News & Insights

The November issue of Technology Review, a publication of the German media company Heise Magazine, contains an interview with INNOPAY founder Douwe Lycklama about his views on the next phase of the digital era.

In the article, titled ‘Does Europe need its own internet?’, Lycklama explains why he believes that Europe needs a new trusted infrastructure on the internet to support effortless data sharing. “Just as infrastructure has been constructed for water supplies, road traffic and so on over the past century, we now need a ‘soft infrastructure’ or framework of agreements about access to data in order to reduce the domination of the Big Techs,” he comments.

“In the digital context, something really weird has happened; the cloud infrastructure is entirely in the hands of a few privately owned companies. Their services have made European companies more productive, but this has been at the expense of data sovereignty. We lack the right infrastructure that meets the needs of the new digital era. We need to curb digital power by creating a level playing field for data, to put data back in the hands of people and businesses.”

Lycklama strongly advocates a soft infrastructure of this kind, which he says “has to be as easy to use as sending an email or text message or phoning someone”.

Download the full publication below.