[PDGI Blog] Building Blocks of the Peoples’ Digital Goods and Infrastructure (PDGI) Manifesto

The Pranava Institute is part of a larger consortium of organisations building People’s Digital Goods and Infrastructure (PDGI), , an emerging paradigm for building and governing people-led, community-centric digital goods and infrastructures.

Second PDGI Workshop on 'Mapping Stakeholders and Steps towards a Manifesto'

As part of the ongoing work of the People's Digital Goods and Infrastructure (PDGI) collective, we brought together diverse stakeholders to find and map synergies between different stakeholder ecosystems, and brainstorm activities that could support the governance, maintenance and adoption of PDGIs.

The participants engaged in hands-on activities to work towards :

• Stakeholder Mapping: Identifying and mapping key stakeholders critical to catalyse the PDGI movement.

• Concepts and principles: Refining the PDGI concepts and principles identified in the first workshop based on collective feedback.

• Building the PDGI Manifesto: Collaborating to conceptualise and define the PDGI approach, grounded in the vision and philosophy of the PDGI paradigm.

In the first PDGI workshop, we tried to define PDGI and differentiate it from other public interest technology narratives. We also explored PDGI’s relationship with the market, the state, communities, emerging technologies like AI and the planet. Building on this momentum, the second PDGI workshop aimed at drawing points of convergence on these ideas to chart out the building blocks of the PDGI manifesto.

Participants worked in six groups across three paradigms of technology, community and governance. Each group explored technology, community and governance as the three pillars of PDGI, and then co-drafted propositions for a PDGI manifesto.

Read this blog to explore insights from the second PDGI workshop: https://pdgi.org/blog/building-blocks-of-the-peoples-digital-goods-and-infrastructure-pdgi-manifesto/

About People’s Digital Goods and Infrastructure (PDGI)

PDGI is a collective effort to develop an evidence-based, forward-looking framework of principles, standards, rights, obligations and practices covering the entire technology lifecycle from conception and design to deployment and governance. Digital infrastructure increasingly mediates interactions between people, organisations and the state. Yet, even where this infrastructure relies on Free and Open Source Software, it is often governed by select public and private entities in ways that remain inaccessible and unaccountable to the people affected by it. Generative AI has lowered technical barriers, enabling communities to build technology solutions tailored to their own needs, rather than depending entirely on governments, vendors or Big Tech. At the same time, AI-generated software can increase opacity, security risks, dependency and the concentration of power.

PDGI asks how technology can be grounded in peoples’ collective identities, rights, agency and lived realities. The initiative explores questions of rights and justice, FOSS and open commons, decentralisation, local stewardship, participatory governance, transparency, accountability, social and planetary limits, and accessible non-digital alternatives for critical services.

Read this blog to explore insights from the first PDGI workshop: https://pdgi.org/blog/building-blocks-of-the-peoples-digital-goods-and-infrastructure-pdgi-manifesto/