S01:E16
For Amnesty International Spain, digital sovereignty isn’t simply about procurement, compliance or where your servers happen to be. It’s about being able to keep working — whatever happens.
In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Carlos Lopez Belenguer, IT Manager for Infrastructure at Amnesty International Spain, about why the organisation has spent more than a decade pursuing technological independence.
Carlos explains how Amnesty International Spain combines self-hosted infrastructure, open-source software and online services to support staff and thousands of activists — and why retaining control of its data and tools matters so much to an organisation that regularly challenges governments, companies and other powerful institutions.
We discuss what digital sovereignty actually means in practice; why open formats, portability and an exit plan matter; Amnesty International Spain’s long history with Collabora Online; and why organisations should still pay for professional support even when the software itself is open source. Carlos also shares what happened when one open-source supplier increased its price fivefold — and why being able to keep running the software gave Amnesty time to find an alternative.
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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.
00:00 Why digital independence matters 01:03 Inside Amnesty International Spain’s IT 04:44 Why self-hosting matters 05:35 When powerful people want you quiet 07:14 Open source as a route to independence 09:08 Eight years with Collabora Online 13:57 What digital sovereignty really means 16:04 Why pay for open-source software? 19:06 When the price jumps 5× 22:08 The price of cloud convenience 25:12 How to take back control
