Social Dimension of Sovereign Digital Citizenship: The SCOD Framework

Half a century from the dawn of the digital, after the last couple of decades of intense innovation in products and services, it is time to rethink the digital ecosystem. This paper delves into network effects that lead to the concentration of online business in a few providers, exploring some of its emerging challenges and risks within increasingly complex data collection and sharing environments. Drawing on various studies, we propose conceptualizing a model that contributes to democratizing network effect on understanding digitalization as a sociotechnical process involving human interests and interactions, which is added by public participation. The paper discusses the concept of sovereign citizen on digital citizenship (SCOD), structured as a collaborative network of public and private interests. It suggests that the need to give citizens control of their own data generated when accessing digital services is central. The paper explores primary potentialities, such as data privacy, control, and autonomy, and develops some core ideas and recommendations for its operationalization at the member-state and European levels.