Strengthening digital civil society!
In 2020 we initiated the initiative Digitale Zivilgesellschaft. We developed a set of political demands for a sustainable and just digitalization. In 2021 we reworked the demands for the Federal Elections in Germany. Over 80 civil society organizations are part of the initative. In 2021 we published a publication with 15 visions with the title “Per Anhalter in die Digitale Zukunft.” You can read more about it here.
Our motivation:
Digitization is not a purely technical issue, but first and foremost a social issue: It is about fundamental social issues such as justice, solidarity, participation and access. To implement it sustainably and socially, the focus must be on societal needs and challenges. That is why we, as civil society organizations committed to an open and public good-oriented digital infrastructure and free access to knowledge, are calling for this.
Our key recommendations:
I Civil society needs to be included in the discussion when digital policy is discussed.
II We need new methods of support and funding that are tailored to the needs of digital civil society.
III We need new ramifications for public procurement so that they benefit society in a more sustainable way: Open Data, Open Access and Open Source are a basic requirement for public contracts.
IV Digital infrastructure is critical infrastructure. We need a commitment for long-time support that also covers maintenance of widely-used software, libraries and protocols.