NGI Commons project officially launched

A new NGI project coordinated by Martel officially kicked off yesterday. Feeding into the wider NGI ecosystem, the NGI Commons project has been conceived and organized with an ambition to ensure integration and alignment with national and European digital commons policies.

As remarked by Dr Monique Calisti, the NGI Outreach Office Director, “the NGI Commons project has been built on a clear comprehension of the technological, research, socio-economic, legal, and policy-related factors relevant to the broader NGI ecosystem, and the planned activities have been designed to not only facilitate access to the NGI resources and funding to grow digital/internet commons initiatives but also generate value for the wider group of the NGI stakeholders.” 

About NGI Commons 

NGI Commons is a three-year Coordination and Support Action (CSA) answering to the HORIZON-CL4-2023-HUMAN-01-04 Call: Next Generation Internet Commons Policy (Call). In the next 36 months, the project will be elaborating on a long-term strategy for digital/internet commons, which are critical for sovereignty and trust. The project will help overcome fragmentation and close the gap between grassroot commoners’ initiatives and top-down sovereignty policies. This will serve the purpose of creating a more coherent European funding landscape across both public and private sectors. 

 What are digital/internet commons? Project scope and ambition 

Digital/internet commons are a form of commons involving the distribution and communal ownership of information resources and technology. Examples of digital/internet commons include open 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 rights, such as privacy and data protection, open knowledge and participation, user control over personal data, decentralization, inclusiveness, and 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. The NGI Commons project was established as a response to the above-mentioned points. The project will contribute to the following outcomes expected by the Call: 

• a stronger integration of the NGI initiative and its vision and ecosystem with the digital/internet commons policies at the national and European level, 
• a long-term strategy for digital/internet commons based on a clear mapping of existing communities of commoners and commons, 
• a smooth articulation of bottom-up activities of European commoners’ communities and top-down policy priorities (e.g., reuse of commons, avoiding overlaps), and 
• a more coherent funding landscape integrating national and European dimensions from public and private sectors. 

The activities planned by the NGI Commons project will not only help facilitate access to the NGI resources and funding to grow digital commons initiatives but also generate value for the wider NGI community. This value-generation-driven approach will be supported by an in-depth understanding and privileged access to the NGI tools and mechanisms and the consortium’s strong competencies and well-established connections across Europe and beyond. By liaising with bottom-up initiatives in the digital commons and open-source scenes and engaging with top-down policy and regulatory efforts and experts, the NGI Commons project will pave the way for digital/internet commons as core building blocks of Europe’s digital sovereignty. 

 Martel’s role in NGI Commons 

Martel’s Dutch branch (Martel Innovate BV) will ensure professional and effective coordination of the project, in addition to engaging digital/internet commons experts to analyze the NGI portfolio. The Martel team is well positioned to perform these tasks thanks to its experience in leading and operating the NGI Outreach Office and its deep understanding of the NGI community’s evolution, plans, and needs. In the meantime, Martel’s Swiss branch (Martel GmbH) will guide the Work Package dedicated to outreach and impact creation through its team’s consolidated experience with the CSAs dynamics, complemented by strong technical experience in internet technologies and communication and community building in multidisciplinary settings. Martel Switzerland will also lead strategic clustering activities ensuring smooth and effective collaboration with the relevant NGI stakeholders. 

 Who else is in 

In addition to Martel Innovate BV (the Netherlands), which coordinates the project and Martel GmbH (Switzerland), which leads impact creation activities, the NGI Commons consortium brings experts from OpenForum Europe (Belgium), CNRS (France), Open Future (the Netherlands), and the Linux Foundation Europe (Belgium). Thanks to these partners’ in-depth know-how and a thorough understanding of the European policy landscape, their direct involvement in the European digital/internet commons and open-source scenes, as well as Martel’s experience, position, and deep understanding of the NGI needs and evolution, the NGI Commons consortium is well equipped to achieve the ambitious objectives and expected outcomes of the Call.