Timeline
As the debate over how the AI Act should deal with foundation models reaches a climax, we argue that it would be a mistake to leave this crucial aspect of AI regulation to the AI companies themselves, and that there is indeed a need for mandatory transparency and documentation requirements.
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.
The EP's ITRE Committee has adopted its report on the Data Act. The report shows a backlash against B2G data sharing, combining concerns about personal data protection and the impact on business, competition and innovation, preventing our proposal for a more robust B2G data sharing framework and a public data commons from gaining traction across the political spectrum.
The European Data Health Space proposal should allow the building of a European commons for electronic health data to secure public interest goals.
To wrap up his Fellowship at the Datasphere Initiative, Francesco wrote an essay investigating the impact of both the Data Act and the Data Governance Act on the emergence of a global data governance regime while analyzing the EU's geopolitical role in global data regulatory debates.
The EU B2G data sharing framework needs to be complemented by a strong and democratically accountable European Public Data Commons to allow public sector bodies to fill their mandates in a data-driven world.
RadicalxChange organized gatherings on 15-16 October in Lodz and on 18 October in Warsaw to explore pioneering digital democracy practices. Alek joined both of them, focusing on democratic data governance.
The Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) published a policy brief underpinning how a robust framework for B2G data sharing is a precondition for ensuring that public institutions and policymakers can fulfill their mandates.
This primer translates the conceptualizations of the governance of data as a commons into a design framework that brings these ideas to life, in particular through public policies.
On Friday 24 June we participated in a Workshop on AI Infrastructures for Civil Society and the Arts organized by the Hardware Medienkunst Verein. Paul's intervention was centered on the possibility of Common Data Spaces that can nurture artistic practices and civil society activism.
On 23 June, we organized our first Salon to present our proposal for a data governance framework that ensures broader B2G data sharing in the public interest, and discuss its implementation.
On 21 June, we organized a panel discussion titled “Data Act: in-between policy and practice”, at the 2022 MyData Summit in Helsinki. The session provided a forum for an exchange of perspectives on the Data Act from public, private and civil society representatives.
Analysis of the EHDS proposal, which includes B2G data sharing rules for electronic health data. These might lead to legal uncertainty due to the lack of coordination with the B2G provisions included in the Data Act.
The Indian approach to data governance provides a framework that helps maximize the collective benefits stemming from data access and reuse in the public interest. In the EU, it could be applied to data intermediaries and data cooperatives, providing an approach to collective governance of data rights while avoiding the recentralization of market power.
Zuzanna Warso is the Director of Research at Open Future. In this role, she will manage all the research activities, including further developing our research agenda and our fellowship program.
An essay from Adam Harvey on CC licensing of AI training datasets building on the research we have commissioned from him as part of the AI_Commons initiative.
On 25 May at the CPDP Annual conference, we co-organized a panel to discuss what are the potential points of conflict between economic growth from data and fundamental rights values within the European data governance framework.
This policy brief presents a model for public-interest B2G data sharing, aimed to complement the current proposal of the Data Act. The proposal includes the creation of the European Public Data Commons, a body that acts as a recipient and clearinghouse for the data made available.
Alek finds that the impact of the proposed Data Act was assessed based solely on economic cost-benefit analysis. Important provisions on Business-to-Government (B2G) data sharing were evaluated without any methods for assessing societal value.
This note assesses the interconnectedness of the GDPR respectively with the Data Governance Act and Data Act, shedding light on the different inconsistencies between the two acts and the GDPR that risk hindering the overarching objective of the European strategy for data.
For our sixth Open Future Session, we invited Anna Mazgal, Senior EU Policy Advisor at Wikimedia DE, and Alejandro Mayoral Baños, activist and Director of the Indigenous Friends Association (IFA), to talk about online "care protocols" and how the open movement addresses the harms perpetrated in the platform ecosystem.
This research note provides a closer look at the EU legislative initiatives implementing data interoperability within the European Strategy for Data.
On Monday 7 March at 19:00 CET, Francesco and Aniek Kempeneers co-hosted a session dedicated to AI_Commons at Mozilla Festival 2022.
The Data Governance Act risks leading to the growth of for-profit data intermediation services and centralizing market power even further. One way to avoid this is to provide stronger support for commons-based data governance.
Policy brief on the provisions dealing with Business to Government Data Sharing in the European Commissions proposal for a Data Act that was published on 23 February 2022.
Policy brief on the provisions dealing with Interoperability and Data Sharing services in the European Commissions proposal for a Data Act that was published on 23 February 2022.
Policy brief on the provisions dealing with Access to Data and Data Portability in the European Commissions proposal for a Data Act that was published on 23 February 2022.
Open Future reviewed the proposal for a Data Act released by the European Commission on 23 February and published three briefs on the issues of Interoperability, Access to Data and B2G Data Sharing in the public interest.
As part of the AI_Commons research activity, Open Future partnered with Aniek Kampeneers to investigate how design concepts for consent practices can provide an added layer of protection for users’ privacy in the online sphere.
Jan J. Zygmuntowski is Open Future's Data Commons Fellow, working on institutional designs for governing data as a commons. Through this fellowship, we are also bringing economic expertise to our organization.
The value and use stemming from data sharing are conceptualized around a market logic, despite the collective societal benefits derived from society-wide access. The Data Act offers an opportunity to change this by attributing a public interest function to data sharing between the private and public sector.
In this policy brief we review the EU policy debate on access and use of data in view of the upcoming Data Act. We provide arguments against the introduction of new property rights–including the sui generis database right–in favor of strengthening data access rights.
An overview of the main elements and improvements in the provisional agreement on the Data Governance Act reached by the European Council and the European Parliament on 30 November 2021.
Comment on the recommendation on a common European data space for cultural heritage and the Digital Europe Work Programme 2021-2022
At MyData in the Netherlands, we co-hosted with Waag the workshop: "A closer look at data governance and the European data strategy: the Data Governance Act & the Data Act", during which we analyzed the EC's Inception Impact Assessment Document.
Analysis of the recently adopted negotiation positions of the Council and the European Parliament on the proposal for a Data Governance Act ahead of the upcoming trilogue negotiations.
Discussing with the broad Open Movement how to reconcile Open licensing and AI training
Presentation of the White Paper: "Proposal to Leverage Art.17 of CDSM Directive to build a public repository of Public Domain and openly licensed works"
White-paper on how to to leverage Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market directive to build a public repository of Public Domain and openly licensed works.
DCODE Summer School 2021: Introducing DCODE challenges, outlining new design ideals for our digital future, and setting the ground for a shared vocabulary.
A first look at the issues that shape the discussion about the upcoming Data Act, the second legislative element of the Commission's European Data Strategy.
A critical take on European Parliament's ITRE committee report on the Data Governance Act. The report adopted by the ITRE committee represents the negotiation mandate for the trilogue negotiations.
In this policy brief, we present five issues related to the proposal for the Data Governance Act (DGA) that are crucial to achieve the policy goal of building Data Commons in the European Union.
