Decidim Fest 2025: Collective energy, digital sovereignty and a common roadmap - Metadecidim

Decidim Fest has come to an end, and we must say that this has been a truly special edition. We held the General Assembly of the Decidim Association with more participants than in recent years, enjoyed bold debates on digital sovereignty in the fight against authoritarian technologies, and had a great time with the community, the heart of this fantastic initiative. Let 's take a look!More than 60 people in our General AssemblyAwesome numbers! This year’s General Assembly has been one of the most attended in years. It was enriching seeing the room full of people, old and new faces, sharing their thoughts and reflections on how to strengthen governance, improving coordination across working groups and continuing to foster a transparent and participatory ecosystem around the project. It was a collaborative and forward-looking session that analysed the Association's current moment, clarifying issues and raising topics that reflected the commitment of the community to Decidim’s long-term sustainability. The first day of the Fest also highlighted the product roadmap session and the current active process to co-create and define the proposals to tackle for next years according to the strategic priorities. You can still propose your features!Digital sovereignty and radical imagination in the spotlightThe second day brought together voices from around the world working to build technological infrastructures that empower people rather than concentrate power. Decidim Keynote: Digital Sovereignty as a Democratic ImperativeNil Homedes, Decidim Association Director, and Arnau Monterde, Director of Participation and Democratic Innovation at the City Council, made a powerful keynote on the urgent need for digital sovereignty and technological independence. The keynote emphasized that sovereignty means the ability of public institutions to autonomously control their digital assets. With a global push for free software gaining momentum, they called for bold leadership from Barcelona and Catalonia. They also presented the historic agreement between the City of Barcelona and the United Nations to promote open source globally, which includes creating a mirror of GitHub to ensure independence from Big Tech infrastructures.Decidim Stories: cities reinventing democracyIn the Decidim Stories panel, representatives from several cities shared how they are transforming democratic participation through Decidim.Sonia Putzel, Technology Strategist at the New York City’s Civic Engagement Commission, Kenjiro Higashi, Project Manager of Decidim in Japan Code for Japan, Marc Serra, Deputy Delegate for Democratic Innovation and Citizen Participation, and Deputy Chair of the Climate Action and Energy Transition Area at the Diputació de Barcelona, Petter Joelson, Digital Director at Digidem Lab, and Pauline Bessoles, Member of the Coordination Committee at Decidim Association,  presented inspiring examples: from New York’s People’s Money process—open to all residents regardless of status—to the Diputació de Barcelona’s support for 311 municipalities using Decidim through Participa 311, enabling small and medium towns to run high-quality participation processes.We also heard about Kakogawa, the first Japanese city to adopt Decidim, and creative participatory budgeting initiatives that turned winning proposals into a thematic park with guided visits managed through the platform.Recipes for digital sovereignty: a global challenge The panel with Francesca Bria, Innovation Economist and Digital Policy expert, Alberto Gago, Director of the Office Digital Spain 2030 and Internationalization, Virgile Deville, Independant Open Source Product Manager, and Renata Ávila,  CEO Open Knowledge Foundation, explored how governments can build democratic digital sovereignty in a rapidly shifting geopolitical context. Speakers warned that we are losing the ability to design our own technological spaces, as oligopolistic actors impose infrastructures that undermine democratic capacity.Francesca stressed that sovereignty is not only about infrastructure or data ownership, but about strengthening people’s ability to make decisions. She called for a global movement, not limited to Europe, to create real alternatives to Big Tech’s influence.Alberto presented advances in linguistic sovereignty, including open AI models for minority languages and efforts to build a public AI ecosystem. Panelists emphasized the need for robust protocols, transparency, and governance models that prevent private actors like Palantir from controlling critical public services.Can Decentralization Fix Social Media?In a session with Andy Piper, Head of Communications at Mastodon, Amandine Le Pape, COO and co-founder of Element, Robin Berjon, Technologist specialising in the Governance of Digital Tech,  and Marta G. Franco, Communicator at Laintersección, speakers reflected on the opportunities and challenges of building decentralized social networks. They highlighted the need for mass-scale usability, resilient ecosystems, and governance structures capable of preventing platforms from being captured by powerful private interests.Amandine reminded the audience that decentralization works only if the user experience can compete with centralized alternatives, while Andy stressed the importance of open standards and public awareness in resisting dominant private platforms. The panel reached a shared conclusion: we don’t just need “ethics”—we need power, protocols, and democratic governance structures to ensure social media belongs to the people.Who Owns the Future? Radical Imagination with RuhaClosing the day, Ruha Benjamin, Sociologist and Professor at Princeton University, delivered a moving keynote connecting artificial intelligence, social justice, and collective imagination. She emphasized that algorithms are not neutral, they reflect the societies that produce them, and invited the audience to cultivate a critical, creative imagination capable of envisioning just and democratic digital infrastructures.Through vivid metaphors, Ruha showed how infrastructures often disguise discriminatory logics behind inclusive aesthetics, urging the need for deep structural change. She asked: Who owns the future? And reminded us that imagining alternative worlds is not a luxury—it is a moral imperative.Decidim Awards are here to stayFinally, after a full day of lightning talks by the community (30 conversations on different topics related to Decidim!) We closed the Fest with the new Decidim Awards! Here are the winners of this edition: Josan Minguela for his outstanding contribution to the translation of the platform and its codebase, helping connect people across languages. Pauline Bessoles for her outstanding contribution in expanding the documentation of Decidim, making it easier for others to install and configure the platform.Lucien Langton for his active participation in Metadecidim meetings and events, embodying the spirit of open collaboration and strengthening the community.  Decidim Awesome module for its innovation, usability and impact within the Decidim ecosystem, reflecting the collective intelligence of our community. Decidim at the MozfestBut, our festival was not over yet. Next day, on Friday 7 we organised a round table around activism and technology at the Mozilla Festival. Lead by Nil Homedes with Alejandra González, Digital Public Infrastructure, Data Governance, Digital Public Policy Expert, Gala Pin, Social Activist committed to digital sovereignty, and Ferran Reyes, founder of Vocdoni, joined the conversation to discuss about how platforms like Decidim can push social movements. And that was a wrap! This edition closes with a very renewed sense of momentum, shared purpose, and collective imagination to keep working for building democratic technologies that expand peoples’ power. See you next year!