Speaker Interview: Jan Ainali
🪩 DISCO:
What does digital sovereignty mean to you? How do you (try to) live a digitally sovereign life?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
Sovereignty is a wide concept, but basically, it comes down to having control over my tools, processes and data. By using open source software, it is possible to get that control. That makes it possible to avoid both vendor and format lock-ins and to make any adaptations that I need.
🪩 DISCO:
As we witness rapid technological breakthroughs in the field of AI, which digital rights do you consider the most endangered?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
Perhaps it’s not so much the existing rights that are in danger, but that there might be areas not covered that could be exploited or, even more likely, that even if we have rights covering, for example, libel, it might be so easy to do convincing fake videos that any public person will be totally flooded by these. So I am more worried about us being able to enforce existing rights than them being taken away from us.
🪩 DISCO:
What other threats to digital rights are you worried about? Do you have any insights on how we can address them as a society?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
I am a bit worried about the possibility of staying anonymous online and being able to communicate privately. What we need to do is to not create laws that would make that illegal.
🪩 DISCO:
How can events such as DISCO Slovenia 2023 help foster international collaborations and partnerships in promoting digital sovereignty and protecting civil liberties in the interconnected world?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
Events like these are excellent to find peers in other countries. It is not easy to figure out who is responsible for these kinds of issues anywhere, so meeting other passionate people in the same place can save a lot of time. We also need more events where tools that enable digital sovereignty get some time to shine. There is much to gain by collaborating on them rather than inventing the wheel locally over and over again, which might be tempting and the most straightforward path to get control.
🪩 DISCO:
What would you consider responsible and inclusive engineering? What are the key ethical considerations that should guide the development and deployment of emerging technologies to ensure digital sovereignty and safeguard human rights?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
There are many aspects to make engineering inclusive, but as a starting point, radiating the intent that you want to open for collaboration is crucial and also goes a long way. That intent includes both welcoming anyone to contribute and being open to make configuration of the digital solution possible. A key here is to never make anything rely on closed solutions, but to make sure that the entire tool chain / infrastructure is based on, and only depends on, other open solutions.
🪩 DISCO:
What advice would you give to individuals on how to responsibly navigate the online environment in regard to their privacy and digital rights? Are there any specific tools that you would recommend?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
Try to stay up to date so that you know what rights you have. And use the report and block features generously!
🪩 DISCO:
Can you recommend a book that we should all read before the conference, a podcast that we should subscribe to and/or a website that we should bookmark?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
The website Public Money, Public Code from Free Software Foundation Europe.
🪩 DISCO:
Which disco tune should we definitely add to the opening party playlist?
🎤 Jan Ainali:
Perhaps not a Disco tune, but Courage to Change (Michael Calfan Remix) by Sia might fit.