So, yeah, this data space for democracy is a project we started with partners like open
source politics and a metropolis of Bordeaux, but I'm going to talk to you a little more
about why we need data spaces.
When we interact digitally today, we use platforms.
And that means, if you want to send me a message or to sell me a product or whatever
to organize whatever online, you need to use a certain platform, you need to use their
software, you need to give them all your data, you need to use their algorithm and use
and accept their terms and conditions.
And if you don't do that, then you cannot interact with me basically.
So, this creates a lot of issues because this creates monopolies.
I mean, you've heard of Cambridge Analytica and, I don't know, the problem with Google
in the press.
And I mean, there are like thousands of examples of why this is a problem.
But there are alternatives.
When you send me an email and most of you probably have used matrix as a chat system,
this doesn't have the same conditions.
You don't need to use the same app as me in order to interact with me.
And that can not only be applied to chat and emails that could be actually applied to anything
any kind of digital interactions.
And there are actually a big movement in that direction today.
The European Commission has been launching their data strategy something like five years ago.
And the W3C with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, has pushed some standards
who might have heard of solid.
And all of these are going into a direction where we can interact online without relying
on a platform that will intimidate us.
For the European Commission, it's basically the idea is a lot of markets.
The ones we've just talked about were intimidated by platforms recently and that created
like Uber with the working conditions of the drivers and that created a lot of issues like that.
And the idea is that if that were to happen to B2B markets, like imagine, for example,
the common manufacturers in Europe were to be intimidated by an American platform or a Chinese
platform that would obviously be a huge problem for the whole European economy.
So that's why the European Commission has been investing a lot of effort on that.
And so there's a lot of data spaces that are being pushed in the industry.
And yeah, the W3C is working more on what's relating to users and personal data and
all of that.
And that's actually a big thing that changes a lot.
Very quickly what it means in a bit more technical way.
It means basically that any app can access data wherever it is.
So instead of having one platform that's a silo where everything is enclosed, you can use
the app you want, you can store the data wherever you want, and you can interact with me.
And I can use the app I want, I don't have to use the same app as you do.
And same thing vulgar items, same things for terms and conditions or whatever.
So instead of having one platform, you end up having any consistent applications that
then interact and exchange data and store the data wherever the users want to store the data.
Why it matters for a bunch of us?
Because today, if you have a platform like Facebook, for example, opens all these
useless.
I mean, you have one Facebook, you can make another Facebook if you want, but all the users
are in Facebook or TikTok or put whatever platforms they're in you want there.
So there's no need for open source there, there's only one code base and it's controlled
by one company.
If we move to a data space logic, then we have a lot of different apps, you can have yours.
I can reuse your app, I can modify it for my specific needs and I can redistribute it.
And so this is the real chance for open source to actually create apps and ecosystem
of apps that can be taken by communities.
Because obviously, I mean, who can believe that 4 billion of users have exactly the same
needs when it comes to a social media, right?
So the idea is that with Facebook, you have one interface for everyone, in a data space,
you can have as many apps as you want for all the specific needs.
And now it matters for democracy.
Today, there's a lot of digital democracy initiatives, a lot of various ways.
You have consultations, as we've just discussed, you can send emails to members of parliament,
you have consultations from the parliament, but also from cities, you have petitions, you
have a lot of social media discussions, but all of them are completely isolated, isolated.
There's no link between them.
And so if you send an email to a member of parliament today, then tomorrow, when there is
a consultation about the same subject, well, you will have to create a new account on a new
platform and create a new message on that platform and that we'll be used only once.
And you don't even know how it's going to be used.
With a data space logic, we can have, we can create links between all of that.
So that's the contribution you've made once on a platform, on a social media, wherever
can be actually reused by the European Commission when they do the policy, by your city,
when they make their own regulation, and by, I don't know, the cities of safety association
when they want to interact with people who have certain ideas.
So the idea behind that is to create a common conversation between all the interactions
that happen online and get out of this situation that we have today, where on social
media, you have millions of people who try to be heard and no one listens to anyone.
So that's what we've been working on for the last year.
We've published a vision paper in a few months ago, stating where these data space can
lead us, how it could be made, and we've built a few proof of concept that shows basically
the different consultations online today that are interesting to you based on a certain
subject that you want to follow, and also use AI tools to actually give you an idea of what
people think, what are the current trends, what are the consensus or the consensus in the
different conversations.
This can be used as a citizen tool.
If you're concerned by a certain subject, you want to know where you can contribute, then
this tool can give you all the discussions that happen on a certain subject as a certain
moment.
It can be used by policy makers because they also need to know what people think,
what people say about a certain subject at a certain time.
And so we've built this proof of concept where actually working today to engage more
of civil society organizations to use it, to actually experiment with it, and the
ideas to move forward in the next few months to actually scale the thing and connect it
to more sources online.
So that's it for me.
We shout if you want to know more, there's my email address, and yep, have a good day.