As the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act(DSA) stir in the European Parliament, Wikimedia is making a strong case for the need for interoperability between high-capitalization platforms and the virtues of an open internet. That's the subject of this Wikimedia op-ed dated 03/28/2022.

The textbook case of interoperability is the ability to communicate from one social network to another between two individuals who have accounts on two different social networks. This is what some platforms design to do, but only within their ecosystem.

On the other hand, Wikipedia, run by Wikimedia, embodies what one would hope to see as virtuous in an open internet insofar as the Wikipedia API allows companies and individuals to retrieve large amounts of content from Wikipedia, for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

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Guest Writer - The Internet cannot evolve without interoperability - Wikimedia France

We have made our content open and free because we believe that the world is a better place when knowledge is widely accessible. Our goal is to make our content available to people everywhere, regardless of where they are. In contrast, internet giants tend to protect their goodwill and limit interoperability with other services. While understandable, their massive scale prevents them from effectively spreading knowledge and connecting people. We believe they should be required to establish connections between their services through some form of interoperability.