Open to last: rethinking public digital infrastructures in the age of the commons

Recent discussions -​- whether at NEC 2025 in Paris or at the international forum “Connecting the European Tech Business Offer with Vietnam’s digital future” held in Ho Chi Minh City -​- converge on a shared observation: the debate on each actor’s role and place in the digital arena is becoming clearer (and the playing field is international). Below is a synthesis of the reflections that will be carried further at the Open Source Experts webinar “Sovereignty without rivalry: the Open Source way?” on 14 November 2025.

After several years during which attention concentrated on blockchain, digital twins and artificial intelligence, the topic of digital infrastructure is back in the spotlight. Both material and software-based, the current geopolitical period reminds us that this infrastructure has become essential to the development of our societies (just as roads and bridges, or electricity and sanitation networks).

More than any other and because of their very purpose, Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs) must be designed within a logic of openness and collaboration -​- including through what is also referred to as Open Digital Infrastructures (ODI): digital commons on which innovation, trust and state sovereignty rest.

While there are several reference studies on the subject -​- such as Nadia Eghbal’s Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure or the work of OpenFuture (see in particular Digital Commons as Providers of Public Digital Infrastructure) -​- there is still work to do before consensus can emerge on the matter.

1 -​- Bringing Digital Public Infrastructures closer to Open Digital Infrastructure

In the digital field, the word “infrastructure” rarely evokes code or maintenance. And yet, everyone recognises that modern information systems rest on open components: operating systems, libraries, web frameworks, free databases. Among them, a significant number are shared under an Open Source model, maintained by communities, by (small) businesses and by public institutions.

Although they are essential to us, these “dependencies” rarely benefit from sustainable funding. Without a clear maintenance and contribution policy, digital sovereignty remains illusory. Software infrastructures must be recognised as critical public goods, whose continuity is a collective responsibility -​- first and foremost that of the public sector. The FOSSEPS study carried out by inno³ in 2022 provides concrete elements in that direction.

The notion of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), promoted by UNDP, refers to the shared layers -​- digital identity, payments, data exchange -​- that underpin public services. But the Ho Chi Minh City conference made it possible to develop a key shift in how we think about this kind of infrastructure (one that echoes today’s public-private debates): a digital infrastructure, even a public one, can only be sustainable if it is open. This is the very meaning of the move from DPI to ODI. Openness ensures transparency, mutualisation and resilience in the face of technological dependencies. See on this topic presentations such as “Why open digital infrastructure matters” by Charles H. Schulz (Vates).

Several examples come to mind: X-Road, in Estonia; LF Energy, initiated by RTE; OpenSpaceMakers initiated by CNES; or the Suite Numérique in France, supported by the EDIC on digital commons.

2. A shared responsibility between the public and private sectors

With the exception of Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund, one of the blind spots of digital policy remains maintenance. Maintainers -​- whether self-employed individuals, employees or public servants -​- form the silent base of open infrastructures. International discussions invite us to debate a digital social contract: the public sector funds critical maintenance, communities innovate, and businesses ensure scalability.

This hybrid model reflects the philosophy of the commons: distributed but structured governance. European initiatives, in particular the EDIC, embody this new balance, which will now have to be tested.

Beyond that, recent exchanges (whether in Strasbourg at NEC 2025 or on the other side of the world) all underlined the central role of the state in structuring digital infrastructures. Whether alone or by reinventing collaborations with other states or with the private sector, the public sector must remain the guarantor of the continuity and maintenance of this infrastructure. To do so, it must fund essential open components and create a governance framework for private and community actors jointly engaged alongside it.

This approach is in line with the European Commission’s open source strategy (whether through the Cyber Resilience Act, the AI Act or the Interoperable Europe Act): openness and collaboration are inseparable from issues of security and sovereignty. The role of states is therefore to set the framework and provide the impulses needed to globally orchestrate the European digital ecosystem towards a more sustainable future, commensurate with our ambitions.

European policies -​- AI Act, Cyber Resilience Act, Interoperable Europe Act -​- strengthen transparency and reuse. Programmes such as NGI Cascading Grants or the Sovereign Tech Fund (now the Sovereign Tech Agency) recognise maintainers as infrastructure actors. This momentum inspires international cooperation: the exchanges held highlight the complementarity between European experience and international ambitions (whether in the US, China, or among actors such as Vietnam who wish to ensure mastery of this infrastructure). These will also be topics discussed at the Commons AI conference (in French) on 10 December 2025.

Towards a systemic approach to public digital

Openness is not disengagement, but a sharing of responsibilities. It calls for cooperation frameworks and funding mechanisms suited to the reality of a distributed and deeply human digital landscape. States today have the opportunity to build living digital ecosystems, where technological commons become a pillar of sovereignty and sustainability.

Rethinking Digital Public Infrastructures as open commons means restoring to public authority a role of organiser and long-term guarantor, while valuing contributions from community and private ecosystems. This articulation -​- between public support, collective participation and open innovation -​- is the key to a sovereign and sustainable digital landscape.

Beyond the legislative texts, European programmes for 2030 -​- in particular the Open Internet Stack initiative -​- mark a key milestone. The programme aims to create a European open source framework, developed along the lines of the digital commons and supported by states. Its ambition: to build an ecosystem of open, interoperable infrastructures governed by communities of contributors. By doing so, Europe is owning its responsibility to ensure the emergence or consolidation of sovereign building blocks resting on public-private governance.

Image credit: Gift of Sunworthy Wallcoverings, a Borden Company, 1987 (credits)