In June, Professor Charlie Schweik, Director of the IT Program at UMass Amherst, served as Conference Chair for the 2025 International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) conference. This year's conference was an ambitious hybrid event, allowing for both in-person and online participation from scholars and practitioners around the globe. The IASC focuses on the study of "the commons," which are shared resources governed collectively by a group of people. While traditional examples include natural resources like forests or fisheries, the concept has expanded to include a wide range of shared resources, such as urban spaces, digital information, and knowledge. The conference brought together a diverse community to discuss the challenges and solutions involved in governing these various types of commons.
The event was a resounding success, despite the unique challenges of a fully hybrid format. It featured three plenary sessions, a keynote address, and 20 parallel panel sessions over three days. In a new tradition for the IASC conference, participants also engaged in "unconference" sessions to allow for more in-depth dialogue and collaboration. The event also included local excursions to see how people in the U.S. collectively manage shared resources, as well as social events like a conference banquet and reception. This successful conference demonstrated the power of a collaborative and engaged community in making a complex hybrid event not only possible, but highly effective. The next IASC conference is set to take place in Indonesia in 2027.