WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:11.000 So, yeah, this data space for democracy is a project we started with partners like open 00:11.000 --> 00:17.160 source politics and a metropolis of Bordeaux, but I'm going to talk to you a little more 00:17.160 --> 00:19.920 about why we need data spaces. 00:19.920 --> 00:24.680 When we interact digitally today, we use platforms. 00:24.680 --> 00:30.800 And that means, if you want to send me a message or to sell me a product or whatever 00:30.800 --> 00:37.240 to organize whatever online, you need to use a certain platform, you need to use their 00:37.240 --> 00:41.960 software, you need to give them all your data, you need to use their algorithm and use 00:41.960 --> 00:44.760 and accept their terms and conditions. 00:44.760 --> 00:49.720 And if you don't do that, then you cannot interact with me basically. 00:49.720 --> 00:53.720 So, this creates a lot of issues because this creates monopolies. 00:53.720 --> 00:59.440 I mean, you've heard of Cambridge Analytica and, I don't know, the problem with Google 00:59.440 --> 01:00.440 in the press. 01:00.440 --> 01:05.400 And I mean, there are like thousands of examples of why this is a problem. 01:05.400 --> 01:06.880 But there are alternatives. 01:06.880 --> 01:15.320 When you send me an email and most of you probably have used matrix as a chat system, 01:15.320 --> 01:18.480 this doesn't have the same conditions. 01:18.520 --> 01:23.040 You don't need to use the same app as me in order to interact with me. 01:23.040 --> 01:29.440 And that can not only be applied to chat and emails that could be actually applied to anything 01:29.440 --> 01:33.920 any kind of digital interactions. 01:33.920 --> 01:38.800 And there are actually a big movement in that direction today. 01:38.800 --> 01:45.400 The European Commission has been launching their data strategy something like five years ago. 01:45.400 --> 01:50.800 And the W3C with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, has pushed some standards 01:50.800 --> 01:53.920 who might have heard of solid. 01:53.920 --> 02:02.600 And all of these are going into a direction where we can interact online without relying 02:02.600 --> 02:08.160 on a platform that will intimidate us. 02:08.160 --> 02:14.640 For the European Commission, it's basically the idea is a lot of markets. 02:14.640 --> 02:22.840 The ones we've just talked about were intimidated by platforms recently and that created 02:22.840 --> 02:29.120 like Uber with the working conditions of the drivers and that created a lot of issues like that. 02:29.120 --> 02:36.000 And the idea is that if that were to happen to B2B markets, like imagine, for example, 02:36.000 --> 02:41.600 the common manufacturers in Europe were to be intimidated by an American platform or a Chinese 02:41.600 --> 02:46.640 platform that would obviously be a huge problem for the whole European economy. 02:46.640 --> 02:52.040 So that's why the European Commission has been investing a lot of effort on that. 02:52.040 --> 02:58.360 And so there's a lot of data spaces that are being pushed in the industry. 02:58.360 --> 03:07.160 And yeah, the W3C is working more on what's relating to users and personal data and 03:07.160 --> 03:08.840 all of that. 03:08.840 --> 03:12.560 And that's actually a big thing that changes a lot. 03:12.560 --> 03:17.840 Very quickly what it means in a bit more technical way. 03:17.840 --> 03:22.160 It means basically that any app can access data wherever it is. 03:22.160 --> 03:28.160 So instead of having one platform that's a silo where everything is enclosed, you can use 03:28.160 --> 03:33.360 the app you want, you can store the data wherever you want, and you can interact with me. 03:33.360 --> 03:38.080 And I can use the app I want, I don't have to use the same app as you do. 03:38.080 --> 03:43.120 And same thing vulgar items, same things for terms and conditions or whatever. 03:43.120 --> 03:49.280 So instead of having one platform, you end up having any consistent applications that 03:49.280 --> 03:59.600 then interact and exchange data and store the data wherever the users want to store the data. 03:59.600 --> 04:01.840 Why it matters for a bunch of us? 04:01.840 --> 04:07.080 Because today, if you have a platform like Facebook, for example, opens all these 04:07.080 --> 04:08.080 useless. 04:08.080 --> 04:11.520 I mean, you have one Facebook, you can make another Facebook if you want, but all the users 04:11.520 --> 04:16.480 are in Facebook or TikTok or put whatever platforms they're in you want there. 