Continuing the discussion from Architects of our Digital Future Talk from Nextcloud Conference 2022:
I’ve transcribed the 40-minute video into a bullet point article for here on the forum. Please enjoy.
Interoperable power and access through money means we need to change the narrative with new building blocks and creating more open technology infrastructure, which is designed to scale for different needs. We have the most educated generation on planet earth and can do this together! Here are my 8 principles:
Data abundance and a sense of urgency.
1. Universal design principles, advancing peoples’ rights
Right to privacy
Declaration of human rights
Legislation only applies to citizens. Them and us.
Universality embedded into technology is a must. Designed with principal in mind and higher levels of protection for everyone.
2. Building upon other knowledge
Technology is not a vacuum, but built upon technologies of the past.
Multi-disciplinary process and we are learning more through communication and feedback.
3. Participatory and Accessible
Access clashes with trade secrets and keeping innovation locked, such as Algorithms in a black box.
We must deploy technology to scale the solutions that we need. This can only happen when companies are willing to contribute, which means never.
4. Reproducible
Less than 7% of global government data that is released is usable.
5. Sustainable
Should be a legal requirement.
In the free software community we see lot of bad community dynamics. Open Knowledge Foundation is an excellent example of cooperation, as opposed to not considering points of view of the democracy instead of only focusing on key contributors.
6. Generative
We invest so much in subsidies and so so little into innovation.
We can harness the power of communities, but all of this stays in prototype phase indefinitely as no one is willing to invest the money to scale.
We need to invest in implementation.
7. Rooted in the local, but interoperable
Seeing the people who coding, and who they are coding for, is critical.
Avoiding those who are working completely apart from your community.
8. Exponential
Remove all barriers to allow the spread of open technologies.
Let’s forget about ourselves and start thinking about finding the technical will to prototype, pilot and finally deploy.
Technology doesn’t have to be so speedy: upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, until your system is obsolete because of my super powerful system.
Closing Remarks
Inclusion is multidimensional: let’s re-direct to local communities even if they are more expensive. We live under very complex systems, which need to change and coordinate in bringing the latest accessible tools. In times of hopelessness we should remember hope is a disciple. And we are better preprared than ever, together, to imagine and build a better future. Let’s start using the actual talent we have today to build the future we want. The possibilities are here, but we need to start to make it more resilient and more fun. Be consistent in your narratives, stop defending the need to protect the super powerful that we already have and make more interconnected, differently shaped buildings all over the world.