Scroll down for an overview of our work focused on building digital public spaces
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.
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.
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.
The brief outlines a policy agenda that addresses concentrations of power in AI through policies supporting democratic governance of these technologies. It was written together with other organizations by invitation from Think7, the think tank of the Italian G7 Presidency.
This policy brief explores what compliance policies for Article 53(1c) of the AI Act could look like in practice and what technical standards and services are available to implement the rightholder opt-outs.
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.
“How can the EU’s approach towards internet standards be improved?” was the focal point of an Open Future roundtable event in February.
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 Microsoft-Mistral partnership proves that without infrastructure independence, Europe’s digital sovereignty will remain just a pipe dream.
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.
The report, which we will publish closer to the debate date, focuses on unpacking the European Union’s policy approach to Internet standardization.
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.
We are pleased to announce that Jan Krewer has joined Open Future as a Senior Policy Analyst. Jan will strengthen our work on Digital Commons and lead our activities related to the European Union-funded Next Generation Internet (NGI) Commons project.
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.
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.
Together with the critical infrastructure lab, we brought together 25 European experts working on interoperability, standards governance and identity protocols.
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.
Last weekend, EDRI's general assembly in Belgrade unanimously approved our application for EDRi membership. This membership is a crucial element of our strategy to forge connections between Digital Rights and Access to Knowledge movements
The Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure published the Three-Legged Stool manifesto, outlining three pillars for building digital public infrastructure.
At the Critical Infrastructure Lab launch event in Amsterdam, we hosted a workshop on “Imagining the future: what should the next European Commission do”.
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.
We are looking for two Fellows to contribute to our work on advancing digital public space and designing the future of open. The application submission deadline is 31 December 2022.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On 17 May 2022, at PublicSpace Conference #2, Open Future hosted a session on the state of affairs of EU digital policy-making halfway through the term of the current European Commission.
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.
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.
The final DMA proposal mandates that messaging services meeting the definition of "large gatekeeper platforms" will need to become interoperable. As a result, these key types of services will shift from a collection of “walled gardens” controlled by their owners to a connected — more open — ecosystem.
On 22 March at 15 CET Alek discussed with Sophie Bloemen, Amandine Le Pape and Ian Brown the role that interoperability can play in a transformation of the digital environment towards more public-civic spaces.
The report "Generative Interoperability: Building public and civic spaces online" co-authored with Commons Network, proposes to treat interoperability as a policy principle that supports the creation of new public-civic digital spaces.
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.
Jan-Hendrik Passoth on Interoperability for Digital Public Space. This is the seventh part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
The Declaration on European Digital Rights and Principles proposed by the Commission does not do enough for shaping the European online ecosystem as a digital public space, and not just a market. The "Digital Public Space" principle should be expanded upon to secure a stronger focus on societal objectives and collective rights.
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.
Aik van Eemeren on Interoperability for Digital Public Space. This is the sixth part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
Jaromil on Interoperability for Digital Public Spaces. This is the fifth part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
Comment on the recommendation on a common European data space for cultural heritage and the Digital Europe Work Programme 2021-2022
Public conversation: How can EU policy foster digital European public spaces?
natacha roussel on Interoperability for Digital Public Spaces. This is the fourth part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
Mai Sutton on Interoperability for Digital Public Spaces. This is the third part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
Geert-Jan Bogaerts on Interoperability for Digital Public Spaces. This is the second part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
This article is Open Future's contribution to Building a European Digital Public Space - Strategies for taking back control from Big Tech platforms, a book edited by Aleksander Baratsits and Published by iRights Media in November 2021
Nathan Schneider on Interoperability for Digital Public Space. This is the first part of our series of interviews with experts on how to get to public-civic spaces and the role of interoperability in getting there.
A first look at the “Path to the Digital Decade” 2030 Policy Programme that was presented by the European Commission on 15 of September.
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 critical take on the European Commission's Communication "2030 Digital Compass" which defines the policy objectives for Europe's Digital Decade.
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.
Interoperability is a key step to fix the internet and to build digital public infrastructures. Interoperability has arrived on the policy agenda, where it is widely expected that the European Union’s upcoming Digital Services Act contains at least some interoperability measures for so-called gatekeeper platforms.
The Vision for a Shared Digital Europe is a policy frame that can guide policymakers and civil society organisations involved with digital policymaking in the direction of a more equitable and democratic digital environment.
