Many schools have shown in the past years to have a clear understanding of what digital sustainability and data sovereignity really mean. The use of Free Software for education of free software web tools and data in data centers located on our territory, South Tyrol, are the base ingredients for a real cloud for learners. Nextcloud, LibreOffice, Moodle, ILIAS, Chamilo, Big Blue Button are just a few of the main ingredients used. We are not re-inventing the wheel. We are just doing and trying to spread an idea of cloud for schools that other countries and cities are also doing: E.g. the city of Barcelona with its Plan for the Democratic Digitalisation of Education where Xnet and a group of families presented the first version of the DD digital educational infrastructure, a pioneering comprehensive workspace that aggregates free and auditable software tools in a single suite offering data sovereignty and protecting the digital rights of students and teachers. This important project is one example of great effort which deserves to be spread all over Europe, reused and supported by public administrations.

1. Identikit of a Cloud for Learners
Anton Auer
Maria Pia Dall’Armellina
Karl Lunger
Paolo Dongilli
Nov. 12th 2022

2. 2 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Wer hat entschieden, dass sich jemand meine
Daten aneignen kann ?
Who decided that
someone can take my data ?
Chi ha deciso che
qualcuno può prendere i miei dati?
Harald Welzer’s simple question

3. 3 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times

4. 4 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times – digital today ?

5. 5 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Charlie Chaplin – future times ?

6. 6 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Shoshana Zuboff
We started from industrial capitalism
and now we reached:
data capitalism
alias
capitalism of surveillance
(Who decided to own my data ...and who gave
permission ?)
From H. Welzer’s simple question to economic analysis: Sh. Zuboff

7. 7 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Evgeny Morozov:
Who owns internet ? The owner of data!
data capitalism
alias surveillance capitalism
What about democracy and digital ecology ?
Evgeny met Francesca and turned from
intellectual to activist
Francesca Bria. Innovazione inclusiva,
democratica e sostenibile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prYQ62tRUfM
Evgeny and Francesca:
when good people meet, empowerment has a chance

8. 8 Identikit of a cloud for learners
https://second.wiki/wiki/gesa_lindemann
In addition to gender research, Lindemann's work focuses on sociological theory, especially social and societal theory, sociology of
human rights, methodology of social sciences, medical sociology and sociology of scientific knowledge as well as especially the
relationship between sociology and anthropology and the limits of socialization .
An expert in sociology and anthropology is worried about europe !

9. 9 Identikit of a cloud for learners
UN 2000: 8 goals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_De
velopment_Goals
UN 2016: 17 goals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_D
evelopment_Goals
GAFAM succeeded to block the
18th goal
the missing 18th global goal:
“democratic digital ecology”
No public money on focus “democratic digital ecology”
Example:
“Sustainability days” in Bozen-Bolzano: a lot of money spent out of focus.

10. 10 Identikit of a cloud for learners
GAMAM (We – the westerns):
private surveillance of internet
PCC (China):
authoritarian surveillance of internet
Europe's chance:
democratic participated internet
So: let us promote the missing 18th millenium goal
Internet For Humans : Decentralized - Federated - Data-sovereign
(Mark Shuttleworth: linux for humans)
… starting locally in europe… but how ??
a piece of geopolitics
GA(F)MAM – PCC - europe

11. 11 Identikit of a cloud for learners
… starting locally in Europe
… but how ??
An old man’s starting point:
"Digital learning — learning digital"
- not "creating life for computers" (transhumanism)
- but "creating computers for life" (digital humanism)
specifically:
"Public money? Public code!" in the educational system
( and all public administrations)
key people:
parents, worried about their childrens future
youngsters with their creativiy
IT-EXPERTS at SFSCON: please listen to them !!!!
starting with a decentralized, federated, datasovereign local learncloud for southtyrol

12. 12 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Il cloud: chiave di trasformazione digitale
Il cloud per la fruizione di servizi
Cloud first: priorità
nell’aggiornamento 21-23 del
Piano Triennale per l’ informatica
nella PA
Le 4 libertà di Stallman nel
cloud ?

