Are we digitally autonomous yet?
SIDN Fund helps visualisation of dependency on big tech
Dutch society depends on digital systems. From e-mail and cloud storage to educational platforms and public services: almost everything depends on technology. But who actually owns that vital tech? And what are the implications for our autonomy? Designer Lei Nelissen has created a project called Are We Autonomous Yet? to help us visualise our dependency.
Mapping autonomy
The idea for the project came from a wider collaboration with SIDN Labs. From his base at Studio Falkland, Lei previously developed Packet Run, an SIDN Labs project that visualises how datasets are routed across the internet. “That project prompted us to wonder whether there were other internet-related stories that we could visualise using that data and design expertise. Are We Digitally Autonomous Yet? translates that abstract data into a concrete, interactive database and online visualisation. The central question it poses is: what technologies and vendors do Dutch organisations depend on, and what form does that dependency take?” It turns out that the level of dependency is considerable. More and more organisations are using the same cloud service providers, with the result that multiple layers of the internet are controlled by a small number of big players. Corporations such as Microsoft, AWS and Google not only supply software, but also operate the underlying infrastructure, data centres and services.
“Internet research results are often misunderstood by people outside our immediate target audience,” observes Ralph Koning of SIDN Labs. “So, our collaboration with Lei is really helpful in terms of communicating our results and data in an attractive visual form to a wider audience.”
Visualising the Internet Infrastructure
The project was supported through SIDN Fund’s Visualising the Internet Infrastructure programme, in which designers are challenged to create visuals that make the internet easier to understand. That’s how Lei got started in this field. “The call for proposals was made in 2024. I submitted a proposal that summer, and in September I learnt that I’d been awarded a grant. That’s when we got down to work.”Several projects were supported through the programme, each visualising a different aspect of the internet. That led to various creative initiatives. As well as Are We Digitally Autonomous Yet? there’s Packet Panic, Digital Cathedrals and How the Net Works.
Convenience
That development is the result of several trends coming together. Lei sees 2 as particularly important. First, organisations are increasingly opting for convenience through outsourcing: instead of operating their own systems, they prefer to leave everything up to cloud service providers. Second, big tech companies are constantly extending and bundling their product portfolios. “Once you’ve signed up with one of the big providers, you have access to a comprehensive range of services, from e-mail to applications and infrastructure. So it makes sense for an organisation to get everything from one provider. Life is convenient and straightforward that way. However, it also means greater dependency. Meanwhile, smaller often European service providers find it difficult to grow. Not only because of technological differences, but also for reasons of scale, investment and the fragmented nature of the European market. Many players are simply too small to compete.”
According to Lei, that situation has wider implications. Economically, it means that much of the money local organisations are investing is going to non-European firms, without any flowing directly back to Dutch or European society. There’s also a growing geopolitical dimension: with so many systems controlled by so few players, a dependency is developing, which could be used against us as leverage under certain circumstances.
Impact on individuals
The project explicitly avoids focusing only on big systems, and instead illustrates how dependency pervades daily life. While the topic may seem clear to technical experts, it’s often rather abstract to administrators and policymakers.
“Using this data, we can also show the impact on individuals,” says Lei. “If you mail your psychologist, where is your correspondence processed? What systems are used by the school your children go to? What technology does the local authority you pay tax to depend on?”
Thinking about things like that enables you to see that it’s not an abstract system issue, but something directly relevant to your own daily life. Both the risks and the opportunities associated with digital autonomy become clear.
Next steps
Although the project is now live, Lei definitely doesn’t see his work in this field as finished. In the period ahead, he intends to keep abreast of the measurements and widen his scope to other sectors and systems, such as energy and additional digital applications in education. At the same time, he wants to investigate where dependency is greatest and how it’s developing.
Equally important, however, is what organisations can do with the insights provided to them. Mainstream technologies are so interwoven with many organisations’ activities that changing course is difficult. “We see that organisations are often caught up in a complex web of systems that they can’t simply step away from,” says Lei. “In the next phase, therefore, we plan not only to deepen our research, but also to identify the knowledge, processes and alternatives that can help organisations to gradually reduce their dependency.”
Want to know more about this project? Visit zijnwealautonoom.nl.
