Designing collective intelligence.
A practice that activates situated collective intelligence: processes tailored to each territory, attentive to the environmental and emotional nuances that let a group truly think and decide together.
It is not summoned: it is activated. And it only activates when someone designs the environment where it can emerge.
If you facilitate, support or build collective processes, this is written for you
A methodology for activating collective intelligence.
The joint capacity of a group to identify complex challenges and conceive solutions that no one could produce alone.
Does not bring
The solution
The civic designer does not turn up with a closed answer under their arm.
Brings
The environment of exchange
Designs how the actors relate, where, with which dynamics and at which frequency.
Takes care of
The conditions
Conviviality, inclusion and emotional well-being are not extras: they are the process.
The dimensions a well-designed process takes care of.
No method applies the same way everywhere: place, timing and actors reshape the design.
Situated collective intelligence
Processes rooted in a specific territorial context, with its own timing and its own actors.
Conviviality
Empathy, active listening and trust as working material, not as good intentions.
Inclusion
Making the process accessible and inviting for diverse people and communities.
Physical-digital hybridisation
In-person and digital articulated as one single coherent experience.
Learn the method in practice →Course · Public Mesh“The civic designer does not bring the solution: they activate the environment where local actors generate it together.”
Domenico Di Siena
The full course, step by step.
Three focused hours of video across 29 short lessons, ready-to-use tools and lifetime access.
Course · Public Mesh Learning · English edition
Civic Design: Tools for Participation
Lifetime access
New English edition · 29 lessons · 8 sections · AI-assisted production
Stop designing for people. Start designing with them.
You will work through the four phases of the Circular Process —Situate, Socialize, Co-design, Implement— three actions in each, and master the core toolkit: the Collective Intelligence Canvas, the Co-Design Canvas and the Civic Realm Matrix.
3 h 7
On-demand video
29
Lessons · 8 sections
2026
First English edition
∞
Lifetime access
The Circular Process
Four phases, three actions in each. Not a ladder but a loop: every turn builds on what the previous one taught you.
Fase 01
Situate
- 1Explore
- 2Involve
- 3Define
Fase 02
Socialize
- 1Spread
- 2Dialogue
- 3Connect
Fase 03
Co-design
- 1Catalyze
- 2Deploy
- 3Synthesize
Fase 04
Implement
- 1Test
- 2Execute
- 3Evaluate
A handbook for designing the commons.
With the crowdfunding campaign successfully closed, the book is now in its final production phase. It will go on sale directly on Public Mesh, the publisher and school for work on democracy, civic practice and life in common.
Domenico Di Siena · 2026 edition
Civic Design
Collective Intelligence for Public and Social Innovation
Crowdfunding completed
What's inside
What the people who already took it say.
This feedback comes from students who took the course published on Udemy, where it was sold until now. The course now lives on Public Mesh, the publishing platform where it is bought and followed.
«The course gave me a framework to name what I was already doing intuitively in neighbourhood projects.»
María R.
Architect · Madrid
«The distinction between Spaces for Encounter and events changed the way I plan processes.»
Pablo S.
Cultural mediator · Barcelona
«This is not theory: I now use the Collective Intelligence Canvas in every new project, from day one.»
Lucía M.
Municipal officer · Valencia
Domenico
Di Siena.
I help institutions, public administrations, organisations and European consortia design the infrastructures —physical and digital— where encounter turns into public and social innovation.
20+
Years of practice
20+
Countries
1000+
People trained since 2015 across Europe and Latin America
Editorial platform
Public Mesh — democracy as lived infrastructure
Democratic innovation
Democratic Society — participation beyond participation-washing
Co-founder
CivicWise — international civic innovation network
Case study in the book
Dreamhamar — civic design of a public square, Norway
Civic AI
Civic Design AI — the Toolbox, run with the AI you already use
What people usually ask me before enrolling.
