IGF 2020 Pre-Event #73 Shared Digital – how to build a Public Civic Online Ecosystem

We would all like to move the direction of a more equitable and democratic digital environment, where basic liberties and rights are protected, where strong public institutions function in the public interest, and where people have a say in how their digital environment functions. How do we go about this?

This session is organized jointly by Centrum Cyfrowe (Poland), MyData (Finland) and the Commons Network (the Netherlands). We have recently published our alternative policy frameworks and regulatory visions: the Shared Digital Europe vision and the A New Governance manifesto.

We want to extend this conversation and ask, how can we build together a global Shared Digital space - a digital ecosystem created with a strong involvement of public and civic actors. We believe that seeing the digital space only as a marketplace is short-sighted and unrepresentative of its effect on our lives.

We want to explore together alternatives to an ecosystem that is dominated by platforms:  commercial intermediaries with a monopolistic position. For this purpose, we conceptualise an interoperable public civic ecosystem that functions thanks to a set of standards, infrastructures,  and services built on shared values. During the session we want to explore characteristics of such an ecosystem.

The session will be moderated by Alek Tarkowski (Centrum Cyfrowe, Poland). Speakers will include Renata Avila (Guatemala), Sophie Bloemen (The Commons Network, the Netherlands), Matthias De Bièvre (Visions / MyData, France) and Paul Keller (Communia, the Netherlands).