Index digital sovereignty
Digital sovereignty, i.e. the ability to shape and control the digital world, has now become very popular. However, although many political players can agree that digital sovereignty needs to be strengthened, it is often unclear how this should be achieved or demonstrated.
Making digital sovereignty measurable and operationalizable
For this reason, the Open Source Business Alliance (OSB) and the Weizenbaum Institute have launched a project to make digital sovereignty measurable. An index for digital sovereignty, which examines parameters from a wide range of areas and translates them into indicators, provides a picture of the situation and can show whether the level of digital sovereignty has changed over time. From this, appropriate measures can be derived for politics, business and society in order to make adjustments to individual indicators in order to achieve the political goals that have been set. A scientifically sound and widely supported index for digital sovereignty increases transparency and makes it easier to discuss specific political measures.
Kick-off workshop at the Weizenbaum Institute
Following a lot of positive feedback on the new project idea, OSB Alliance and the Weizenbaum Institute took the first step towards designing an index for digital sovereignty at the end of September 2022. As different ideas and definitions of the term are circulating, we have made our understanding of digital sovereignty transparent in the recently revised OSB Alliance guidelines.
Initial ideas and concepts were developed in a workshop format together with representatives from a wide range of organizations from science, business, civil society and administration. The workshop participants jointly identified characteristics of digital sovereignty for the categories of state, economy and individual. In the next step, these characteristics must be translated into measurable indicators and brought together to form a coherent picture. As there are interactions between the categories, there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of content and methodology.
The project is therefore still in its infancy. However, it was already clear at the workshop that there is a great willingness across the various participating organizations to face the challenges and continue the development of an index for digital sovereignty together. The OSB Alliance and the Weizenbaum Institute will now continue to drive this initiative forward together on a scientific basis.
