By Ana Carolina de Assis Nunes, Qualitative Researcher at TechSoup and Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at Oregon State University
The following summarizes the main research findings from TechSoup’s Accelerating Makers project. It touches on points related to the challenges and barriers faced by different actors when implementing decentralized technologies in their nonprofit work, as well as the applications of DWeb technology in the nonprofit sector focusing on community archives.
I have been working with TechSoup’s Accelerating Makers project for the past nine months. During this time, fellow researcher Darin Harrison and I have interviewed more than 20 nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and abroad about their knowledge, use, and understanding of decentralized technologies (DWeb) and decentralized storage. This post chronicles the main findings of our research, which are available in our research archive.
Core Concepts
DWeb refers to a reorganization of the Internet using peer-to-peer infrastructure rather than centralized data hosting services. Mozilla Hacks defines a centralized system as one where one entity has control over the participation of all other entities. In decentralized systems, power over participation is divided between more than one entity. Common examples of DWeb through recent history include Napster, a file-sharing application commonly associated with digital audio, as well as Bitcoin and other digital assets built on blockchain technology.
As our research investigated applications of DWeb technologies in the nonprofit sector, we learned that some of these terms and ideas might provoke fear and questions in civil society spaces. We also learned that there's a growing industry of consultants building their businesses by translating these terms into everyday language for different users.
Focusing on community archives, sometimes referred to as “community-based archives” — community-led efforts to collect different materials, with the goal of documenting materials important to a community or organization — has provided an important avenue for us to understand how DWeb can be an important tool to help community archives address their own needs, as well as challenge the power of big tech companies. Learn more about our findings next.
Research Findings
Through over 20 interviews and qualitative analysis, we identified a number of important themes and trends related to the DWeb technology in the nonprofit space.
Our research led us to the following findings.
NOTE: The research quotes are presented anonymously, as per our agreement with the interviewees.
1. User Interface Is a Barrier to the Adoption of DWeb Technologies
The challenge is to get people to engage with DWeb without realizing they’re doing that from a design standpoint.
Interviewees explained that the aesthetics and functional interfaces of these platforms are very unfamiliar to most users. This suggests that the user interface of these apps is underdeveloped, in part because most DWeb adherents are more technically literate than its target users. According to our interviewees, Facebook — and social media in general — have trained users to interact with their feeds, and DWeb interfaces need to be easy to use and intuitive in the same way.
2. Community Archives Do Not Consider Themselves to Be the Owners of Any Data
We believe that archives are stewards of public knowledge, not owners of anything.
Our research shows that community archives do not consider themselves the owners of the data they store. Data is not considered a commodity, and the goal of community archives is to foster autonomy and locally based solutions, rather than to profit from the publication of data.
3. The Decentralized Web Is Still Very Centralized
We’re not there yet …
Participants were critical of DWeb advancements and affirmed that DWeb is a hybrid approach that still relies on centralized technologies. "A lot of people think that decentralization is here, [but] it doesn't exist. Like it's here, but it doesn't necessarily exist, a lot of it is hybrid,” said one interviewee. This has led some makers to act cautiously in this complex amalgamation of digital technologies. “We’re not there yet, and this or that system will be gone in a year,” the interviewee said.
4. Regulation Is Needed
So I think that right now, again, they're just going to do some regulation; you're going to be able to invest in certain projects that are going to continue to get sued, or are in the process of being sued.
The existing regulation of DWeb products in the U.S., such as cryptocurrencies, is causing some confusion for potentially interested users in the nonprofit sector. Our U.S.-based interviewees mentioned disappointment about the current lack of regulation of digital products, while at the same time voicing concern about the way uninformed lawmakers have conducted important legal challenges of digital platforms such as TikTok, Google, and Facebook.
5. There Are Concerns Related to Privacy and Legal Compliance
When you have content that may be sensitive … we don't want to have that in the blockchain, because of privacy considerations and even human rights considerations.
The nature of blockchain introduces a number of issues around privacy and data sovereignty. Organizations need support and advice to address these issues. “So, one of the major concerns that we have with decentralization is, you know, how this balances censorship versus privacy considerations. ... And so, when you have content that may be sensitive … we don't want to have that in the blockchain, because of privacy considerations and even human rights considerations,” said one interviewee. Addressing the legal concerns, and considering privacy as a central element in the design process might encourage better DWeb adoption in the nonprofit sector.
6. DWeb Technologies Challenge Tech Monopolies and Put Different Communities and Users First
I think that it is important that marginalized communities get involved in technology so there can be some sort of inputs, and if there can't be inputs, and there needs to be a defense brought up really quickly, we know what's coming.
DWeb presents an option for smaller communities who are ideologically against tech monopolies profiting from their data. One emerging example of this concern is data harvesting for AI training. DWeb may present a viable alternative for community-based archives and other nonprofit projects that aim to enrich their own community. As stated by several interviewees, self-ownership of data can generate community-based solutions, like the promotion of digital sovereignty, giving communities a say over their digital destiny. When considering whether to adopt a new form of storage, ethical concerns are at the center of the discussion. This set of priorities shows how community-based archives differ from standard archiving institutions, such as the ones housed in universities, maintained by the government and other large institutions.
7. There Is a Significant Lack of Resources and Qualified Personnel to Engage with Complex Tech Infrastructure in the Nonprofit Sector
So one of the issues with smaller community-based archives is that we often don't have a lot of funding, we don't have a lot of infrastructure. And so in a lot of times, the smaller groups are forced to partner with larger institutions so that they can have access to their storage capacity, which makes sense and their technical expertise, archivists, digital archivists, on staff.
Community-based archives rely on larger platforms because they usually can't afford custom solutions, and the competing solutions are often offered for free. Competing corporate solutions are often easier to use, with simplified user experience and user interfaces. Some of our participants indicated that small archives lack the technical understanding and resources needed to set up their own internet and storage infrastructures customized for their own needs.
Conclusion
Our research investigated applications of decentralized web technologies in the nonprofit sector, focusing on community archives. We learned that decentralized storage and DWeb have the potential to support community-based initiatives like archives to identify and solve their own needs, rather than relying on top-down solutions provided by corporate platforms. These findings are a summary of our reports. We encourage you to read these reports and share your impressions and questions with us.
Email: research@techsoup.org