IP logging: IP addresses are not stored or logged
+ - No third-party analytics: No Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, no tracking scripts
+ - No email collection: The game interface does not collect email addresses
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+
+
Conversation Handling
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+ We do not save conversations. Conversations exist only in your browser session.
+ Messages are sent to the server for AI processing but are not stored persistently by us.
+ Each conversation is ephemeral and exists only during your active session. When you close your browser,
+ the conversation is gone from our systems.
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+
+
When Conversations Are Saved
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+ Conversations are only saved when you explicitly choose to share them to GitHub using
+ the "Share to GitHub" feature. This is an opt-in action that you control. Once shared, the conversation
+ becomes part of the public repository at build_game/conversations/.
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+
+
Server-Side Processing
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+ Messages are processed through Vercel serverless functions. Our server logs may contain:
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+ - Request metadata (timestamp, method)
+ - Message count and length (for debugging)
+ - First/last message previews (first 100 characters, for debugging only)
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+ These logs are not publicly accessible and are used only for system monitoring and debugging.
+ They do not contain full conversation content and are automatically rotated by Vercel.
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What Is Verifiable on GitHub
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+
Open Source Repository
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+ Our entire codebase is open source and available at
+ github.com/understories/votc.
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You Can Verify:
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+ - All client-side code: HTML, CSS, JavaScript - everything runs in your browser
+ - Serverless function code: All API endpoints are open source and auditable
+ - No hidden tracking: Review the code yourself - no analytics, no trackers, no data collection
+ - Data handling logic: See exactly how messages are processed, sanitized, and sent to AI
+ - Security measures: Input sanitization, role whitelisting, turn limits - all visible in code
+ - Shared ideas: Ideas shared to GitHub are publicly visible in
build_game/ideas/
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+
+
What's Not in the Repository
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+ - API keys: Stored securely in Vercel environment variables (never in code)
+ - Internal thoughts: Game design notes are in the repo but don't contain user data
+ - Server logs: Not committed to the repository
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Open Source & Open Commons Best Practices
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Our Commitment
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+ Valley of the Commons follows open commons principles:
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+ - Transparency: All code is open source and auditable
+ - No vendor lock-in: Using open standards and protocols
+ - Community ownership: Ideas shared become part of the public commons
+ - Minimal data collection: Only what's necessary for functionality
+ - User control: You choose what to share, when to share it
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+
+
Open Source License
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+ The codebase is open source. Check the repository for the specific license terms.
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Contributing
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+ Contributions, improvements, and audits are welcome. The repository is public and open for
+ community participation.
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+
Future Improvements
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+ - Migration to self-hosted or open-weights models
+ - Enhanced privacy controls
+ - Optional conversation export (user-controlled)
+ - Local-first architecture where possible
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Security Measures
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Input Sanitization
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+ - Message content is limited to 500 characters per message
+ - Only 'user' and 'assistant' roles are allowed (prevents system prompt injection)
+ - Empty messages are filtered out
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+
+
Rate Limiting
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+ - Maximum 12 user turns per conversation
+ - Server-side turn counting (prevents client-side manipulation)
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+
+
API Security
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+ - API keys stored in environment variables (never exposed to client)
+ - Serverless functions handle all sensitive operations
+ - No CORS for game chat (same-origin only)
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+
+
+
+
Your Rights & Control
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+
You Control:
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+ - What you share: Only share ideas you want to make public
+ - When you share: Sharing is opt-in, not automatic
+ - Your conversation: Conversations are ephemeral - close the browser to end the session
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+
+
No Account Required
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+ You can use the game interface without creating an account, providing an email, or any personal information.
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+
+
Questions or Concerns?
+
+ If you have questions about privacy, data handling, or want to report a concern,
+ please open an issue on GitHub
+ or contact the project maintainers.
+
+
+
+
← Back to Game
+
+ 
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