On 6 and 7 June, PublicSpaces and Waag Futurelab will organise the fourth edition of the PublicSpaces conference with the theme 'Taking Back the Internet'. The two-day programme will take place at Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam. Through panels, keynotes, roundtable sessions, lectures, art and culture, we will work our way towards an internet where we set the rules collectively. 

In 2024, most digital services and platforms are owned by a few Big Tech companies. This centralisation of power does not align with how the internet was conceived. It creates society-disrupting problems. From privacy violations and influencing election results to discrimination by biased algorithms, Big Tech's monopoly affects everyone. 

How do we - as citizens, organisations and governments - regain control of our data and our digital lives? If we want to be able to decide for ourselves what our digital ecosystem looks like, we need to be able to make independent decisions about the design, use and management of digital tools and platforms. During the conference, we will engage with speakers, visitors and artists on data ownership, privacy, interoperability, decentralisation and more. In short: technology based on public values.

The PublicSpaces Foundation is a unique coalition of various public organisations, such as public broadcasters, municipalities, educational, healthcare and heritage institutions, festivals, libraries and museums. They are united in their desire to reduce the reliance on Big Tech and the accompanying privacy violations, algorithmic coercion and misuse of public data. Under the PublicSpaces umbrella, they are working together to build an alternative digital ecosystem based on public values. Those values are articulated in the PublicSpaces Manifesto and endorsed by the entire coalition.