Cyprus open digital futures week to bring civic voices into policy

The Cyprus Free/Libre and Open Source Software Association (Ellak) has announced the launch of the Cyprus Open Digital Futures Week, a programme of civic, technical and policy events designed to help citizens shape digital policy as the Republic of Cyprus continued work tied to its Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The association said the week was meant to ensure that digital policy conversations were not merely hosted in Cyprus but co-created by citizens and the wider local ecosystem. The initiative, known as Open Digital Futures Week or ODFW, was presented as a parallel, community-led space for asking who should shape the technological future, how public digital infrastructure should serve democracy, education, culture, autonomy, the right to repair and the common good, and how Cyprus could move from hosting conversations to helping build responsible innovation. Ellak said the week linked EU-level debate with the realities of local digital life, from schools and procurement decisions to cultural tools, public platforms, communication habits, civil society and the everyday use of technology. While the official EU agenda focused on AI, sovereignty and investment, the association said the Cyprus programme was aimed at closing the implementation gap between high-level policy and public life. It said that gap included issues such as transparent procurement, school platforms that protected children’s rights, interoperable public infrastructure and code, and the wider use of Free/Libre and Open Source Software as a basis for democratic resilience. “Technology can begin to sound like something developed for states and markets, rather than something that is already organising childhood, education, culture, and everyday life,” said Chrystalleni Loizidou, organiser of the event and representative of Ellak Cyprus. “These conversations are too important to leave entirely to politicians and big tech vendors. We need to connect the scattered technical capacity that exists locally and ask what digital transformation would look like if guided by public value and the common good,” she said. The week was billed as a bridge between Cyprus’ local ecosystem and the broader European policy landscape on digital affairs, AI and open source. Ellak said it was intended to culminate in direct civic participation at the two-day Shaping the Next Digital Frontier conference, organised by the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy on June 17, 2026 and June 18, 2026. The association argued that digital policy should not be left only to politicians, civil servants, vendors, consultants and a narrow circle of experts speaking mainly among themselves. It said technology already shaped childhood, education, culture, public spending, democratic participation and much else, and that Cyprus now had both the opportunity and the responsibility to bring its civic, artistic, technical and institutional capacity into the same room. The programme opened on June 13, 2026 with the traditional Ellak Cyprus BBQ at the Pykni picnic site in Peyia, Paphos, starting between 11:00 and 13:00. The event featured souvla and food prepared in a solar oven by Fornelia, which Ellak described as a Cyprus-based initiative bringing ecological, low-dependency and inventive local technology into the day. On June 14, 2026, the programme moved to Limassol for Libre Arts @ NeMe, an informal evening dedicated to libre arts, creative autonomy and cultural imagination beyond platform capitalism, surveillance culture and locked-down creative tools. Held at the NeMe Arts Centre, the event invited participants to bring sounds, visuals, code, zines, posters, strange tools, unfinished experiments, hacked devices, performances, glitches and impossible ideas into what Ellak described as a temporary autonomous atmosphere of shared experimentation. On June 15, 2026, the 101.CY Unconference took place at the CYENS Centre of Excellence in the old city of Nicosia. That event was designed to let participants set the agenda and run sessions together, while creating space for what Ellak called “awkward, local, and practical questions” about digital sovereignty, public digital procurement, cybersecurity misconceptions and the protection of children’s rights without compromising their autonomy. On June 16, 2026, the week connected directly with the European open source policy debate through Capital Series Cyprus: Open Source and the European Union at The Cyprus Institute in Nicosia. The event was hosted with the institute’s Innovation & Development Directorate and led by OpenForum Europe, with Thibaut Kleiner, Director of Future Networks at DG Connect in the European Commission, delivering the keynote and offering a Commission perspective. As co-host, Ellak Cyprus said it helped connect Brussels-level policy discussion with Cyprus’ research, civic technology, open source and public-interest communities. The programme also included Christoph Burgener, the Swiss ambassador in the Republic of Cyprus, Laszlo Igneczi, executive director and chair of the management board of OpenForum Europe, and Prof. Stavros Malas. Support came from a wide network of sponsors and partners including Linux Foundation Europe, SUSE, Red Hat, GitHub, Eclipse Foundation, University of Cyprus (KIOS), Collabora, APELL, Brno University of Technology, Ellak Cyprus, Institute of Information Cyprus / 101.CY, GFOSS – Open Technologies Alliance, ISOC Switzerland Chapter and Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0) representatives. Ellak said those organisations helped drive discussion across EU, international and local levels on open source policy, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure, standards, innovation and competitiveness, and the digital commons. The week concluded on June 17, 2026 and June 18, 2026 with civic representatives, including ELLAK members, carrying the week’s insights into the official Shaping the Next Digital Frontier conference. That event, also organised by the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, was intended to ensure grassroots perspectives complemented the highest-level policy discussions, particularly on Digital Sovereignty and Open Digital Ecosystems. Moreover, Ellak said the aim was not only to shape Cyprus’ EU Presidency discussions but also to help round out related debate in and around Brussels in a constructive way. From a community BBQ in Paphos to a libre arts gathering in Limassol, from a participant-led unconference in Nicosia to a European policy forum at the Cyprus Institute, the week was offered as an open invitation to developers, educators, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, public servants, journalists, digital rights advocates and active citizens to join some of the most important conversations of the moment. The association also pointed readers to a background reflection titled From Hosting to Co-Creating Tech Policy.