Community Infrastructure Clinic: From Dependency to Digital Sovereignty
What does a healthy digital infrastructure look like and how can communities know whether they are truly in control of the technologies they depend on? Join our "the Community Infrastructure Clinic: From Dependency to Digital Sovereignty" hands-on workshop, facilitated by Marta Andreoli and Sofía Aritz, to learn about Device Neutrality and why it is important for digital sovereignty.
Participants will become “digital infrastructure doctors” and work in small groups to diagnose diverse fictional community cases, using different tools and strategies for it. The aim is for them to develop a “treatment plan” by creating a digital infrastructure prescription: 5–7 principles for a healthy infrastructure using Free Software, open standards, interoperability, decentralised and/or self-hosted approaches and cooperative governance.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework for assessing digital dependencies and a set of questions they can apply when evaluating or designing Free Software and decentralised solutions for their own organisations and communities.
- Meet the patient (Map the community phase)
Participants work in small groups with a fictional community case. They map what the community needs to preserve, share and organise, and identify the digital tools and infrastructures it currently relies on. - Diagnosis (Identify the dependencies phase)
Each community has a “symptom”, such as dependence on a proprietary platform or a lack of interoperability. Groups investigate what lies behind the symptom: who controls the infrastructure, the data and access; what happens when providers change their terms; and whether the community can switch, migrate or maintain the service itself. - Treatment (Design a healthier infrastructure)
Groups redesign the infrastructure using open source, interoperability, decentralisation, self-hosting and community governance as possible approaches. They also consider the less visible challenges of digital sovereignty: who maintains the infrastructure, who has administrative access, what happens when people leave, and how the community can retain the ability to change or migrate.
The workshop concludes with each group creating a “digital infrastructure prescription”: 5–7 principles for a healthy infrastructure and one concrete initiative to put one of those principles into practice. Groups then share their prescriptions and reflect on what makes digital infrastructure genuinely community-controlled and resilient.
Community builder and ecosystem strategist, Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Freelance
Curious, outgoing, and deeply inspired by nature, I am passionate about bringing people together and building communities that create meaningful impact. My work sits at the intersection of community building, ecosystem strategy, and innovation, helping organizations foster engagement, collaboration, and growth.
With a background in international marketing, design thinking, and facilitation, I enjoy creating spaces where people can connect, learn, and contribute to a shared vision. Whether I'm designing workshops, developing partnerships, or supporting open and collaborative ecosystems, I'm motivated by purpose-driven work and human connection.
Sofía is a programmer turned policy person. She has worked on projects with social impact, seeking solutions that promote personal digital autonomy - such as Munin, a winning project of YH4F 2024. Currently, she is working at the intersection of the technical and political aspects of software, helping build a fairer technological ecosystem.
Sofía is supporting the FSFE in its "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative, coordinating the FSFE's engagement with the Interoperable Europe ecosystem, and is part of the System Hackers - the group taking care of the low level infrastructure of the FSFE. Besides, she is studying a programme in Social Sciences at the VUB/UGent.