The Future is Decentralized and Federated
Many of Europe's digital services run on centralized platforms owned by a handful of corporations outside the EU. When those owners change course, users have little say. This talk makes the case for decentralized services that federate through open protocols. It addresses the necessity of these alternatives, and how individuals and institutions can use and support these open ecosystems. We'll dive into real-world examples, from EU-federated codeplatforms, app stores and applications, to ethical social media alternatives.
Decentralized federation is a simple idea with far-reaching consequences. Independently hosted services connect through open protocols, so each service stays under the control of whoever runs it while still reaching everyone else on the network. Ownership sits with the many rather than the few, which is an important foundation for digital sovereignty.
This concept can be put into practice by individuals, communities and institutions. Anyone can host Nextcloud and share files with users on other servers. Or set up a Matrix server for chat, or PeerTube for video. Several European governments, including the European Commission, now publish information on their own Mastodon instances. This way they can engage with citizens anywhere on the #fediverse. Meanwhile, the Dutch government is building federation into Forgejo's code forge, which will let developers collaborate across a network of codeplatforms. All of these services work without US big tech control.
This talk addresses the necessity of choosing open, decentralized, and federated alternatives over centralized tech. It gives real-world examples and practical steps towards more digital sovereignty. Public institutions also have a role to play in keeping community-run infrastructure healthy over the long term. Running an instance is one contribution. Supporting and contributing to the projects upstream is another, and it is what turns a promising ecosystem into infrastructure people can rely on.
Gina draws on years of using open alternatives, her OSPO policy work within the Dutch government, her experience as admin of Fosstodon.org, and board membership of F-Droid; a decentralized community-run mobile app store.
The session is aimed at technical and non-technical attendees alike. After the talk, attendees should be able to explain the importance of selfhosting and the concept of federation, with a clear sense of first steps that they and their own organisation could take.
Gina Plat was the Interim Lead of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) for the Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). She recently joined the open source industry as Head of GovTech at OpenProject, where she helps governments become more digitally sovereign. Gina has firsthand experience with public sector challenges of procurement, policy, and governance around open ecosystems. As an advocate for open source alternatives, she has been active on Mastodon server Fosstodon.org for years and is a board member of F-Droid; a community-run, open source mobile app store.