2024-06-12 –, Room G - Garden House
Digital commons – community-governed digital resources – are increasingly perceived as potential providers of public digital infrastructure to enhance sovereignty, competition and accessibility of services. ‘Infrastructure’, in this sense, can be understood as systems that are perceived as having society-wide economic or social functions, and digital infrastructure can therefore be seen as the wide range of digital technologies which provide these society-wide functions, for example critical digital/Internet stack functions, foundations for digital government, or access to digital public spaces.
In this view, building digital commons and deploying them as infrastructure can be seen as a way for governments to reclaim technology and positively shape its future in the public interest. But what distinguishes digital commons specifically from merely ‘open source’ or ‘public interest’ technologies? What makes digital commons ideally positioned to work as (public) digital infrastructure? And can a commons-first approach to infrastructure support digital sovereignty while improving public services, public spaces, public administration, etc?
This session will dive into the question of digital commons as infrastructure, looking at the unique dynamics at play in communal production, ownership, and governance of digital commons at infrastructure-scale. It will aim to bridge the gap in understanding between policymakers and technologists on how to better understand the relevance of this nascent area, highlighting questions like licensing, contribution, maintenance, funding, and sustainability. It will also consider emerging examples of how the value of digital commons is being explored through current efforts and initiatives, both in Member States of the EU and more broadly.
Nicholas (Nick‘) Gates is a Policy Advisor at OpenForum Europe (OFE), where leads OFE’s work on the NGI Commons initiative and supports its research, policy, and advocacy efforts.
Nick has significant experience in digital government policy and research globally, particularly around open source, public goods, public financial management, and digital service delivery. Nick enjoys supporting development partners, governments, and international organisations to deliver on their research, advocacy and convening agendas by using applied research to support policy development around best practices in the use of technology for public good, particularly in the public sector.
Prior to joining OFE, Nick helped launch the Digital Public Finance Hub, a new learning initiative around the digital transformation of public finance, as a consultant at Public Digital. He began his career working on research, policy, and advocacy at the Digital Impact Alliance — conducting research on topics including national digital transformation processes, open-source in government, and digital transformation policy — and was a Fellow at the Portulans Institute.
Nick holds an undergraduate dual degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in Political Science and History, and graduated with an MSc in Global Development from the University of Copenhagen in 2018.
Jan Krewer is a public policy and digital transformation advisor, with working experience in Europe and Africa. He is currently Senior Policy Analyst at the Open Future Foundation. Jan previously served as a Strategic Advisor at the Smart Africa Alliance and Deputy Secretary-General of the French Digital Council. As an independent consultant, Jan collaborated with various organizations, including the German development cooperation agency (GIZ), the Mozilla Foundation, the French Development Agency (AFD) and the World Bank Group, exploring how to mobilize communities and digital commons to achieve sustainable development goals. He has been a teacher at Sciences Po and is particularly interested in data regulation, knowledge commons and the intersections of digital technologies and the environment.
In his professional life, Daniel Brumund (he/him) works as technical advisor on AI and digital public goods with GIZ's initiative "FAIR Forward - Artificial Intelligence for All". Recently, he has been focusing on community-driven data collection, NLP in low-resource languages, open-source business models as well as equitable data governance and licensing towards more inclusive, open and sustainable AI.
Privately, Daniel loves the outdoors, sitting under a tree with a thought-provoking book, attempts to be a photographer during travels, and generally operates better with a good flat white and sufficient food.
Paul Keller (1974) is co-founder and Director of Policy at Open Future and President of the COMMUNIA Association for the Public Domain. Paul has over 20 years of experience as a media activist, open policy advocate, and systems architect for improving access to knowledge and culture. A political scientist by training, Paul has a deep understanding of the digital transformation’s political, social and legal implications. Prior to founding Open Future Paul was co-director of Kennisland, an Amsterdam-based think-tank working on issues related to the knowledge economy.
Paul is a research fellow at the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam and sits on the advisory boards of the Glushko & Samuelson Information Law and Policy Lab and the Europeana Foundation and on the board of Public Spaces, a coalition of Dutch civil society organizations working on public digital infrastructures.
Sophie leads Commons Network, a think tank and collaboratory for the new economy. Advocating for digital commons is a key element of their work.