Our view on digital sovereignty
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Products, platforms, protocols: 3 steps to digital sovereignty
We’re going to talk a lot about digital sovereignty this year, and we’re not alone. We were delighted to see PD’s definition recently being treated as canonical by the UK House of Commons in their research briefing on digital sovereignty for parliamentarians. It's a topic that is rapidly rising up the agenda.
Lack of control over its digital sovereignty threatens a nation’s democratic values, its ability to drive future policy and operate the functions of the state. In a period of escalating geopolitical instability, the stakes are getting higher.
We think there is a combination of actions that governments can and must take to start to build national digital sovereignty. They cover 3 areas: products, platforms, and protocols. For each, we believe there is a strategic ‘north star’ that strengthens sovereignty.
1. Products
First, build and run high-volume digital public products and services in-house. By building and delivering services as a government, your actions have the knock-on effect of actively shaping the stack of technologies and governance on which they sit.
Where a government does rely on external vendors, it should have complete visibility into who is delivering what, and a collective, whole-of-government view on which services are being provided, by whom, and under what terms.
You also create a feedback loop. Delivering products for citizens in turn drives the creation of platforms and protocols, which collectively uphold national values.
2. Platforms
Second, make a deliberate shift from siloed, proprietary tools to shared Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
Shared platforms create shared responsibilities with other nations. Combined with renewed governance, they kickstart active competition as opposed to the monopolist tendencies in current arrangements. A collective approach drastically reduces reliance on single-source vendors, each with their own commercial and geopolitical imprints.
In practice, this means adopting Digital Public Infrastructure, such as platforms like GC Notify in Canada or open payment platforms like Pix in Brazil.
3. Protocols
Third, embrace shared protocols that cannot be overruled by a single actor.
Protocols like OpenEHR for healthcare or SWIFT for finance ensure that data and governance models uphold shared standards.
It is incredibly difficult for a bad actor to impose arbitrary changes on a hospital if that facility is fundamentally tied into an OpenEHR protocol. The same is not necessarily true of a proprietary system.
Building an escalation ladder
These actions alone are not a final answer to the challenge of digital sovereignty. Such a thing is not achievable; managing sovereignty will remain a moving target as both the politics and technologies evolve.
What governments can do is ensure they have a well-built ‘escalation ladder’. By this, we mean that they have a credible response ready for every point of potential conflict escalation. Being clearly prepared for that makes it far less likely that one’s opponent decides it’s worth the risk to climb higher up the ladder.
Starting with products, platforms and protocols could help nations build that protective moat, one that leaves their critical digital infrastructure less vulnerable to the caprice of individual actors or political events.
The best time to bolster digital sovereignty was 15 years ago. The second best time is now.
Written by
Mike Bracken CBE
Founder