critical infrastructure lab

June 13 16:15 – 17:10

Western Europe is slowly coming to grips with the fact that all the digital infrastructures we depend on, may not be as dependable as we all thought. Network architectures come with their own infrastructural ideologies embedded in them. They are not just a medium for the circulation of digital messages, but also distribute power in particular ways. With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza intensifying, and the U.S. taking a more antagonistic approach than Europe had been used to, Europe is increasingly re-evaluating its choices with regards to our communications infrastructures. 

Some community-led initiatives are gaining prominence that focus on implementing pilots or prototypes of mesh networks: communication infrastructures that are by design much more decentralised or federated than the centralised communications infrastructures we have become used to. Thereby pinpointing and highlighting key weaknesses in how we have come to depend on central providers that are not infallible. Perhaps it’s these mesh-type networks that are essential to becoming a more resilient society?

In this session, we hear from Radical Data and their mesh networks initiative, which participants of the conference can join themselves and experiment with. Next to that, Maxigas will describe the Reticulum protocol for building local and wide-area networks with readily available hardware, which comes with an anti-military licence and a bottom up user community also active in Amsterdam. It is an interesting example because of the attempt of its designers and users to embed social values into the technical choices of protocol design, implementation and deployment. Lastly, we learn about the Black-out Box, an initiative by Waag Futurelab which is part of the Meshtastic network, a network of hackers and organisations experimenting with a LoRa mesh-network that functions fully independent of the internet. And may be part of an emergency network in case all else fails.  

Speakers

Rayén Jara Mitrovich, Performance Artist | Co-founder of Radical Data

Jo Jara Kroese, Co-founder of Radical Data

Marleen Stikker, Founding Director Waag Futurelab

Maxigas, Co-Principal Investigator at critical infrastructure lab | Assistant Professor of Computational Methods at Utrecht University

https://conference.publicspaces.net/en/session/mesh-networks-1

Much attention has been given to the ways that AI threatens to supersede human intellectual processes and functions. AI, however, is driven by large language models and very real material resources. Almost every resource on the planet is fueling the AI juggernaut, with consequences for the power grid, nuclear energy, political structures, the production, trade, and trash of physical devices, human labor, and financial systems. The fast pace of AI’s technological advancement appears not so much to be leaving the materially tied world behind but feasting upon it. Panelists in this session will discuss such questions as: What is the reality behind the rhetoric of AI? What are the current and potential political and economic solutions to ameliorating AI’s role in the global system? What is the role of the media, diplomats, corporations, and activists in these decisions?

• Fieke Jansen, Head of the Critical Infrastructures Lab, University of Amsterdam
• Sandra Makumbirofa, Senior Researcher, Research ICT Africa
• Viola Schiaffonati, Professor, Politecnico di Milano
• Thomas Schneider, Director of International Affairs, Swiss Federal Office of Communications

Moderator: Kevin Blasiak, Postdoctoral Researcher, Vienna University of Technology

More here.

Join the new ACES theme group “Tech, Power, and Policy: Europe’s Strategic Balancing Act” for a roundtable discussion on the EuroStack Initiative.

The idea of the Eurostack gained traction after a conference at the European Parliament last year, followed by a pitch-paper from a group of contributors including Cristina Caffarra. The conversation now continues with a report by Francesca Bria, Fausto Gernone, and Paul Timmers. The latest report offers an analysis of Europe’s current technological dependencies and provides a vision for building an alternative European digital technology stack. The authors advocate for an industrial policy to realise the EuroStack components in order to achieve increase digital sovereignty. This proposal comes at a time when the US administration and digital tech oligarchs openly push back on Europe’s regulatory autonomy and European values.

Based on these proposals, there will be a discussion about Digital Sovereignty, the merits of the proposals, and the risks and challenges that lie ahead. Some of the challenge lies in managing interdependence, striking a delicate balance between maintaining global connectivity and open digital markets while safeguarding Europe’s strategic interests and values. The group will ask whether it is possible in geopolitically unstable times to produce a coherent technology policy map, and how this could integrate industrial, digital, and competition strategies. 

UvA employees may register here.

Opening talk

• Zuzanna Warso (Open Future; Fellow, Critical infrastructure lab, UvA) – ‘Digital Public Infrastructure and the digital sovereignty we need’ 

Panellists

• Jamal Shahin (European Studies, UvA) 
• Kristina Irion (Institute for Information Law, UvA) 
• Nora von Ingersleben-Seip (RegulAIte, UvA) 

Moderator

• Niels ten Oever (Critical infrastructure lab, UvA)

Exploring how AI technologies reshape the boundaries of public space and security.

Organised by: Florence School of Transnational Governance

How does AI reshape the policing of public space, and what are the democratic risks of automation in law enforcement? This webinar explores the expanding role of AI in surveillance, predictive policing, and crowd control, raising urgent questions about function creep and its impact on civil liberties. Join us for a critical discussion with Gabriel Pereira, Linnet Taylor, and Fieke Jansen on the intersection of AI, policing, and democratic rights.

Speakers:

•   Fieke Jansen (Critical Infrastructure Lab)

•   Linnet Taylor (Tilburg University)

•   Gabriel Pereira (University of Amsterdam)

Moderator: Stefania Milan (EUI)

Fieke Jansen is a postdoc researcher and a co-principal investigator with the critical infrastructure lab at the University of Amsterdam. Fieke’s research interest is to understand how the material impact of expanding infrastructures are shaping the management, distribution, and depletion of natural resources.

Gabriel Pereira is Assistant Professor in AI and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), based at the Media Studies department and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC). His research focuses on critical studies of data, algorithms, and digital infrastructures, particularly those of algorithmic surveillance. www.gabrielpereira.net

Linnet Taylor is Professor of International Data Governance at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). Her research focuses on digital data, representation and legitimacy, with particular attention to transnational governance issues. She led an ERC project on Global Data Justice (2018-23), aiming to develop a social-justice-informed framework for governance of data technologies on the global level.

Stefania Milan collaborates with the Chair in AI & Democracy at the Florence School of Transnational Governance (European University Institute). She is Professor of Critical Data Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (Harvard University).

Register here.

Meeting of the working group on Human Rights Protocol Considerations (HRPC) of the Internet Research Task Force at IETF 122, Bangkok

2025-03-21 1500-1630 local time

Sofia Celi and Mallory Knodel, co-chairs

Agenda:

– Welcome and Introduction: Intro and Note Well – 10 min

– IPV draft – Sofia Celi – 10 min

– Talk: “Indigenous 5G in India: On an Alternative Technological Trajectory” – Maxigas, critical infra lab – 30 min

– Talk: “Ethics in Digital Public Infrastructure” – Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change – 30 min

All other RG business – remainder