Laying the foundation for the Digital Public Space
This line of our work explores the role and potential of Public Digital Infrastructure in supporting Digital Public Space that contributes to the full realization of digital rights.
In recent years, the main focus of EU digital policy has been the regulation of Big Tech. With this regulation in place, there is now a need to ensure the emergence of digital public spaces that can serve as alternatives to existing commercial platforms. This means that Europe needs an ambitious agenda for investing in Public Digital Infrastructure to provide the foundation for an open internet that underpins our democratic values and the health of our societies.
Our work in this area is guided by the goal of creating an ecosystem in which Digital Commons and digital public spaces can emerge and thrive.
This paper examines literature on public digital infrastructures and current global debates. It presents five case studies demonstrating how Digital Commons can support and improve these infrastructures.
Open Future has joined the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA). As a global steward of digital public goods, the DPGA mission is closely aligned with our goals of cultivating Digital Commons and building Digital Public Space.
Our contribution to the new AI Now collection advocates for a "public digital infrastructure" approach to EU industrial policy on artificial intelligence.
This analysis provides an overview of current European debates on digital infrastructure policy and how they relate to different layers of the (public) digital infrastructure stack.
More than seventy organizations, including us, signed a manifesto calling for a new and fair digital economy. The manifesto, and the accompanying white paper, come at a critical time, ahead of the hearings of the nominees to become European Commissioners.
The manifesto is structured around two demands. First, the signatories call for breaking up the structural power of Big Tech companies. Second, they urge the proactive promotion of a more open and diverse ecosystem of digital services that serve public goals and not just private profit, which aligns very well with our idea of Public Digital Infrastructure.
Regarding the second demand, the signatories call on states to:
Commit significant investment towards public digital infrastructure based on free and open source software and the digital commons.
Use public procurement as a market lever to encourage the adoption and scaling of open and interoperable alternatives to the Big Tech incumbents.
Put in place and enforce strong human rights safeguards and accountable governance frameworks, including over public digital infrastructure.
The organizations that signed the manifesto recognize that additional funding is essential to support the foundation of an open Internet. As we have argued before, such an investment would enable the emergence and maintenance of a Digital Public Space as an alternative to the existing commercial platforms dominating today’s online environment.
This paper outlines four key actions to fund public-driven innovation, safeguard digital rights and reduce Europe's reliance on private, extractive digital infrastructure.
A first analysis of Mario Draghi's report on the future of European competitiveness and his ideas for a new industrial policy in the light of previous efforts to boost the competitiveness of the EU's technology sector.
This opinion summarizes our response to the European Commission's public consultation on its February 2024 "How to master Europe's digital infrastructure needs?” White Paper.
Yesterday we submitted our response to the European Commission's public consultation on its February 2024 White Paper “How to master Europe's digital infrastructure needs?”. The White Paper, which describes the European Commission's vision for the development of digital infrastructure in Europe is widely regarded as an attempt by the Commission to prop-up the European Telecom sector vis a vis the US Big Tech companies.
The overall assessment, that further investment in digital infrastructure is necessary, is correct. Nevertheless, much of the analysis underpinning the White Paper (and consequently most of the policy options identified therein) are flawed and fail to address Europe’s real digital infrastructure needs. Our response argues for the need to invest in Public Digital Infrastructure that is designed to protect digital rights and to promote democratic norms and values.
You can read our consultation response here (and the 355 others here).
Known as Digital Commons, communities that self-organize to build and maintain digital resources provide essential infrastructure. They deserve investment and support to become more sustainable and inclusive.
The report reviews academic and “grey” literature on Open Data to identify key ethical issues and potential harm that collecting and processing such data in the context of climate action might raise.
Together with the Environmental Coalition on Standards, we will carry out research on the environmental costs of Europe’s data centers and the need to reduce energy consumption in the digital economy.
Open Future took part in a Digital Commons Policy Council workshop aimed at enhancing collaboration between public institutions and Digital Commons initiatives.
Last week, netzpolitik published a story about the EU institutions closing shop on Mastodon and Peertube. The story is a litmus test for whether EU institutions are truly committed to the idea of a Digital Public Space and to addressing the challenge of a digital space dominated by a few corporations.
Together with our partners in the NGI Commons Consortium, we just published a blog post arguing that this support must uphold and strengthen the core principles on which most open source projects rely, such as collaboration, freedom of use, and standardization. We therefore believe that more deliberate governance of key open source software packages used as Digital Commons in security infrastructure could help to codify community norms and overcome the problem of burnout that we saw at play in the XZ utils case.
On Tuesday at the European Cybersecurity conference, Roberto Viola, Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology)emphasized the need to increase European investment in cybersecurity. According to his remarks, this need is driven by the growing threats and the anticipated costs associated with implementing the new Cyber Resilience Act regulation.
