About CommonEdge Asia
We are living through a time of extraordinary digital transformation: complex, fast-moving, and deeply embedded in every part of our lives. Technologies that once promised openness and progress now shape how we communicate, govern, learn, and relate to one another. As digital infrastructures expand, so too does their power. That power is increasingly held by a small group of actors.
Today, a handful of corporations and state entities exert vast influence over our digital worlds. Yet the boundaries between them are often opaque and shifting. It is not always clear who holds control, who sets the terms, or whose interests are being served. What is clear is that this concentration of digital power is reinforcing inequality, accelerating harm, and weakening the foundations of rights and democracy, particularly across the Asia Pacific.
CommonEdge exists to bring balance to this reality. We work at the overlaps of technology, information and media, human rights, and culture. We believe that the digital environments future generations will inherit must be shaped by principles of fairness, accountability, and care, not by exploitation or control. Our purpose is to ensure that digital technologies become a force for good, fostering innovation and inclusivity while safeguarding humanity from harm.
Through research, collaboration, strategic engagement, and the development of public-interest technologies, we aim to shift the power dynamics of the digital world. Digital systems and infrastructures should benefit people and the planet, not exploit them. CommonEdge is not just here to challenge what exists, but to help shape what comes next.
Our Approach
At CommonEdge, we believe that addressing the deep imbalance in today’s digital world requires more than critique. It requires clarity, strategy, and imagination. Our approach is grounded in a commitment to understanding how digital power operates, shifting its dynamics, and actively building alternatives that serve people and the planet.
We work across three interconnected focus areas:
Understanding Power
Research / Foresight / Strategic Analysis
We examine how digital systems shape society, and who shapes those systems. Our work investigates the concentration of power within platforms, infrastructures, and policies—especially where boundaries between corporate and state control are blurred. Through research, strategic foresight, and analysis, we uncover how influence operates and generate insights that guide action.
Rebalancing Systems
Policy / Action / Collaboration
We use what we learn to develop and deploy strategies that challenge concentrated power and shift the rules of engagement. This includes public engagement, network-building, policy interventions and collaborative initiatives aimed at creating more accountable and equitable digital systems that are aligned with human rights principles.
Building Alternatives
Tech for Public Good / Infrastructure / Community Innovation
We support the creation of ethical, inclusive, and sustainable technologies that respond to real public needs. Whether through partnerships with technologists and designers or by incubating ideas ourselves, we help conceptualise and develop digital tools and infrastructures grounded in the public interest—not profit or control. This is about imagining new possibilities—and making them real.
CommonEdge is very much a seed, and our work may extend outside the above focus areas, especially as we grow, and become influenced by what we learn and what challenges need to be addressed.
What We Offer
In line with our purpose to balance digital power and build systems that serve people and the planet, CommonEdge Asia offers a range of services that bridge insight, action, and innovation. We work with partners to navigate complexity, design strategic responses, and shape digital futures rooted in justice, accountability, and care.
Our offerings include:
Strategic Advisory Services
High-level guidance for organisations, coalitions, and movements working through challenges in digital governance, infrastructure, public-interest technology, and systemic change.
Program Strategy and Management
We act as embedded program partners—designing, coordinating, and managing multi-actor initiatives on behalf of funders, networks, or institutions. This includes partner identification, relationship management, and ensuring alignment with values and strategic goals.
Project Design and Implementation
From concept to delivery, we create and manage initiatives that advance digital rights, civic participation, and cultural resilience in complex environments.
Research and Communications
Investigative research, strategic foresight, and narrative framing that uncover power dynamics, inform action, and strengthen public understanding and advocacy.
Digital Literacy and Education
Design and delivery of programs and materials that build capacity, critical engagement, and resilience in digital spaces across diverse communities.
Digital Safety and Security
Practical support for individuals, organisations, and communities facing digital risks, surveillance, or online threats, with a focus on safety, care, and sustainability.
Digital Products and Solutions
Co-creation of ethical, inclusive technologies and tools that respond to real public needs and are grounded in principles of openness, autonomy, and equity.
Fund Design and Management
Strategic design and responsible administration of funding programs that align with mission-driven outcomes, community priorities, and transparent governance.
Ecosystem Development
Facilitation, coordination, and long-term support for networks, partnerships, and digital ecosystems that strengthen collective infrastructure and shift power over time.
Our Story
CommonEdge was originally founded in Sri Lanka in 2014 as a tech incubator. It was re‑founded by Sam de Silva in response to a rapidly changing digital environment and the growing need for collaborative, public-interest approaches to technology.
Sam has a long history of working on technology, information, social justice, and cultural initiatives—often in contexts where these areas intersect and shape one another. Having grown up with the emergence of the home computer and the internet, he developed an early and lasting interest in how digital systems influence our lives. His work has consistently focused on helping to build a more vibrant, tolerant world—one where diversity thrives and ignorance gives way to understanding.
CommonEdge is a lean and flexible organisation, drawing on a trusted network of consultants, collaborators, and specialists. This allows us to scale our work depending on the challenge and respond with the right mix of insight, care, and imagination.
At its core, CommonEdge is about working together to meet the complexity of our digital era—and to help shape futures where technology serves both people and the planet.