Event Details

Open Source. Digital Sovereignty. The Open Stack. What does it all mean?

Open source and digital sovereignty are closely related. While open source does not suffice for digital sovereignty, it is a critical building block. While definitions of digital sovereignty vary, it is generally accepted that digital sovereignty at the national level entails the ability to independently control everything from infrastructure to hardware to software to data.

During a day of conversation on the margins of UNGA 81, leading civil society and digital rights organizations will come together to examine balancing aspirations for digital sovereignty with open collaboration, discussing questions such as:

• Where are open practices complementary, and where is there friction?
• How does this vary at different levels of the open stack – from infrastructure to software to data?
• What can we learn from conceptions of sovereignty at the individual and community level?
• How does Middle Power Collaboration enter the equation?

We will continue to update our agenda as more speakers are confirmed.

Sessions include:

• Open Collaboration / Open Sovereignty (Panel)
  • Panelists include:
    • Vidisha Mishra, Director of Global Outreach and Policy at Global Solutions Initiative (moderator)
    • Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO of the Digital Public Goods Alliance
    • Mitchell Baker, Co-Founder of the Mozilla Project
    • Paul Samson, President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
• Open Hardware (Lightning Talk)
  • Michael Weinberg, Executive Director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy at the NYU School of Law
• Open Infrastructure (Panel)
  • Panelists include:
    • Monica Granados, Director of Open Science at Creative Commons
    • Kaitlin Thaney, Executive Director of Invest in Open Infrastructure
    • Jan Gerlach, Director of Public Policy at Wikimedia Foundation
    • Ellie Bertani, President & CEO of GitLab Foundation
• Open Data (Panel)
  • Panelists include:
    • Angela Oduor Lungati, Executive Director at Ushahidi (moderator)
    • E.M. Lewis-Jong, Founder and CEO at Mozilla Data Collective
    • Chris Lewis, President/CEO of Public Knowledge
    • Jane Anderson, Co-Founder of Local Contexts & Professor at New York University
• Open Source Software (Panel)
  • Panelists include:
    • Ilan Strauss, AI Disclosures Project (moderator)
    • Duane O’Brien, Executive Director at Open Source Initiative
    • Amanda Casari, Manager at Google Open Source
    • Madiha Zahrah Choksi, Columbia University
    • Ben Moskowitz, Founder of Two Planets
• General remarks
  • Tomicah Tillemann, President of Project Liberty
  • Anna Tumadóttir, CEO of Creative Commons

Doors will open at 9:30 am. Programming runs from 10 am–3 pm with a midday lunch break.

Co-Organizers

Thank you to our event sponsor, Siegel Family Endowment!