04:16.480 --> 04:20.800 So there's no need for open source there, there's only one code base and it's controlled 04:20.800 --> 04:21.960 by one company. 04:21.960 --> 04:27.680 If we move to a data space logic, then we have a lot of different apps, you can have yours. 04:27.680 --> 04:33.440 I can reuse your app, I can modify it for my specific needs and I can redistribute it. 04:33.440 --> 04:39.080 And so this is the real chance for open source to actually create apps and ecosystem 04:39.080 --> 04:45.680 of apps that can be taken by communities. 04:45.680 --> 04:51.160 Because obviously, I mean, who can believe that 4 billion of users have exactly the same 04:51.160 --> 04:54.760 needs when it comes to a social media, right? 04:54.760 --> 04:59.800 So the idea is that with Facebook, you have one interface for everyone, in a data space, 04:59.840 --> 05:05.720 you can have as many apps as you want for all the specific needs. 05:05.720 --> 05:07.640 And now it matters for democracy. 05:07.640 --> 05:15.280 Today, there's a lot of digital democracy initiatives, a lot of various ways. 05:15.280 --> 05:22.080 You have consultations, as we've just discussed, you can send emails to members of parliament, 05:22.080 --> 05:28.480 you have consultations from the parliament, but also from cities, you have petitions, you 05:28.480 --> 05:37.120 have a lot of social media discussions, but all of them are completely isolated, isolated. 05:37.120 --> 05:38.920 There's no link between them. 05:38.920 --> 05:44.120 And so if you send an email to a member of parliament today, then tomorrow, when there is 05:44.120 --> 05:48.320 a consultation about the same subject, well, you will have to create a new account on a new 05:48.320 --> 05:53.160 platform and create a new message on that platform and that we'll be used only once. 05:53.160 --> 05:56.600 And you don't even know how it's going to be used. 05:56.600 --> 06:00.680 With a data space logic, we can have, we can create links between all of that. 06:00.680 --> 06:06.840 So that's the contribution you've made once on a platform, on a social media, wherever 06:06.840 --> 06:12.440 can be actually reused by the European Commission when they do the policy, by your city, 06:12.440 --> 06:18.520 when they make their own regulation, and by, I don't know, the cities of safety association 06:18.520 --> 06:25.200 when they want to interact with people who have certain ideas. 06:25.200 --> 06:35.600 So the idea behind that is to create a common conversation between all the interactions 06:35.600 --> 06:42.600 that happen online and get out of this situation that we have today, where on social 06:42.600 --> 06:51.800 media, you have millions of people who try to be heard and no one listens to anyone. 06:51.800 --> 06:55.560 So that's what we've been working on for the last year. 06:55.560 --> 07:03.080 We've published a vision paper in a few months ago, stating where these data space can 07:03.080 --> 07:11.960 lead us, how it could be made, and we've built a few proof of concept that shows basically 07:11.960 --> 07:18.640 the different consultations online today that are interesting to you based on a certain 07:18.720 --> 07:27.760 subject that you want to follow, and also use AI tools to actually give you an idea of what 07:27.760 --> 07:34.240 people think, what are the current trends, what are the consensus or the consensus in the 07:34.240 --> 07:36.880 different conversations. 07:36.880 --> 07:40.880 This can be used as a citizen tool. 07:40.880 --> 07:46.120 If you're concerned by a certain subject, you want to know where you can contribute, then 07:46.120 --> 07:50.440 this tool can give you all the discussions that happen on a certain subject as a certain 07:50.440 --> 07:51.440 moment. 07:51.440 --> 07:56.200 It can be used by policy makers because they also need to know what people think, 07:56.200 --> 08:02.080 what people say about a certain subject at a certain time. 08:02.080 --> 08:10.320 And so we've built this proof of concept where actually working today to engage more 08:10.400 --> 08:18.640 of civil society organizations to use it, to actually experiment with it, and the 08:18.640 --> 08:26.080 ideas to move forward in the next few months to actually scale the thing and connect it 08:26.080 --> 08:31.080 to more sources online. 08:31.080 --> 08:32.880 So that's it for me. 08:32.880 --> 08:39.600 We shout if you want to know more, there's my email address, and yep, have a good day.