Our Favorite Things
Hello,
We made it! It’s the end of 2025, and wow, what a year it has been.
I hope you all are able to take a breath, step back from the work, and get some rest as the year winds down.
We here at DTI wanted to gift you some of our favorite things – things we’ve read this year that really mattered or opened our eyes, things we’ve learned we want to share, and even some personal tidbits we just couldn’t help but include to hopefully bring you some of the joy it brought us.
Enjoy and the happiest of holidays to you from all of us!
Chris, Lisa, Delara, Tom, Aaron, and Jen
Your Data Transfer Initiative Team
Our Favorite Things
Chris Riley, Executive Director
- I’ve spent a ton of time this year working on and thinking about AI. I could create a long list of recommendations just on that subject. But I’ll keep it to 1, and my apologies to the many left-behinds: Mustafa Suleyman’s writings on Seemingly Conscious AI. As modern AI grows, so do its problems. (For a bonus, check out the AI portability principles we’ve published at DTI, to help people stay in control of the AI future.)
- In a year of significant, yet at times swirling, winds for data policy in Europe, I’ll highlight the UK’s Data (Use and Access) Act, which was fully adopted this year. The expansion of Smart Data into other sectors, including potentially the digital sector, will lead to a great increase in data transfers in practice, and DTI will be there to support.
- Shifting to the personal, I think this year saw an increase in fans for one of the greatest sources of unalloyed joy in my life: the TV show “Somebody Feed Phil.” Not as serious as Anthony Bourdain’s travel food shows, though inspired by them, Phil celebrates the positive and the wonder in good food wherever he goes, and the people, history, and culture behind the food.
Lisa Dusseault, CTO
- Favorite non-fiction book read this year: The Unaccountability Machine. Favorite new fiction series: Dungeon Crawler Carl – I devoured these at the beginning of 2025.
- DjangoCon, in Chicago, where I spoke in October, was a terrific experience with friendly, supportive people, all willing to share their knowledge. Standout talk: AI Modest Proposal by Mario Munoz.
- Favourite new DTI collaborators: getting to know Fabric.io, Koodos and Inflection AI this year, all of whom became DTI affiliates in the year. I love learning about startups’ journeys and their vision.
Tom Fish, Head of Europe
- On the policy side of things, a personal highlight of the year for me was the UK government consultation on whether and how to implement a Smart Data scheme for digital markets. Having originally proposed this idea a few years ago in a former role, it reaffirmed my personal public policy mantra: “it can all start with a blog”.
- When selling the value of data portability to policy makers and politicians over the years, I have often called on the expression “if you build it, they will come”, slightly adapted from the 1989 classic Field of Dreams. At an event in London on Context Portability for AI Agents, hosted alongside two DTI members Google and Fabric, I officially retired this movie reference, as data portability use cases are finally emerging from the cornfield. (Watch here from 28:00 onwards).
- I’m sure this will also appear in all of my colleagues’ lists, but my biggest highlight of 2025 is of course joining DTI at the start of the year. As I said in my first DTI newsletter, “my joining DTI feels like it was a foregone conclusion since my first conversation with its Executive Director Chris Riley in July 2023.” It hasn’t disappointed!
Jen Caltrider, Director of Research & Engagement
- My favorite dense slog of an academic read that actually changed my world view on how data portability could change the world for good would be this paper Data Portability Revisited: Toward the Human-Centric, AI-Driven Data Ecosystems of Tomorrow. Don’t let the hefty wordcount of an academic paper fool you, it’s really quite good. And if you don’t have time to read it all, skim the first parts and then really read section IV on Portability Reimagined.
- As a consumer privacy advocate, I spent 2025 really trying to figure out how data portability could make life better for people and give them back control over their data and their privacy. The best person I’ve found out there already talking about the potential for this future is Jamie Smith, who writes the Customer Futures substack newsletter. Please, go check it out, and I’d recommend starting here (which I know is part 2, you should also read part 1 and then go from there).
- My “fun” read recommendation probably isn’t exactly all that fun to read, as it’s a Harvard Law Review article from 1850. But, stay with me here, it’s actually really, really cool. Back then, some smart legal types (Warren and Brandeis) wrote a paper called The Right to Privacy for the Harvard Law Review. In it, they defined privacy as the “right to be let alone.” People, we all deserve the right to be let alone in the AI age! Let’s embrace this definition of privacy please!
Delara Derakhshani, Director of Policy
- One of my favorite things this year has been a renewed interest in and ongoing momentum for data portability – in the U.S., around the world, and increasingly across new sectors. Part of my work at DTI is to track this, so I offer to you the tracker from this July. We are at a turning point for data portability and I’m excited to be part of this journey.
- Translating the technical work of portability to the everyday is tricky. Early in 2025 I wrote this blog post that I wanted to highlight as a step forward. It spells out nicely and succinctly why data portability should matter to you, using the threat of a TikTok ban as an example.
- On the personal front, I’ve enjoyed spending more time with my mini-dachshund, Charlie Derakhshani, recently. Those of you who own this unique breed know that they ooze love and never leave your side – but that they would also probably happily trade you for a sandwich if they had the chance.
Aarón Ayerdis Espinoza, Software Developer
- This year I attended FediForum online, and among all the topics presented, there was a fantastic moment when Elena Rossini (whom I was very surprised to see after several years of watching a documentary she directed) appeared, presenting a short film explaining how the Fediverse works.
- Reading articles about Data Portability and discussing at social gatherings with former colleagues and classmates about the importance of our digital rights has been a fun experience. It’s a topic that has largely gone unnoticed, even by people working in the same field as me. You should try talking about portability with your friends - they may never have thought about whether they can move their data.