Keynote opening Digital Commons EDIC: Moving beyond the Digital Uncommons - Bert Hubert's writings

Keynote opening Digital Commons EDIC: Moving beyond the Digital Uncommons Last Thursday, 11th of December, saw the launch of the new Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium . In attendance were delegations from the launching member states (and the observers). Also present were the many forefathers (and mothers) of this initiative. Of particular note, the launch also included demonstrations of LaSuite software from France , as well as the OpenDesk software from Germany . The Dutch government showcased their amalgamated suite MijnBureau , which joins parts of the German and French initiatives. Now, I’ve not been part of the DC EDIC preparations, but I’m a well informed outsider, so I was very pleased and grateful to have been invited to do a keynote address. For preparation, I read the official website of the DC EDIC, which at that time ( archive copy ) had all kinds of worthy goals outlined, but these seemed relatively modest. Coordinate, facilitate, create a hub, policy and legal advice, hand out an award, that kind of stuff. This was also what I prepared for. Celebrating the kickoff of the DC EDIC with the Visio video conference software from LaSuite Yet at the actual meeting, things were much wilder than that. There were rousing speeches outlining in very clear cut terms just how dire Europe’s situation is in terms of digital autonomy, and clearly stating that there is an urgent need to take action. There was talk of actually regaining digital autonomy, so we can write government documents without sharing these with the US first. Based on the case of the International Criminal Court, it was clarified that Europe is now very vulnerable to US sanctions, and that such sanctions are actually happening. My talk now looked a bit anemic compared to these strong but very welcome words. I was especially happy to hear some tremendous clarity from Thibaut Kleiner , director over at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT. A few weeks ago I attended another EU-heavy event, where there was a lamentable assumption that things were still normal in the US, or would soon be so again . No such confusion was to be heard during the DC EDIC launch. Chair Art de Blaauw also delivered a very clear message. This was encouraging, and I wish everyone all the best with the new EDIC, and I hope that with good thinking, we can achieve great things. I can well imagine this EDIC becoming a nucleus of great change. Spoilers - click here for a somewhat detailed summary of my talk The tl;dr of my talk below: I start with outlining in some detail just how messed up things have become. Not only are we completely dependent on US technology, we’ve also culturally have come to accept that it is fine to do government communications on platforms that immediately surround your communications with conspiracy theories and antivax content. Also even our data protection authorities and secret services don’t manage to prevent having their sites and newsletters...

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