Update report on community engagement

This report offers an update on DECODE's community engagement strategy and work.

DECODE is part of a wider ecosystem of efforts to promote and develop technology that is open source, privacy conscious, and embodies values like data ownership and data sovereignty. DECODE both draws from and contributes to this larger ecosystem. This interaction aids in the project’s:

• relevance - DECODE addresses existing needs and opportunities;
• quality - Useful tools which are based upon the same or similar principles as DECODE have already been made, allowing DECODE room to borrow, focus, and specialize;
• sustainability - DECODE outcomes can now be adopted and used by others. In many cases, this is already happening.

Ensuring this relevance, quality, and sustainability required DECODE partners to undertake dedicated efforts towards engaging people from all walks of life. Specifically, the DECODE engagement strategy intended to target public administrators, the general public, and developers across a wide range of fields. A key component of this strategy has been bringing these three groups of people together in a variety of settings in order to help each group better understand the issues and technologies surrounding issues like data privacy, data ownership, and digital identity. Co-creation and co-development with a number of external partners also established the uptake of DECODE values and technology within governments, communities, external developers and other organizations