Unlocking the potential of open-source to drive real-world impact

The Open Data Institute Joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance

The Digital Public Goods Alliance is excited to welcome the Open Data Institute (ODI) as its newest member.As part of their membership, ODI will review its portfolio of tools, frameworks, and standards to identify candidates for nomination to the DPG Registry. This includes the Open Data Maturity Model, Framework for AI ready Data, and Data Ethics Canvas.As a joint steward of the upcoming DPG4AI collection, the ODI will help develop criteria for identifying digital public goods for responsible AI development. They will also create an accompanying AI Readiness Toolkit to help governments, international organisations, and civil society assess their preparedness for responsible AI.Finally, the ODI will engage DPG organisations to explore where Solid, an open standard stewarded by the ODI giving individuals greater control over their data, could strengthen interoperability, data portability, privacy, and user agency across existing DPGs."The ODI joining the Digital Public Goods Alliance is a natural step toward a future built on open, trustworthy foundations that empower everyone, not the few. That is the web I envisaged.” Sir Tim Berners-Lee, co-founder of the ODI and inventor of the World Wide Web."Joining the Digital Public Goods Alliance marks an exciting step for the ODI and for our mission to make data work for everyone. The DPGA brings together a diverse coalition of organisations committed to using digital tools and open standards to tackle the world's most pressing challenges, and we're proud to be part of it. We work globally with governments, businesses and civil society and know firsthand how critical open, trustworthy data infrastructure is to driving sustainable development. Through this membership, we'll bring more than a decade’s worth of expertise in data governance, open standards, and responsible AI, helping to build an ecosystem that truly serves the people who need it most." Louise Burke, CEO of the ODI“Open data is essential to advancing digital public goods, especially at a moment when public interest AI development depends on access to open, trustworthy, and interoperable data. The Open Data Institute brings longstanding expertise in open standards, data governance, and responsible AI, making them a valuable addition to the Digital Public Goods Alliance. Their membership comes at a critical moment, as the DPG ecosystem works to ensure that the data foundations shaping AI are aligned with the public interest.” Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO of the DPGA SecretariatTogether, the DPGA and the Open Data Institute will continue exploring opportunities to advance digital public goods and artificial intelligence. By fostering greater collaboration and expanding access to trusted open solutions, this partnership will help countries accelerate AI adaptation and mitigation efforts while ensuring that digital transformation delivers benefits for all.To learn more about both memberships in the DPGA, read the ODI announcement.You can also explore their planned Roadmap activities through the ODI membership profile.

Navigating the Paradox of Open: New Resources for Defending Data and Content DPGs in the Age of AI

The open web is undergoing a systemic structural transformation. Today, digital public goods (DPGs) and the broader knowledge commons face a critical challenge: large-scale, automated extraction by AI crawlers and scrapers operating without reciprocity. This leads to ballooning infrastructure costs for often volunteer-run, underresourced open projects, and the erosion of trust in open knowledge, among other challenges. DPG product owners have to make delicate decisions to protect their resources while keeping them as open as possible. To help stewards of open resources navigate this complex landscape, the DPGA Secretariat is proud to share two complementary assets developed in consultation with our community:Best Practices for Preventing AI Exploitation of Open Content and Open Data DPGsWhat it is: A position paper and set of recommendations compiled directly by DPG product owners across major open initiatives like Wikipedia, Open Food Facts, Storyweaver, Govdirectory, The Turing Way, among others. Core Focus: This note describes the problems faced by DPGs firsthand and outlines practical steps for engaging with commercial AI entities to ensure data users respect licenses, robot policies, and terms of service, and contribute back to the ecosystem, while also detailing technical mechanisms to protect against AI exploitation.Navigating the Paradox of Open: The DPG Defence PlaybookWhat it is: An overview of available mechanisms to protect against AI exploitation and how they map against the current open definition, and, by extension, the DPG Standard. The playbook’s aim is to deepen understanding and conceptual clarity around the tension between maintaining open access and ensuring the survival of an open resource.Core Focus: The playbook helps understand the different layers of interventions available to DPG product owners, ultimately showing that code-level mechanisms are a first line of defence, but solving the challenge of AI exploitation requires ecosystem-level solutions at the policy, legal, and governance levels. Layers of Defence: It introduces a 6-layer "defence and reciprocity pyramid" classifying technical, legal, regulatory and institutional measures:Layer 1: Macro Environment (Legal, Regulatory, Institutional) – Market rules, statutory taxes, and licensing frameworks that operate outside website code (e.g., data excise taxes, copyleft data-to-model licenses).Layer 2: Legal and Economic – Server-level financial or authentication gates that control entry (e.g., commercial API access deals, paywalls).Layer 3: Public Governance – Non-coercive, machine-readable signs broadcasting usage preferences (e.g., robots.txt policies, machine-readable protocol signals).Layer 4: Network & Infrastructure – Systems evaluating how traffic connects to filter out blunt-force bots (e.g., rate limiting, firewall bot blocking).Layer 5: Application Security & Client Verification – Interrogating browser environments and mutating code structure in real-time (e.g., CAPTCHA, proof-of-work challenges).Layer 6: Data Integrity – Structural transformations of the data asset itself, either to poison it or isolate it (e.g., structural perturbations, data poisoning).Evolving the DPG Standard and Our Guidance At the DPGA Secretariat, we remain firmly grounded in the DPG Standard—a globally recognised foundation for openness, responsibility and community-driven innovation. However, the "paradox of openness" can inadvertently empower well-resourced actors at the expense of historically disadvantaged communities, ultimately threatening the open nature of DPGs. As the ecosystem evolves, we recognise that product owners are navigating increasingly complex challenges around sustainability, governance, and equitable participation. Moving forward, the goal is not a retreat from openness, but to further strengthen its practical implementation, supporting approaches that are resilient, reciprocal, and community-centred while remaining firmly anchored in the principles of the DPG Standard. We invite DPG product owners, legal scholars, and ecosystem partners to explore the playbook and emerging best practices. Together, we can continue to evolve the guidance provided through the DPG Wiki and related resources, ensuring the DPG Standard remains both robust and responsive to real-world challenges while preserving its core commitment to openness.Have feedback or want to add a defensive mechanism? Reach out to us at hello@digitalpublicgoods.net.

Canada joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance

The Digital Public Goods Alliance is thrilled to welcome The Government of Canada, through the Canadian Digital Service (CDS), as its newest member.As part of its membership, Canada will enable trusted, hands-on interactions between federal departments and DPGA member countries with technically vetted, adoption-ready software, leading to a more efficient pathway to identifying, adopting, and scaling digital public goods for the benefit of all Canadians.Since its launch in 2017, CDS has worked to bring proven and innovative digital approaches and solutions in support of its mandate of improving service delivery and solving common problems within the GC. CDS strives to power government service delivery by providing the common capabilities needed to reliably and securely provide digital services from end to end. CDS platform products, like many of those from international counterparts, are created to function as DPGs and components of the broader Canadian public infrastructure. They are open-source and readily available for reuse across jurisdictions and sectors. CDS products are also interoperable and are underpinned by strong safeguards that enable broad access and incremental collaborative improvement.