Summary

Digital commons are shared information and knowledge resources such as data, software and cultural content. They are produced and managed for collective use, and to be modified and redistributed as needed. Using results from a 2023 survey of the Debian community, this new DCPC report addresses question such as:

• Is the free, libre and open source software or FLOSS development model economically sustainable?
• What role can FLOSS play in the transition to more environmentally sustainable production and consumption?

Background

With the benefit of hindsight, our first survey of the Debian community, carried out in 2016, whose full results were published in a DCPC21 report, represented the first manifestation of a core DCPC program of work: to empirically map which categories of workers (e.g., firm employees, foundation employees, researchers, volunteers, etc) were performing which duties in the digital commons production process, with a view to increasing the recognition of these commons and these voluntary workers by industry and society.

This new report, based on a second survey of the Debian community held in 2023, examines the economic and environmental sustainability of free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) and its role in fostering sustainable production. Debian is a free software suite combining an operating system and applications, widely used worldwide across organisations, governments, individuals and critical digital infrastructure.

The report highlights community rejection of restrictive licences as environmental incentives, critiques predatory information technology (IT) practices and details workplace obstacles – economic, organisational and technical – to reducing environmental impacts.

Key findings

• Rejection by the community of the use of restrictive licences to incentivise environmental action.
• Results may have been influenced by the respondents’ location.
• Respondents believe that the risks posed by free-riding behaviour and industrial predation affect FLOSS in general much more than Debian.
• The obstacles to the environmental transition are complex.
• New opportunities, arising from changes in the global situation, have arisen since 2023.

Available for free download

Australian Policy Online: https://apo.org.au/node/332607

Digital Commons Policy Council: https://dcpc.info/publications/the-economic-and-environmental-sustainability-of-digital-commons-lessons-from-the-2023-debian-project-survey/

Full citation: O’Neil, M., Broca, S., Cai, X., Daly, A., Rikap, C., Shulz, S. & Zacchiroli, S. (2025) The economic and environmental sustainability of digital commons: Lessons from the 2023 Debian project survey. DCPC/NMRC, University of Canberra. https://doi.org/10.60836/kwyp-z220

=-=-=-=-=