Open digital infrastructures have enabled collaboration, innovation, public accountability and democratic participation, but they are increasingly vulnerable to extraction, enclosure and capture, f.i. through the harvesting of open web content and open knowledge resources for AI training. Recent EU initiatives such as the Digital Commons EDIC and the Open Source Strategy suggest that the sovereignty debate may open new space for digital commons and open infrastructures. 

Can the sovereignty debate broaden our focus beyond technological autonomy towards the social, institutional, financial and governance conditions that allow openness to remain public, sustainable and democratically governed? In this panel, we address openness as an ongoing practice rather than a fixed property. Together with experts on open knowledge infrastructures and digital commons, we discuss cultural barriers, corporate dependencies and political constraints, and explore pathways towards more independent, democratic, and just digital futures.