Thread by @swardley

X : Can you help me understand digital sovereignty?
Me : Sure. It's a fascinating area. First, we have to start with culture. Do you know my culture map?
X : I've seen it but I don't quite understand.
Me : Not a problem. Ok ...

... the only thing you really need to understand about the culture map is there are lots of components involved - values, behaviours, memory - along with relationships between those components ...

... included in this are feedback loops which can be both negative (destabilising) and positive (stabilising) i.e. our collective, our success, our values and our sense of belonging. Don't worry about the mechanics, as I said not important ...

... the most prominent loops are connected to something called "landscape" i.e. the context we exist within. That's the only bit you need to remember, that culture is linked to our landscape ...

... in physical sovereignty we represent this through a map i.e. this is where our collective lives, where our values and our behaviours matter, here are our borders against other collectives i.e. our realm.

Now, competitive landscape in for example business can be mapped. So, here's a map of the automative industry rolled forward to 2025 approximately ...

We can use this to anticipate change i.e. introduction of digital subscription models for automotives. We anticipated in Gov in 2014 and BMW started talking about in 2018. It can have negative impacts from embedding social inequality in transport but that's another map ...

Of course users belong to a collective and values can be embedded in training systems e.g. who should the self driving car kill in a pile up - the family of four or the wealthy banker? Not all collectives will agree based upon what they value ...

Digital sovereignty is all about deciding what parts of this competitive space that your collective wants to own / compete / dominate / represent our values and our behaviours in ... where are our borders etc ...

China, btw, is sublimely good at this stuff using directed Gov investment and the market as a tool to invade further up the value chain of industry and impose its values. This is what creates tension between the businesses of different collectives - West vs East.

X : How good is the gameplay of digital sovereignty in the West?
Me : Mostly crap. We don't use maps, we use stories and have endless blah blah sessions of consultants trying to define digital sovereignty. It's like generals trying to win a war by giving it the right name.

Me : We will win this battle if we call it "Moonshot Thunder"!
X : You're kidding? What about the moonshots?
Me : It's a good idea to look at the map before launching an artillery barrage otherwise bad things happen.

X : What about EU
Me : We've taken more of a protectionist stance of late - we're going to build our own cloud etc. We've not done a good job of adapting but then it's difficult to do this if you don't understand the landscape - see also IBM, HP etc etc.

X : Data is important.
Me : Data is one of many components. Food is more important but we don't grow everything ourselves. Hence cross border trade. Of course, if you can't see the landscape, you don't know where the borders are, you don't even know what you're trying to protect.

Go grab a few real generals and say that from now on, there will be no use of maps and this group of highly paid consultants will create an amazing defintion of what physical sovereignty is. They'll say you are a complete nutter but that's what we're doing in the digital space.

In case it's needed - the blog version of the above swardley.medium.com/digital-sovere…