13. 13 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Il cloud : vettore culturale del software libero

14. 14 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Il cloud: formare cittadini digitali
Prevenzione al consumismo digitale

15. 15 Identikit of a cloud for learners
What is a Cloud?
"There is no cloud just other people's computers"
We use the cloud in the school for:
- storage
- applications or services
Q: Does the school need a cloud? Or can we use our own server?
A: It is not known
Source:
- https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.html#nocloud - author: Markus Meier

16. 16 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Brief history ...
high quality storage!
In our mountains Ötzi went hunting, the
Sumerians used tablets to store information.
The tablet have very high quality and we can
read the information after many many
years :-)
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wri
ting

17. 17 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Brief history ...
low quality storage! Blackboards and whiteboards
we can share information in the classroom
we can reuse them infinitely often, it is sustainable
A few decades ago, children also wrote on a small
blackboard and every hour they erased their work
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard

18. 18 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Brief history … the first computers in the school
In the 70s, there were no computers in schools yet and the cloud was not a problem
In the 80s, there were a few stand-alone computers in the schools, and the first computer
networks in LAN. They were often IBM PCs with MSDOS for programming or applications.
There was no internet and no cloud. The storage was a floppy.
In the 90s, many computers came into the school. In the german schools in Autonomous
Province of Bozen-Bolzano, a first reference model for a computer network with MSDOS and
Novell Netware was developed at the Pedagogical Institute (Pädagogischen Institut) by the
Computer Science Core Group (Kerngruppe Informatik). Then internet came to school and
first schools have internet access in the computer lab with Linux servers :-) The first service
was email for all! The E-Mail was a service of SIAG, not yet a cloud. Then came Microsoft
solutions with Windows NT in many german schools.

19. 19 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Brief history … many computers in the school
In the new millennium, many computers came into schools, including primary
schools. In german schools in our Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano often with
Microsoft solutions :-( but sometimes also with Linux :-)
Internet access was often provided with ADSL. So we could also use services on the
internet! Services like:
Mail
eLearning (Moodle in some schools, Ilias in the Province's Copernicus Project). Is this
in the Cloud?

20. 20 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Today
In recent years, Office365 has been added to the german schools in the Autonomous Province of
Bozen-Bolzano, and Google in some other schools.
Internet access in schools has improved and teachers now use services from book publishers and
other providers.
The COVID pandemic has brought distance learning and video conferencing into schools.
Q: Where are the student data
A: In the cloud!
Q: What does the cloud do with the data?
A: It is not known
Q: Can the Smartboard replace the blackboard?
A: It is not known, the interactive whiteboard could not. but was a supplement to the blackboard

21. 21 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Need for a different workspace for educational purposes
→ Sustainable
●
Based on Free Software
●
Using open and standard formats/protocols
→ Interoperable
→ Accountable
→ Sovereign
→ GDPR compliant

22. 22 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Clouds used during the pandemic period
… were of the GAFAM species!
Something that made DPAs of European
Countries slowly realize that schools were in
danger …

23. 23 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Clouds used during the pandemic period
techcrunch.com
golem.de
edpb.europa.eu
www.rtl.de

24. 24 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Democratic Digitalization of Education

25. 25 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Democratic Digitalization of Education
https://dd.democratic-digitalisation.xnet-x.net/
DD is the education workspace generated within the
framework of Xnet's Democratic Digitalisation Plan. It has
been created and powered by
Xnet, families and promoting centres, IsardVDI, 3iPunt, MaadiX,
eXO.cat, Evilham and funded by the Directorate for Democratic
Innovation, the Barcelona City Council's Digital Innovation
Commissioner, Social Economy Commissioner, in collaboration
with the Barcelona Education Consortium, aFFaC and AirVPN.

26. 26 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Democratic Digitalization of Education
https://gitlab.com/DD-workspace/DD/

27. 27 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Democratic Digitalization of Education
The goal is to generate auditable public code that is as easy to
use as current tool, interoperable and sovereign.
It is possible and it works. It is now up to the institutions to
implement it on a massive scale and further strengthen the
project.
We ask that an intra-national European consortium be formed
around this code so that it can become the European public code
for public services. https://dd.democratic-digitalisation.xnet-x.net/

28. 28 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Democratic Digitalization of Education
https://gitlab.com/DD-workspace/DD/

29. 29 Identikit of a cloud for learners
Thanks for your attention!
Anton Auer
Maria Pia Dall’Armellina Paolo Dongilli
Karl Lunger