Opencoil

Since the dawn of deep mediatization (Hepp, 2020), the start-up scene posing as digital pioneers has been declaring a state of revolution, seeking nothing but disruption with the introductions of their products into society. A goal they definitely achieved with the introduction of micro-mobility services to our cityscapes / public space. In 2020, Dennis de Bel and Anton Jehle therefore initiated the OPENCOIL research project to gain a better understanding of this latest venture capitalist phenomenon, share knowledge, establish a community, and develop tools to provoke a public debate. Later that year, they organized their first public intervention, the roaming speedshow, in Berlin and shared their insights with the community at rc3 (https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-11575-opencoil_a_roaming_speedshow). The ever changing landscape of micro-mobilty kept Speedy and Scooty invested and they are here at 37C3 to give an update on the OPENCOIL project! The term "revolution" has become a beloved buzzword for the platform economy. to take the world by storm: when in early 2018, thousands of electric kick scooters, or “trotinettes” as the french like to call them, flooded the city of Paris , the media sure was quick to coin this the "micromobility revolution" (Medium, 2018). As the french are somewhat experts in the field of revolutionizing, Paris is arguably the key to any successful uprising. The seemingly endless back and forth between regulation and cooperation, between sharing and exploiting, progress and regression of micromobility can be observed here like in no other European city. As of August 31st 2023, the trotinettes have been banned from the streets of Paris with almost 90 % of public votes supporting the decision. Today the Bastille square is completely freed from trottinettes: a revolution by the people. With this years talk Scooty and Speedy will be problematising the rise (and fall) of shared mobility and its effects on the basis of Paris as well as related interventions and observations of the past three years.