The concept of digital sustainability describes the long-term oriented production and further development of digital artifacts and addresses the tragedy of the anticommons. Originating from the term sustainability, which has been predominantly used in connection with ecological topics, the concept of digital sustainability, according to the definition of sustainable development in the Brundtland Report, refers to the conscious handling of resources in a way that their current creation and use do not impair the needs of future generations.
Definition and distinction
Digital resources are sustainably managed when their benefit to society is maximized, so that the digital needs of current and future generations are equally met. The societal benefit is maximized when the resources are accessible to the largest number and reusable with a minimum of technical, legal, and social restrictions. Digital resources are knowledge and cultural artifacts digitally represented as text, image, audio, video, or software. (Definition after Dapp)
Digital sustainability distinguishes itself from the original definition of sustainability in that digital sustainability exclusively deals with intangible goods, so-called knowledge goods. Such non-physical resources are non-rivalrous, so that no consumption of the goods can occur. Nevertheless, digital resources can be both excludable (a so-called club goods) and non-excludable (a so-called public goods). Through the protection of intellectual property, digital resources can be excluded from free use and further development (see also "Copyright").
Ten preconditions of digital sustainability
In early 2017, a scientific publication appeared in Sustainability Science by Springer Publishing[1] and in July 2017 a related article in German[2] describing ten preconditions of digital sustainability. The first four criteria concern the properties of the digital goods, the next five criteria the properties of the ecosystem, and the last criterion the impact on society. Concrete examples of digital sustainability include Wikipedia, Linux, and OpenStreetMap.
The following ten preconditions of digital sustainability were presented with individual icons at DINAcon 2017.[3] These are also published on Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Zero license.[4]
2. Transparent structures: Digitally sustainable goods must have transparent structures, meaning the source code of a software must be fully disclosed and the format of data must be publicly documented using an open standard. This technical transparency enables control and improvements, leading to more trust and fewer errors.
3. Semantic data: The advancing digitization requires that information is not only understood by humans but also by machines. Consequently, digitally sustainable information must be linked through semantic data. Such metadata allows large amounts of digital information to be processed, aggregated, and interpreted by machines.
4. Distributed location: In the digital world, the physical aspect also plays an important role. If data is stored only in one location or a system runs only on a single server, the long-term availability of these digital goods is at risk. It is digitally sustainable if information and applications are redundantly stored in multiple locations, for example, using peer-to-peer approaches. This reduces dependence on the physical location and increases permanent availability.
Properties of the ecosystem
5. Open licensing regime: Legal frameworks must allow digital goods to be freely used, modified, and redistributed. This way, once created digital knowledge can be improved and applied unrestrictedly by society. This is the case, for example, with open source, open data, or open access licenses.
6. Shared tacit knowledge: The expert improvement and expansion of digital knowledge require that know-how and experiences (tacit knowledge) are distributed among as many people as possible from different organizations. This reduces the knowledge-dependence on individual persons and companies (lock-in effect) and increases contributions from others.
7. Participatory culture: All competent individuals should be able to contribute constructively to the expansion and further development of the digital good. This requires a healthy participation culture. For example, peer review processes in the community can ensure the required quality of data and software.
8. Good governance: Good governance ensure thats control over the digital good does not lie with a single person or organization but is distributed as decentralized as possible. Transparent governance structures such as public elections or the meritocracy principle regulate the responsibilities. This criterion is based on the concept of good governance.
9. Diversified financing: The infrastructure (such as Internet servers), the responsible personnel, and other resources should be paid for by as many different actors as possible. Broadly supported financing allows independence from a single institution and reduces conflict of interest.
Impact on Society
10. Contributing to sustainable development: Digitally sustainable goods and their communities should contribute to sustainable development in the classical sense. In other words, digitally sustainable programs and data should have a positive ecological, social, or economic impact. At the same time, digitally sustainable goods must use resources from a sustainable background in their production and application. For example, the production of digital goods should be done by workers with fair remuneration and electricity from renewable energy sources should be used.
References
Digital sustainability in academia
Since 2004, the definition by Marcus Dapp has been further developed and taught in a lecture of the same name at ETH Zurich.[6] The student organizations TheAlternative and SUBDiN (University of Basel) also describe this new sustainability approach in detail.[7][8] The first historical text that explained the concept in writing was a competition entry for the anniversary publication "Essays 2030" of ETH Zurich, titled "ETH Zurich - A Pioneer in Digital Sustainability".[9] A more recent contribution describes digital sustainability in the context of Open Data and Open-Source Software.[10]
Based on the definition of sustainability, Thorsten Busch describes in the Open Source Yearbook 2008 the relationship between open-source software and the concept of sustainability.[18] The extensive literature analysis addresses both the ecological aspects of information and communications technology and the societal influences of digital, intangible resources. 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 issue as the concept of digital sustainability described here.
