Humanising the Digital Public

Abstract

This paper proposes a paradigm shift in how digital publics areconceptualised and modelled. Current platform monetisation relieson reductive personalisation metrics that shape incentives acrossinfrastructure, interface, and user interaction—producing systemiceffects detrimental to civic resilience and information integrity.We argue for a reconceptualisation of digital publics as emergentsociotechnical collectives, drawing on modelling approaches fromlive event and civic design. We outline a multi-method programmecombining tabletop games, megagames, and simulations to developand test new metrics that support alternative incentives and human-centred platform governance.