The matchmaking track brings together supply and demand, forging new alliances and building collaborations. The roundtable sessions aim to bring together new parties from different disciplines around a single topic. The conversation serves as an introduction and starting point for a working group or collaboration, even after the conference.
The PublicSpaces manifesto offers fine words, software should be open, transparent, sovereign, user-centric. But how do you know if the tools you use are? How do you take that inventory of the tools your organisation uses? How do you score them on the PublicSpaces values and most importantly, how do you switch to an alternative? At this session, we will connect public organisations with providers of alternatives and learn from each other.
Moderator
Laura Krabbe (PublicSpaces)
Table guests
- Wouter Moraal (Manyverse)
- Natasja Straat (Eye Filmmuseum)
- Gerben van Heijningen (VPRO)
- Jos Poortvliet (Nextcloud)
- Roel Roscam Abbing (researcher, designer and artist)
Recap
Gerben (VPRO): Reason: we want to adhere to PublicSpaces (PS) values but the step to actually implementing them is big. First step: internal awareness. Exercise using PublicSpaces manifesto focused on external tooling (around delivery of web ecosystem). Created scoring model for tools, trying to concretise the values of PublicSpaces into a set of sub-questions. Different levels: from guidelines for internal use to communication to end user (what data do you store and why, what choices do you make). Tricky: balancing values while maximising impact/reach. Also tricky: decisions on tooling do not lie with one department (or at least often with ICT, which operates from other values). Idea to centralise decisions more. And dialogue with other broadcasters would be useful.
Jos (NextCloud): self-hosted, keep data on your own server giving you control as an organisation/user. Conscious policy: interoperability as 'weapon' (offer good, user-friendly product, enable gradual and easy transition). Support larger organisations (model of Linux).
Natasja (EYE): really do something. First small steps in the department (switch to Signal), awareness about privacy and data mining. Part of EYE persuaded to NextCloud, but not yet (financially) feasible for the whole organisation - trying to get educational licence (as with Microsoft). Eventually: willingness of department to switch because externals were also involved (you can't force them on bad technology). Is about taking risks and responsibility ! "Sometimes things go wrong, but that's the price you pay for pioneering."
Wouter (ManyVerse): new kind of social media app, built on'human stack'. Distributed base via decentralised 'chains' (kind of blockchain), all data is on phones themselves (i.e. without servers and logging in). Now: information asymmetry on social media platforms (organisations manipulate users, and Facebook plays those organisations against each other again). Vicious circle. Role of public organisations: be more active, invest in open-source alternatives (spread out) and help them grow (e.g. offer servers) instead of waiting to see where your users go and spend money on that
Roel: instead of looking for alternatives (which will never function as well, or even if they do technically, use will depend on familiarity, social aspects, etc.) set up other services yourself. Back to basics: what do we want to achieve with a service? From where do we operate? Otherwise we will always fall behind. (e.g. as happened in the art corner: new kind of design tools set up with their own paradigms).
"We can wait for regulations or alternatives that are just as easy in terms of ease of use, but then nothing will ever happen. Just dare!"
Natasja street, eye film museum
Key points
- First step: take stock, understand what PS values mean for your organisation
- PS could show user cases (for inspiration/practical tools/feedback, don't keep reinventing the wheel)
- Think from the demand of public broadcasters: innovate instead of trying to offer alternatives for existing services
- Don't wait but dare as an organisation!
- PS could facilitate cooperation for funding: joint pooling for research/purchasing
- PS organisations could jointly exert pressure to move platforms towards PS values