Against the backdrop of private and public actors endorsing the concept of digital public infrastructure discourse, we clarify our approach and the role of “public” in our Public Digital Infrastructure work.
The Dutch government is reportedly alarmed by the possibility that ASML will move its operations out of the country due to concerns over restrictive immigration policies.
ASML is the exclusive producer of crucial equipment required for building chips that are the foundational hardware for processing vast amounts of data and executing complex algorithms.
The company is said to be concerned about its ability to attract and retain skilled personnel under new immigration rules. In addition, issues such as electricity grid congestion and environmental regulations are also influencing ASML's thinking.
Germany's new international strategy supports open internet foundations and global digital infrastructure but still lacks ambition and clear commitments for a society-centered digital transformation.
Open Future participated in the EU Open Source Policy Summit in Brussels, where we contributed to the panel about the necessity of investing in open source and public digital infrastructure.
The report focuses on unpacking the European Union’s policy approach to Internet standardization and proposes alternative strategies conducive to more openness, both at the technical and political levels.
The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) has published a resolution on the 31st of January explaining its decision to greenlight the hosting of the French “Health Data Hub” by Microsoft, acknowledging the absence of an immediate alternative that aligns with the project's technical and functional requirements. According to Contexte, the CNIL has itself underscored the potential risks of the project’s hosting solution, cautioning that American authorities may compel Microsoft to transmit data hosted in the project, thereby raising concerns about data sovereignty and privacy.
The Health Data Hub is a public structure whose aim is to facilitate access to data hosted on a secure platform, in compliance with regulations and citizens' rights. The new insights allowed by this sharing of data aims to improve the quality of care and support for patients.
As European countries all grapple with the dilemma of balancing the benefits of increased data sharing with sovereignty, this decision underscores the imperative for strategic investments in digital public infrastructures at the European level, in order to build credible alternatives safeguarding the digital values and autonomy that Europe aspires to. You can read more about this in our proposal for a European Public Digital Infrastructure Fund.
Open Future’s role in the project is to develop a strategic agenda for Digital Commons policies, especially in the context of the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) — the EU's long-term budget.
This report summarizes a round-table discussion called "Standards, Protocols, Ecosystems," which focused on the principles of sovereignty and interoperability, how they interact, and the means through which they can be secured. The discussion was organized in partnership with the critical infrastructure lab.
We participated in the Shaping Europe’s digital model conference organized by the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament. Paul led a panel on Creativity, Ownership, and Public Value in the Age of AI.
On December 6, Evegeny Morozov gave a keynote at the Transforming capitalism in the Age of AI conference organized by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies in Brussels. In his speech, he presented a progressive vision for public digital infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of thinking about it through the paradigm of the digital commons. Below is a transcript of the last part of his presentation:
“When I see that initial critique went wrong, was in formulating this alternative third path, this alternative third way, strictly through the paradigm of software. They didn't perceive institutions as also capable of facilitating social coordination. But ultimately, that's what institutions are. If you look at most public institutions in society, whether it's the post office, or the library, or the university, or many of the other examples I've given you before, their primary task is facilitating coordination among people, among people in institutions, among people and knowledge bases, but social coordination is at the heart of what they do. And the reason why I went into this detour, into thinking about institutions, is that (...) it is obvious that in this day and age, we can not just be building alternative free software products to match those that Silicon Valley is building.
This is nice, but I think those thinking about this through the paradigm of digital commons are probably getting a little bit closer to the right answer. Because digital commons imply not just the passive use of infrastructures, it means active care and maintenance of them. It means an actual involvement in an infrastructure as an institution, as opposed to just passive use. And it's obvious that if the path that the progressives would like to follow is neither that of the market AI nor the centrally planned AI. Then, the alternative that I think is consistent with their own philosophy and with their ideology is that of an institutionally mediated AI that facilitates social coordination. And that would be social coordination for perhaps the provision of public services; perhaps it would be for reinventing health institutions; perhaps it would be for facilitating and getting people away from the kind of alienation that we feel about politics and civic life. But ultimately, an answer to a properly distinct need for a properly socialist or social-democratic, progressive AI, I think, has to start with recognizing that this is a deeply political mission, and the deeply political mission has to return to the progressivism as something that is about allowing people to reach the maximum of their potential in a socially mediated and institutionally mediated environment and to do it in a way that does not solely rely on the market as the only institution capable of getting us there. I think it is very important to account for the costs of relying on the market, and as we account for them I think it is time that we also develop alternatives.
To develop these alternatives, I do think that a proper re-examination of our own project is needed, and I do think that trying to think about this through the lens of a massive push for digital commons as a hybrid path between infrastructures and institutions that societies and groups can be using to coordinate their own activities outside of the market, as the only reference point, would be a step in the right direction.
The Center for Policy Research at United Nations University (UNU-CPR) published our policy note, which builds on our work on Public Data Commons and informs a recommendation from the report of the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.
