Who builds the Internet? Tales about infrastructure and the people behind it.

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The year is 2020. The internet is entirely occupied and governed by big tech companies. Well, not entirely... Some small grass-roots communities of indomitable developers still hold out against big tech.

This is the story about open digital infrastructure and FOSS communities we like to tell ourselves. But does it hold up to scrutiny? Volunteers and grassroots communities that develop open digital infrastructure certainly play a vital role in keeping the internet an open space. They stand for open source, open standards, and even low-tech and de-growth instead of innovation and business ideas. But examples such as the infamous Heartbleed bug that affected the security of OpenSSL and, therefore, all of us, have shown that this model of resistance has its flaws.

To dig deeper into this topic, we spent a year researching different projects and communities. Our recently published report "Roadwork ahead" focuses on the people behind open digital infrastructure, their motivations, their values, and what kind of support they need. We'll share some key findings: Why is their work important? Who are they? And more importantly, who should be part of the work, but isn't? From governance structures and diversity – and a lack thereof – to the importance of maintenance and the beauty of rough consensus and running code: We share our insights about open digital infrastructure, and how we all can better support them, to hold out a little longer against t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶o̶m̶a̶n̶s̶ Big Tech.