Where do I buy the course and the book?+
Directly on Public Mesh, the publisher and school for work on democracy, civic practice and life in common. The course is on sale now; the book is in production and will go on sale there too. Payment is handled by Stripe.
How long do I have access to the course?+
For life, and at your own pace. You pay once, with no subscription: the course stays in your Public Mesh account and you get back in whenever you like with your email.
What format is the course in?+
Three hours of on-demand video across 29 lessons and 8 sections, with 26 downloadable resources: canvases, matrices and templates ready to use.
Is this the same course as the Spanish one?+
No, and it is worth being clear about it. They are two different courses that share a method. The English edition is 3 h 7 across 29 short lessons, built as a field manual. The Spanish edition is 12 h 45 across 14 long lessons, with guest speakers and extended case work. Same frameworks, different material and different pace.
Do I need prior experience in participation or facilitation?+
No. The course is built for architects, public servants, designers, researchers and social innovators who work with communities, whatever their starting point.
Do I get a certificate?+
If you need a certificate for professional development records, write to hola@publicmesh.org before buying.
Was this course made with AI?+
Partly, and I would rather say so here than have you find out later. The English edition was produced with AI assistance from my original Spanish material. Every method, framework and idea in it is mine; the AI helped me put it into English at a pace I could not have managed otherwise.
Can my organisation pay for it?+
Yes. Stripe emails the receipt, and if you need a full invoice in an institution’s name, just add the tax or VAT number when you pay. For institutional training or in-house sessions, write to me directly.
What if it is not for me?+
Watch the open lessons in the syllabus first. On Public Mesh, as with any digital content, the right of withdrawal is lost once access begins. I would rather lose a sale than keep a frustrated student.
Using AI with judgement in your practice.
Authorship
Method, documents and tools: Domenico Di Siena.
Visit civicdesign.ai ↗More effective, without losing the point. Civic Design AI translates the Civic Design Toolbox into instruments that run on the AI you already use —ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini: the AI stops improvising, runs a working session with you and returns an object you can bring to a meeting. What cannot be delegated stays yours: the decision, the judgement and the responsibility for the process.
“Not an AI to automate democracy, but an AI to strengthen collective intelligence.”
Diagnosis
Maturity dashboard built on the Collective Intelligence Canvas
Actors
Prioritised map with an activation sequence, on the Civic Realm Chart
Journey
Phased timeline following the Compass Rose of the Four Actions
Workshops
Complete session sheets, built on the Co-design Crucible
Tempo
The temporal architecture of the process: score, pulse and memory
Memory
Minute-taking that structures decisions and always cites its source, on the Living Decisions Logbook
Translation
A two-way bridge between citizens and institutions, naming what is lost in each translation
Rehearsal
A rehearsal room for a hard meeting: roles built from real material and destroyed afterwards
Practice
A field notebook that gives you back your own patterns, always as a question
Economy
Budget and accounts for the process, including the line items the sector forgets, readable by anyone in the neighbourhood
Four languages · one-off payment · permanent access and updates
Discover Civic Design AIcivicdesign.ai →An atlas of the places where the commons take shape.
CIVIBA is an international atlas of civic innovation that I curate personally: places where a community makes city or territory through collaboration, and the practices that sustain them. Neighbourhood bathhouses, recovered factories, village shops reopened, community kitchens, civic labs.
Each place states who leads it, whether it is still standing, which sources back it and whether it can be visited. It is also an invitation to travel differently: to spend an afternoon where the people of a place organise themselves. Open data, no trackers.
“There are as many forms of the commons as there are places where people decide to look after something together.”
Explore the atlasciviba.com ↗Authorship
Each place states who leads it, its real degree of participation and whether it is still standing
Sources
Every relevant fact carries its source, with date of consultation and verification status
Visits
Each place says whether it can be visited and on what terms
Curation
A curated cartography, not crowd-mapping: someone answers for every entry
195 places published · four languages · open data CC BY-SA 4.0