Experts agree that artificial intelligence is the next frontier of market concentration in the Internet economy. The democratization of AI development hinges on public investment in AI infrastructure.
Analysis of the European Commission’s proposal for a Digital Euro that argues that in order to meet its objectives, the Digital Euro must be built on top of public digital infrastructure.
The purpose of this primer is to explain the concept of digital public spaces as a central tenet of European digital policies. It shows why digital public spaces are a necessity for the full realization of digital rights and how the European Union should support digital public spaces by investing in public digital infrastructure.
This paper takes a close look at digital rights, examining them as a framework playing a role in shaping the dynamics of online ecosystems. It considers the feasibility of a holistic rights-based approach to building genuine digital public spaces.
In the paper, Krzysztof investigates the characteristics of initiatives the Fund should support to create a solid foundation for the operation of the digital public space(s). He also looks into existing funding sources and how they could be used to support public digital infrastructure.
Meta's entry into the space and the fact that they have chosen to be interoperable with the existing fediverse could be a good thing, as it paves the way for public institutions to enter the space and reduce their dependence on private communication platforms.
The Public Spaces Conference 2023 is organized jointly by us, PublicSpaces, and Waag Futurelab. It will take place on 27 and 28 of June in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Today, together with more than 40 civil society organizations, we released a Statement on Democratic Digital Infrastructure. In the statement, we call on the EU and Member States to support alternatives to commercial digital infrastructure and promote interoperable, transparent digital spaces that respect privacy, democratic governance, and net neutrality by creating a European Public Digital Infrastructure Fund.
Open Future submitted a response concerning the European Commission's call for evidence on "An EU initiative on virtual worlds: a head start towards the next technological transition". In the submission, we showed why policymakers should consider virtual worlds as Digital Public Spaces where the public interest takes precedence over corporate objectives.
The Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure published the Three-Legged Stool manifesto, outlining three pillars for building digital public infrastructure.
This policy brief contributes to the discussion about the importance of maintaining an open internet. It posits that the struggle to maintain an unfettered exchange of information online is taking place not just at the network level but also within the domain of internet platforms and in the space occupied by content and application providers.
This White Paper identifies the need for a consolidated European approach to support Public Digital Infrastructures and the development of Digital Public Spaces in Europe. It argues that efforts to build digital public spaces will contribute to ensuring Europe's digital sovereignty while providing a blueprint for a digital space that allows free, open, and democratic societies to flourish.
The 2030 Policy Programme 'Path to the Digital Decade' allows Member States to collaborate in developing the services and platforms that are essential building blocks of Digital Public Space.
Today, as a request for comments, we publish a white paper proposing a European Public Digital Infrastructure Fund to build Digital Public Spaces in Europe.
The migration from Twitter to Mastodon offers a unique opportunity to build digital public space. In an article in Tech Policy Press, Alek Tarkowski points to the obstacles to materializing such an opportunity and proposes ways to overcome them.
The European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade is a good starting point for directing the EU Digital Strategy's emphasis toward societal goals, but an action plan to fulfill these promises is still lacking, says Zuzanna Warso.
The EC has proposed a new regulation to safeguard media independence and plurality in the EU. Unfortunately, the European Media Freedom Act fails to support public interest-driven alternatives to commercial platforms.
Instead of focusing only on fixing the platforms, the EU must introduce measures that would allow the emergence of alternatives to the current fundamentally flawed system of “online malls.”
This new report "Towards a sovereign digital infrastructure of Commons" published by the French Council presidency makes a powerful argument for putting digital commons at the heart of efforts to build sovereign digital infrastructures.
We have teamed up with a number of organizations working on building Digital Commons and published an op-ed encouraging French and European policy makers to put Digital Commons at the center of the EU’s digital strategy.
The problem with Elon Musk's bid to take over Twitter is not so much that he is turning a public company private, but that it illustrates that having public spaces run by companies is a bad idea no matter how the company is structured.
France is promoting a very specific approach to digital sovereignty by stressing the importance of the Digital Commons as one of its building blocks and declaring the intention to use its presidency to propose a European Initiative for Digital Commons.
EU regulation for the digital environment is full of carve outs and exceptions for public institutions and non-profit civic initiatives. Instead of treating them as anomalies we should start treating public institutions as corner stones of a digital public sphere and develop a positive vision for them.
In conversation with Lyam Wyatt and Lane Becker about Wikimedia Enterprise the paid service targeted at commercial users of Wikimedia that was launched on the 26th of October by the Wikimedia Foundation.
The coalition for a Shared Digital European Public Sphere – SDEPS –aims to bring together different types of organizations who are united in their determination to build a European Digital Public Sphere while providing a European coordination layer for developing alternative online infrastructures.
A first look at the 2030 Digital Compass: the European Commission presented its long term (10 year) strategy for shaping the digital transformation in Europe. In this post we take a first critical look at the Commission's ambitions.
