This post introduces a series of reflections as part of a research-action approach through which the Digital Society Program of the Agence pour la Cohésion des Territoires (ANCT) (French Agency for Territorial Cohesion) aims to explore the relevance and use of associations to support digital commons initiated or joined by a public player. In particular, the aim is to outline the advantages of these structures for the purpose of carrying digital commons, and also to reveal or propose possible solutions to the various limitations encountered by players in the field.

The methodology adopted is based on in-depth bibliographical research, as well as on the experience of association support provided by ANCT and its partners, in order to identify the main "irritants" (in the sense of anything that might slow down or block the creation or participation of a public player in an association structuring a digital commons) on the one hand, and the formalization of possible solutions on the other.

This work mobilizes and complements various pre-existing resources, to which it refers as necessary:

• the important pedagogical work and tools developed by the Ministry of Sport, Youth and the Voluntary Sector, and in particular the model articles of association with commentary;
• resources developed by ANCT concerning the digital commons :
  
  • computer graphics NEC x BAM x inno³
    
  • Digital commons tutorial
    
  • Overview of the digital commons
    
  • Posts published on the Digital Society Laboratory