Digital public goods
At a recent FOSS4G workshop in Oslo the concept of Digital public goods was presented by Christer Solheim Gundersen from Norad, the Norwegian agency for development cooperation. Digital public goods are resources that are made available online and can be freely accessed, used, and shared by anyone. Examples include open-source software, creative commons media, and other online resources that are intended to be shared and used by the general public. Open standards, open access research, open educational resources, open data, and open processing capacity are other examples of digital public goods.
Digital public goods are resources that are made available online and can be freely accessed, used, and shared by anyone. They may include things and concepts like open-source software, creative commons media, and other online resources that are intended to be shared and used by the general public.
The following are examples of digital public goods:
Open-source software: In short this is software that can be freely accessed, used, and modified by anyone. Examples include the Linux operating system, the PostgreSQL database, the Apache web server, and the LibreOffice productivity suite. Programming languages and their tools are also important contributions. OSGeo is one of the best initiatives for open geospatial soulutions. They coordinate initiatives related to spatial data processing and management. When you need geographical information systems (GIS) this is your one stop shop.
Creative commons media: This includes a wide range of media, such as images, videos, and music, that is available for use and sharing under a creative commons license. This allows users to access and use these resources without having to worry about copyright infringement. Wikimedia commons represents one such source of media.
Open standards: This includes technical specifications or other forms of agreement that are available for anyone to access and use. Such standards are typically developed and maintained by organizations or consortiums that are dedicated to promoting open and interoperable systems. Open standards are designed to be widely adopted, and they often have the goal of facilitating communication and collaboration between different systems and technologies. The Open Geospatial Consortium is an organisation which works with standards for geospatial or location information.
Open access research: This refers to research that is published in open access journals, which means that anyone can access and read the research without having to pay a subscription fee. NASA science is one of the institutons which champion open science through their Open-Source Science Initiative.
Open Science sharing: An important part of any management or science project is to be able to store and share the data. Not all institutions have systems and organizations which will facilitate storing data in a way that makes it citable with appropriate metadata and unique identifiers for the foreseeable future. Zenodo is a project which does this.
Open educational resources: These are educational materials, such as lesson plans, course materials, and assessments, that are available for use and sharing under an open license. This allows educators to access and use these resources to support teaching and learning. The global digital library is one such source of educational resources.
Open data: This is data that is made available for use and sharing by anyone. This can include things like government data, research data, and other types of data that can be used to support a wide range of applications and purposes. An example is Norway´s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) and their satellite data program alowing anyone to access Planet’s high-resolution, analysis-ready mosaics of the world’s tropics. The purpose of sharing these data is to help reduce and reverse the loss of tropical forests, combat climate change, conserve biodiversity, and facilitate sustainable development. However, the OpenStreetMap project is probably the biggest open data project dith thousands of daily contributors all over the world budy creating the worlds biggest map.
Open processing capacity: Processing of data for some ends can be done using desktop hardware. With big data (satellite images or other complex data sets) it might be necessary to use high end computing resources. The data set size might also be problematic. Both Google and Microsoft provides such survises through respectively Google earth engine and Microsofts Planetary computer. Other initiatives, Digital Earth Africa, is coordinated by Group on Earth Observations.
Digital public goods are often created and maintained by communities of volunteers, and they can provide valuable resources for individuals and organizations alike. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is a multi-stakeholder initiative with a mission to accelerate the attainment of the sustainable development goals in low- and middle-income countries. Their intention is to facilitate the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods.
Development cooperation can make use of Digital public goods by giving access to resources that can help support economic, social, and cultural development in less developed countries. For example, open-source software can be used to build and maintain critical infrastructure, such as healthcare systems or education platforms, without the need to pay licensing fees. Creative commons media can be used to share information and knowledge, which can help support the growth of local industries and businesses. By providing access to these resources, digital public goods can help support development efforts in a variety of ways.
Having worked with development cooperadion and digital solutions in almost 20 years, i find the concept of digital public goods very useful. Although open source software has been around for more years than most of us care to count, it does allow for the broad area of impact which digital public goods allow for.
Where some contribute with running code, others can contribute with textbook content, processing methods, processing power and more. It even allows for contributions based on closed source software. Where a contributor can not allow for their software to be shared, they could instead allow for open access processing using said software.
Does this mean we are looking at a future of free digital goodies for all? Probably not. In the end of the day someone will have to pay or give away their intellectual properties or resources to others. Is that likely to happen?
Digital public goods is a concept which allows us to understand how this could be done. With the support from strong donors and stakeholders like NORAD, UNEP, UNICEF, DSTi, Google, BMZ and others, there now is an umbrella which can contribute to this happening. Let us hope it will grow in both strenght and extent!
