D//F

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The D//F (Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund) is a multi- funder research initiative sustaining a platform for academics & practitioners to better understand how open digital infrastructure is built & deployed. Open Calls & Commissions.

Open digital infrastructure are the code, standards, data and knowledge assets foundational for all applied FOSS (code libraries, protocols...)

Funders Circle: Ford Foundation, Sloan Foundation, Omidyar Network, Schmidt Futures.

Websitehttps://infrastructureinsights.fund
Newsletternewsletter.infrastructureinsights.fund
D//FApr 8, 2025

{🚨 New report alert II } Infrastructure in Recession - Mike Nolan & Kripa Kundaliya (very timely!) explore in new research how sustained tech sector layoffs and budget cuts are destabilizing OSS communities that underpin our shared critical digital infrastructure.

Full report: https://infrastructureinsights.fund/projects/infrastructure-in-recession/

Drawing from interviews with maintainers & funding data analysis, their research reveals how labor on OSS projects—now heavily reliant on corporate sponsorship— increasingly becomes precarious.

Infrastructure in Recession - Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund

Economic impacts of tech layoffs on FOSS communities

Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund
D//FApr 8, 2025

{NEW REPORT alert! } Supported by Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund, Farzaneh Badiei conducted a study on *DNS resolvers* for the past year:
https://infrastructureinsights.fund/projects/understanding-the-shift-away-from-free-and-open-domain-name-servers-resolvers/

đź’Ą Some of the main issues found:

-Lack of access to a distributed, decentralized public DNS resolvers can lead to lack of access to online essential services.

Understanding the shift away from free and Open Domain Name Servers Resolvers - Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund

Open Calls & Research Commissions

Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund
Show threadD//FNov 25, 2024
The selected projects underscore D//F’s mission to advance sustainable, secure, and resilient open digital infrastructures while fostering a deeper understanding of their societal impact and critical role in serving the public interest.
Read more in our press release:
D//FNov 4, 2024

We keep them coming today:
{🚨New report alert # 2!} : *Fediverse Governance: Successes and gaps*

Decentralized social media's rapid expansion, notably via the Fediverse and FOSS project Mastodon, brings both opportunities and multifaceted risks. For the first half of 2024, independent researchers and Fediverse denizens Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi spoke to the admins and moderation teams of about a dozen Fediverse servers.

Show threadD//FNov 4, 2024
he paper therefore recommends a set of non-mutually exclusive policy options that could be taken on board by countries who are drafting and/or reviewing their own AI legislation.
Show threadD//FNov 4, 2024
When Gen AI developers made models freely available to the public, knowledge is usually distributed and competition is enhanced. But this openness comes with risks: malicious actors can evade developer oversight, remove any safeguards and customise models for harmful purposes.
D//FNov 4, 2024
[NEW PAPER ALERT!] Our grantees
@A__W______O
new paper puts forward a vision for balancing the benefits and risks of #opensource #GenAI (funded by
@DigInfFund
). Drafted by NickBotton
& Mathias Vermeulen
- a short thread on #boundariesofopenness #digitalinfrastructure
D//FOct 25, 2024
Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund just met for the Cohort 4 - kickoff at Ford Foundation in NYC:
2 days of intense discussions, identifying common ground, relentless peer-review and forging connections come to a close.
This workshop is one of my absolute favourite days of the entire year, because people interested in the same (allegedly) obscure topic meet for the first time face-to-face - and there is always a buzz of excitement and curiosity and opportunity in the room:
D//FJun 7, 2024

đź‘Ź A big -proactive- thank you to our (extensive) 2024 Review Board, that will help us identify the strongest proposals in the RFP: https://infrastructureinsights.fund/#review-board

cc @abbycabs @cosborne @duane @octopuscitizen @gurshabadgrover Jack Hardinges Jon Starr @kaythaney Lea Gimpel @lizzard Luis Villa @chaossproj @maxigas Melanie Dulong de Rosnay Renata Avilá @robin @claucece Stewart Scott

Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund

The D//F (Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund) is a multi-funder initiative sustaining a platform for researchers and practitioners to better understand how open digital Infrastructure is built and deployed.

Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund
D//FMay 17, 2024

đź’Ś We just published our 2024 RFP-Countdown- Newsletter, (also announcing limited online open office hours for next week.)
The newsletter contains an informative thread on situating D//F in the wider ODI ecosystem and navigating the current research- and challenge landscape, to help prospective applicants find the right scope for their proposals: https://mailchi.mp/544bc327c6fe/diif-countdown-2024-rfp-deadline-june-2nd

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