Digital infrastructure as a public good. A European perspective

Public infrastructures such as transportation, water, energy, and telecommunication are complex technical, legal, economic, and politically managed systems. Material and social infrastructure services satisfy a broad range of requirements. They become critical infrastructures if the essential public works of a country, state, or region depend on them. Often, digital infrastructure is conceived of as the hardware, software, and organizational and institutional settings for transferring, storing , accessing , processing and/or using digital data. Yet, the technical and organizational layer »allow multiple stakeholders to orchestrate their service and content needs«. Thus, the »good is not the infrastructure system itself, but the functionalities that it affords«.