Unconference · Newcastle upon Tyne · Early 2027
Digital Sovereignty
Digital sovereignty is usually talked about as a risk to manage. We see an opening. The agenda is still being written, and the people who build, maintain, buy and regulate technology can all help write it.
Register interest
The agenda isn’t settled. And that means there’s an opportunity to shape it. Not just for policymakers and large technology companies, but for the people building, maintaining, commissioning, funding and using technology.
The agenda is up for grabs
Where there’s uncertainty, there’s room to choose differently. Sovereignty is a chance to rethink our relationship with technology, not just to swap one supplier for another. Nobody owns the conversation yet: builders and maintainers, customers and commissioners, and policy makers all get a say in where it goes.
Some questions worth answering together:
- What would it take to own, read and fix the code we rely on?
- How do we get prices we can plan around?
- What terms would we write if we were the ones writing them?
- How little data could a service collect and still work well?
- What would make leaving easy, so that staying is a real choice?
It comes out of TechFreedom
Through TechFreedom, we help social purpose organisations look hard at the technology they rely on. Each tool gets checked through five risk lenses:
- Jurisdiction
- Continuity
- Surveillance
- Lock-in
- Cost exposure
Jurisdiction is one lens out of five, and each lens is a place where organisations have more choice than they tend to think. The unconference takes that work beyond a single cohort, so more people can swap what’s working.
How an unconference works
The people in the room set the agenda. If the agenda around sovereignty is still open, that seems the right way to work on it.
- No fixed programme. Anyone can propose a session on the day, and the timetable gets built in the room.
- Conversations, not keynotes. Sessions are small and open. Bring a question, a problem or something you have tried.
- Move when you need to. If a session isn’t working for you, go to another. Whoever turns up are the right people.
Help set the agenda
Leave your email and we’ll tell you the date, the venue and how to get a place. Want to propose a session, host or help out? Email contact@fieldstation.xyz.