NGI Local for Local

Local for Local, Creating Economic Ecosystems Through NGI Deployment

Description of project: Reason why
Local regions throughout Europe face shrinking economies, which threaten their ability to sustain small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Strong technological intervention aimed at strengthening local ties can revitalize these regions. At the same time, the European Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative proposes a new internet of humans. It brings European values and norms to all citizens. We hold that NGI is the technological intervention needed to revitalize our regions.

Project approach
This project integrates open source NGI building blocks into the Local for Local open-source software stack. We nurture a software ecosystem through open calls for NGI innovators, which we finance, supervise, mentor, and support in standardization. The selected top teams collaboratively create the envisioned software stack consisting of blockchain-based infrastructure, a modular platform, and one application called Locasus-B. The application is then tested in three pilots across five regions throughout Europe. We measure both the economic impact and the technical performance of the software stack.

Results
An open-source software ecosystem that collaboratively builds a software stack from NGI components. The attracted community of NGI innovators delivers the software stack as software common, which, being fully open source, can be extended by anyone who recognizes its potential. We deploy the software stack in five regions and use it to create self-sustaining socio-economic ecosystems.

Outcomes
The direct outcomes of this project are economic validation and technical performance measurement of the software stack. These outcomes contribute to the adoption of the Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. We distribute building blocks that can create sustainable circular economies that give better control for users on their digital life. This has rapid scaling potential throughout Europe and the consortium will act to realize this adoption.