"We have worked together with hundreds of individuals and organisations across the continent - and we made it."

Stuart Mackintosh interviews Paula Grzegorzewska of Open Forum Europe (OFE), a Brussels think-tank advocating openness in digital policy. Paula oversees strategic partnerships and has driven OFE’s work on open innovation, open source software and, more recently, AI and open hardware. She highlights the need for clearer technical definitions and standardisation in AI, and OFE’s role in bridging vibrant developer communities with policymakers. Paula cites OFE’s landmark EC-commissioned study demonstrating open source’s economic and social benefits, and envisions expanding OFE’s remit into semiconductors and broader “open technologies,” ensuring openness is considered in every relevant policy debate.

John Laban outlines his varied career—from gardener to globetrotting motorcyclist—and his commitment to making technology serve human and ecological needs. He defines sustainability as a three-legged model encompassing social, environmental and economic dimensions, underpinned by global equity, and criticises the IT sector’s frequent neglect of the social pillar. Laban advocates transforming passive consumers into “prosumers” through education and transparent environmental information—such as comparing the embodied-carbon footprints of different devices—to drive demand for low-impact technologies and informed policy. He insists that addressing climate urgency requires broadening awareness beyond energy usage to the full lifecycle of products, and calls for an educational shift towards systems thinking and polymathy so individuals can grasp and act upon the interconnected challenges at planetary scale.