Open Future Annual Report 2021

The 2021 annual report is the first annual report covering our activities in the period between 1 October 2021 and 31 December 2021. It has been drafted for Arcadia Fund as part of our periodic reporting to them, and we are publishing it here as part of our effort to be as transparent about our work as possible.

The annual report describes the steps that we have undertaken to launch Open Future (resulting in our public launch on 5 March 2021) and our activities since then. The report further reflects on the development and refinement of our strategy and highlights key activities since then. 

Highlights from our work in the past year include our advocacy work on the Data Governance Act, which resulted in improvements to the final version of the act. Another highlight is our role in building the SDEPS coalition, a pan-European coalition of organizations and initiatives united in the desire to advance the idea of a Shared European Digital Space. Similarly, we are happy to see that the publication of the Paradox of Open essay in March of last year has sparked a conversation within the Open Movement that took place at the Creative Commons Global Summit and in many other venues. 

At the end of our first year of operations, we are confident that we have managed to lay the foundations for our work in the years to come. We would like to thank all our funders (in addition to Arcadia, we have received contributions from the Open Society Foundations), and we look forward to continuing our work for a more open future in 2022 and beyond.