Funding the Commons: San Francisco 2025
AI, Web3, and digital public goods are not neutral commons—they are contested spaces that demand governance, funding, and intervention.
At Funding the Commons: San Francisco 2025, we gather researchers, policymakers, builders, and funders for a 2-day conference to explore:
How do we fund, govern, and align AI and digital infrastructures as public goods?
What models ensure accessibility, accountability, and resilience in these rapidly evolving spaces?
How do we balance rapid technological acceleration with governance, security, and ethics?
This 12th edition takes place at the iconic Internet Archive, a global symbol of open access and collective stewardship, reinforcing the urgency of sustaining digital infrastructure for the public good.
Happening alongside NVIDIA’s developer events and ETHSF, this conference provides a critical space to examine how AI, blockchain, and decentralized infrastructure can be stewarded, regulated, and sustained for the future.
Confirmed Speakers
Samuel Klein (Omnipedia, Harvard Berkman Klein Center)
Illia Polosukhin (NEAR Protocol)
Carter Gibson (Google)
Dazza Greenwood (MIT Computational Law Report)
Juan Benet (Protocol Labs)
Shady El-Damaty (human.tech by Holonym Foundation)
Tom Kalil (Renaissance Philanthropy)
Robert Drost (Eigen Foundation)
Daniel Wolfe (UC Joint Computational Precision Health Program)
Kevin Owocki (Gitcoin)
Devansh Mehta (Ethereum Foundation)
Allison Duettman (Foresight Institute)
Mark Graham (Internet Archive)
Amber Case (Calm Technologies)
Chiara di Leone (UCLA, Antikythera)
Stuart Cowan (Buckminster Fuller Institute)
Gregory Landua (Regen Network)
Vincent Weisser (Prime Intellect)
Maria João Sousa (Climate Change AI)
Danny O’Brien (Filecoin Foundation)
Evan Miyazono (Atlas Computing)
Beth McCarthy (Funding the Commons)
Wendy Hanamura (Internet Archive)
Nanak Nihal Khalsa (human.tech by Holonym Foundation)
David Sneider (Lit Protocol)
Ele Diakomichalis (Drips)
Ann Pace (Wise Ancestors)
Barry Threw (Gray Area)
Matt Prewitt (RadicalXChange)
James Kiernan (Octant)
Raymond Cheng (Open Source Observer)
Christine Peterson (Foresight Institute)
Paul Brody (Enterprise Ethereum Alliance)
Timour Kosters (Edge City)
Aleksandra Smilek (Wise Ancestors)
Paco Villetard (Only Dust)
Max Song (Carbonbase)
Ben Goldhaber (Future of Life Foundation)
Alan Ransil (Filecoin Foundation, Devonian)
David Casey (Funding the Commons)
David Dao (Gainforest)
Abhinav Singh (Normalyze)
Marie-Claire Graf (Future Leaders Network)
Seth Frey (UC Davis)
Toby Shorin (Care Culture)
Matthew Monahan (Ma Earth)
Mark S. Miller (Agoric)
Djimo Serodio (Silvi)
B Cavello (The Aspen Institute)
Adina Popescu (ÆRTH)
Why Join?
Funding the Commons: San Francisco 2025 provides a unique space for collaboration, creativity, and building real-world solutions. By connecting experts across technology, academia, philanthropy, and policy, this conference fosters interdisciplinary dialogue to ensure that technology serves as a shared resource for all.
Whether you’re interested in sustainable funding models, governance frameworks, or integrating ethical principles into technology design, this event offers an opportunity to engage with leading thinkers and shape the future of technology as a public good.
Themes and Tracks
AI GOVERNANCE & DECENTRALIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
Exploring governance, accountability, and decentralized alternatives to corporate-controlled AI.
🔷 AI Alignment & Safety as a Governance Challenge
How do we fund and structure AI alignment without reinforcing corporate monopolies?
What happens when AI development goes wrong? Strategies for intervention and oversight.
🔷 Decentralized AI: Privacy, Sovereignty & Governance
Privacy-preserving AI through decentralized training, cryptographic security, and federated learning.
Can Web3 governance create independent accountability structures for AI?
🔷 Blockchain & Web3 for the Commons
Ensuring AI transparency, provenance, and accountability through blockchain-based verification.
Web3 as a mechanism for alternative funding, governance, and infrastructure resilience.
FUNDING & COORDINATION FOR RESILIENT SYSTEMS
Addressing funding models, financial infrastructure, and coordination mechanisms for non-extractive digital systems.
🔷 Public Goods Funding for AI
Can AI still be funded for the public benefit, or has corporate capture closed that door?
Alternative models for financing open and equitable AI development.
🔷 Defensive Accelerationism (d/acc) & Resilient Infrastructure
Web3 as financial resilience – providing alternatives when centralized financial systems fail.
AI & climate adaptation – leveraging decentralized tools for crisis response and environmental sustainability.
Decentralized coordination for AI safety and governance – mitigating risks outside of corporate control.
Shutdown resilience – strategies for maintaining critical infrastructure in high-risk environments.
EARTH COMMONS & OPEN SCIENCE
Exploring AI’s environmental footprint, decentralized sustainability, and knowledge stewardship.
🔷 The Climate Cost of AI Acceleration & Finding a Path to Resilience
How do we measure, govern, and mitigate AI’s energy consumption before it locks in an unsustainable trajectory?
What role can blockchain-based verification, carbon credits, and decentralized sustainability initiatives play in preventing runaway energy demand?
Can alternative compute models, edge AI, and networked intelligence create more resource-conscious AI infrastructures?
🔷 Indigenous Knowledge & Digital Stewardship
Integrating ancestral governance models into digital infrastructure.
AI for ecological intelligence—learning from natural systems to inform sustainable digital design.
🔷 Scientific Rigor & Open Knowledge Networks
Who controls knowledge production in AI? Exploring alternative funding and publishing models.
Strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations across policy, academia, and open technology communities.
Sponsors
Partners
About the Venue
Housed in a Classical Revival building designed by architect Carl Werner and completed in 1923, embodies the power of shared knowledge. With millions of free books, films, and software, it highlights the importance of open access and collective stewardship. As a space dedicated to preserving and expanding public resources, it aligns perfectly with conversations about funding and governing technologies for the common good.
Photography courtesy of the Internet Archive.
👉 We believe access should not be a barrier. If ticket costs are a challenge, please reach out to us at contact@fundingthecommons.io—we’ll do our best to accommodate. Scholarships are also available, with priority for actively enrolled students.
Be part of this global conversation on building a more equitable future for technology. Funding the Commons: San Francisco 2025 is where ideas meet action—connecting you with a network of experts and innovators dedicated to advancing open technologies for the public good.