Digital commons are a form of commons involving the distribution and communal ownership of information resources and technology.
The digital/internet commons (EC) includes open source software, open hardware, open design, open licensing, open standards and open data.
Over the last few decades, digital/internet commons have become essential components supporting sovereignty, trust, democratic values, and fundamental digital rights and principles, such as privacy and data protection, open knowledge and participation, user control over personal data, decentralisation, inclusiveness, and a green transition, among others.
Their economic and geopolitical importance has been growing exponentially, gathering increasing momentum across several communities, in line with the Digital Decade principles.
But while digital/internet commons are critical in our digital life, their importance is not fully reflected at the strategic level with little representation of the communities involved, lack of structure, gaps between grassroot commoners and top-down sovereignty policies, and a fragmented funding landscape.
By liaising with bottom-up initiatives in the digital/internet commons and open-source scenes and engaging with top-down policy and regulatory efforts and experts, the ambition of the “Digital/internet commons (EU)” project is to pave the way for digital/internet commons as core building blocks of Europe’s digital sovereignty.
Next Generation Internet. Open Source and Internet Commons for Europe’s Digital Sovereignty (NGI Commons)
