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Learn about why open source is important for democracy via blogposts and podcasts.

Open Source Democracy aims to communicate the ethics and values of open source alternatives to Big Tech, structured by three overarching topics (education, mobility, information). Aarhus University’s SHAPE centre researcher Renee Ridgway focuses on search as a knowledge infrastructure and open source technologies. Journalist Pernille Tranberg is specialised in data and AI ethics and co-founder of Data Ethics.eu. Supported by a Carlsberg Mindelegat grant, the project runs from September 2025 until February 2026.

Open Source Democracy is a dissemination project about why open source is important for democracy funded by Carlsberg Mindelegat, running between September 2025 and February 2026. Renee Ridway is a specialist in open source, and the main source in the project, and journalist Pernille Tranberg is the interviewer, editor, and producer of the podcasts and blogposts.

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Search and Chatbot Literacy
Search and Chatbot Literacy
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Search and Chatbot Literacy
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Open Source Can Disrupt Big Tech’s Grip on The Public Sector
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Generative AI Comes With Openwashing
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Open Street Map is For the People
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What is Open Source, the History and Progress
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The Specialists

Renée Ridgway

Renée Ridgway is a researcher, educator, and media artist based in Aarhus, DK, and Amsterdam, NL. Situated at the interstices of feminist STS, media/organization theory, critical data/infrastructures/AI studies and (post)digital cultures, her interdisciplinary research addresses the problematics, politics and ethical aspects of search hegemonies through public workshops and data visualisations, its alternatives (European public index, FOSS software applications for search), ‘reverse search warrants’ (geofencing) and the so-called future of search (generative AI/chatbots). Renée is presently the PI of the project ‘knowledge infrastructures of searching’ in the SHAPE centre at the department of Digital Design and Information Studies and BTECH, Aarhus University, DK.

Pernille Tranberg

Pernille Tranberg is a former investigative journalist, having specialised in data and AI ethics, and tech alternatives to big techs, which she speaks about in and outside Denmark, teaches, and analyses. She is co-founder of DataEthics.eu, she was part of the Danish government’s expert group and tech giants, and she has written several books about the topics. digital-identitet.dk.

Renée Ridgway

Renée Ridgway is a researcher, educator, and media artist based in Aarhus, DK, and Amsterdam, NL. Situated at the interstices of feminist STS, media/organization theory, critical data/infrastructures/AI studies and (post)digital cultures, her interdisciplinary research addresses the problematics, politics and ethical aspects of search hegemonies through public workshops and data visualisations, its alternatives (European public index, FOSS software applications for search), ‘reverse search warrants’ (geofencing) and the so-called future of search (generative AI/chatbots). Renée is presently the PI of the project ‘knowledge infrastructures of searching’ in the SHAPE centre at the department of Digital Design and Information Studies and BTECH, Aarhus University, DK.

Pernille Tranberg

Pernille Tranberg is a former investigative journalist, having specialised in data and AI ethics, and tech alternatives to big techs, which she speaks about in and outside Denmark, teaches, and analyses. She is co-founder of DataEthics.eu, she was part of the Danish government’s expert group and tech giants, and she has written several books about the topics. digital-identitet.dk.