Digital sustainability
The concept of digital sustainability describes the long-term oriented production and further development of digital knowledge goods and deals with the tragedy of the anti-commons . Based on the concept of sustainability , which is so far used mainly in connection with environmental issues, the concept of digital definition describes sustainability according to the sustainable development in the Brundtland Report and awareness of the resources coming in the way that their current production and use of the needs Generations not affected.
Definition and demarcation
Digital resources are managed sustainably when their benefits to society are maximized so that the digital needs of current and future generations are equally met. The social benefit is maximum when the resources are accessible to the greatest number and reusable with a minimum of technical, legal and social restrictions. Digital resources are knowledge and cultural artifacts digitally represented as text, images, audio, video or software. (Definition according to Dapp)
Digital sustainability differs from the original definition of sustainability in that digital sustainability only deals with intangible goods , so-called knowledge goods . Such non-physical resources are non-rival so that no consumption of the goods can take place. Nevertheless, digital resources can be both excludable (a so-called club good ) and non - excludable (a so-called public good ). By protecting intellectual property , digital resources can be excluded from free use and further development (see also " Copyright ").
Ten requirements for digital sustainability
At the beginning of 2017, a scientific publication in Sustainability Science was published by Springer-Verlag and in July 2017 a specialist article based on it appeared in German, in which ten requirements for digital sustainability are described. The first four criteria relate to the properties of the digital asset , the other five criteria to the properties of the ecosystem and the last criterion to the effects on society. Wikipedia , Linux and OpenStreetMap are named as concrete examples of digital sustainability .
Individual icons were presented at DINAcon 2017 for the following ten requirements for digital sustainability. These are also published on Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Zero license .
Properties of the digital good
|
1. Mature: The digital good must be qualitatively mature. For example, a software solution must be programmed to a high quality , function correctly and reliably and completely cover the required requirements . |
|
2. Transparent structures: Digital sustainable goods must have transparent structures, i.e. the source code of a software must be fully disclosed and the format of data must be documented in a publicly comprehensible manner using an open standard . This technical transparency enables control and improvement, which leads to more trust and fewer errors . |
|
3. Semantic data: The advancing digitization requires that information be understood not only by people but also by machines. As a result, digitally sustainable information must be linked to one another through semantic data . Such metadata can be used to machine, aggregate and interpret large amounts of digital information. |
|
4. Distributed locations: In the digital world , the physical aspect also plays an important role. If data is only stored in one place or if a system only runs on a single server, the long-term availability of these digital goods is at risk. It is digitally sustainable when information and applications are stored redundantly, for example using peer-to-peer approaches, multiple times in different locations. This reduces the dependency on the physical location and increases permanent availability. |
Properties of the ecosystem
|
5. Free license : The legal framework must allow digital goods to be used, changed and redistributed as desired. In this way, once digital knowledge has been created, society can improve it and apply it without restriction. This is the case, for example, with open source , open data or open access licenses. |
|
6. Shared knowledge: The professional improvement and expansion of digital knowledge requires that know-how and experience ( implicit knowledge ) be distributed among as many people as possible from different organizations. In this way, the knowledge dependency on individual people and companies ( lock-in effect ) can be reduced and contributions from others become more numerous. |
|
7. Culture of participation : All competent people should be able to make constructive contributions to the expansion and further development of the digital asset. This requires a healthy culture of participation. For example, peer review processes in the community can ensure the required quality of data and software. |
|
8. Fair management structures: Fair management structures ensure that control over the digital asset does not lie with a single person or organization, but is distributed as decentrally as possible. Transparent governance structures such as public elections or the meritocracy principle regulate responsibilities. This criterion is based on the concept of good governance . |
|
9. Broad-based financing: The infrastructure (for example Internet server ), the responsible staff and other resources should be paid for by as different actors as possible. Broad-based financing allows independence from a single institution and reduces conflicts of interest . |
Impact on society
|
10. Contribution to sustainable development: digitally sustainable goods and their communities should make a contribution to sustainable development in the traditional sense. In other words, digitally sustainable programs and data have a positive ecological , social or economic impact. At the same time, digitally sustainable goods must use resources from sustainable backgrounds in their production and use. For example, the production of digital goods should be done by workers with fair wages and electricity from renewable energy sources should be used. |
proof
Digital sustainability in academia
The definition has been further developed by Marcus Dapp since 2004 and conveyed in a lecture of the same name at ETH Zurich . The student organizations TheAlternative and SUBDiN (University of Basel) also describe this new sustainability approach in detail. The first historical text to explain the concept in writing was a competition entry for the anniversary publication "Essays 2030" by ETH Zurich, entitled "ETH Zurich - A Pioneer in Digital Sustainability". A more recent article describes digital sustainability in the context of open data and open source software.
The Digital Sustainability Research Center has existed at the University of Bern since 2014 . The position is headed by Matthias Stürmer and employs around 20 people. The research center was founded at the Institute for Information Systems through start-up funding from the CH Open with CHF 80,000. The research center has been located at the Institute for Computer Science since 2019. The research center deals with issues relating to open source software , open data , linked data , open government , smart cities , blockchain , smart contracts and public procurement in research , teaching and the provision of services.
Open source software and sustainability
Based on the definition of sustainability , Thorsten Busch describes the connection between open source software and the term sustainability in the 2008 Open Source Yearbook . The detailed literature analysis addresses the ecological aspects of information and communication technologies on the one hand, and the social influences of digital, immaterial resources on the other. The focus is on the problem of the digital divide , which, according to Busch, could be reduced, for example, by promoting open source software. Busch uses the term “informational sustainability” coined by Volker Grassmuck for the same facts as the concept of digital sustainability described here.
Parliamentary group on digital sustainability
The parliamentary group on digital sustainability was founded in Switzerland in May 2009 to ensure the long-term and free availability of knowledge and to promote the well-considered use of information and communication technologies . Political advances such as motions and interpellations demand the increased dissemination of free and open source software, open standards , open content and open access . Various media reported extensively on the establishment of the parliamentary group.
Digital sustainability initiative
A project was founded in the vicinity of the Linux-User in the area of churches eV association (LUKi eV) that has the concern of digital sustainability as its concern and name. The project digital sustainability offers an easily understandable introduction to the topic and aims on the one hand to encourage reflection on digital sustainability and on the other hand to encourage participation. To this end, ten principles were formulated that make up digital sustainability from the point of view of the project. There are numerous intersections with the above positions. The central point is the free availability and changeability of knowledge - concretized by open formats, open standards and free licenses - in the area of software the preservation of freedom ("no dependencies") and transparency. Findability and documentation of digital goods are also mentioned. The project cites the use of free software, participation in Wikipedia or the use of Creative Commons licenses as examples of initial opportunities for participation .
Web links
- Parliamentary group on digital sustainability
- Research Center for Digital Sustainability
- Project digital sustainability of the LUKi eV
Individual evidence
- ↑ Matthias Stuermer, Gabriel Abu-Tayeh, Thomas Myrach "Digital sustainability: basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystems" Sustainability Science 12 (2017), pp. 247-262, 10.1007 / s11625-016-0412-2
- ↑ Matthias Stürmer "Digital sustainability: Digital commons for the knowledge society of the future" IT business 2/2017
- ↑ Icons on the website of the Parliamentary Group on Digital Sustainability
- ↑ Icons on Wikimedia Commons
- ↑ http://www.vvz.ethz.ch/Vorlesungsverzeichnis/lerneinheit.view?semkez=2018W&lerneinheitId=125702 Digital sustainability in the knowledge society
- ↑ TheAlternative - digital initiative within [project 21] at ETH
- ↑ Student Union Basel for Digital Sustainability
- ↑ ETH - Competition Visions ETH 2030 - Online Version. (No longer available online.) In: www.essays2030.ethz.ch. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015 ; accessed on July 15, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Open Government Data and Free Software - Cornerstones of a Digital Sustainability Agenda | The 2013 Open Reader. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 19, 2015 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Official media release from the University of Bern on the establishment of the Digital Sustainability Research Center
- ↑ http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.unibe.ch/
- ↑ http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/lösungen/dr_stuermer_matthias/index_ger.html
- ↑ http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/team/index_ger.html
- ↑ http://www.ch-open.ch/
- ↑ "The Sustainability Researchers 2.0" Der Bund, September 4, 2014
- ↑ http://www.iwi.unibe.ch
- ↑ http://www.inf.unibe.ch
- ↑ "Open Source and Sustainability" by Thorsten Busch
- ↑ official entry in the directory of parliamentary groups ( memento of the original from October 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 189 kB)
- ↑ http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.ch/2009/05/vorstoesse-sommersession-2009
- ↑ http://www.golem.de/0905/66868.html
- ↑ https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Schweizer-Parlamentarian-etzen-sich-fuer-Open-Source-Software-ein-217323.html
- ↑ http://www.osor.eu/news/ch-parliamentarians-begin-group-on-digital-sustainability
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Luke eV - "Linux users in the churches" . Association LUKi eV. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
- ↑ Digital sustainability. Bringing responsibility into the digital world . Association LUKi eV. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
- ↑ Digital sustainability - 10 principles . Association LUKi eV. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
- ↑ Digital sustainability - join in! . Association LUKi eV. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
