Sachiko Muto:

~”Open source is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It is strategically important. This is a concern for democracy. We need to widen the circle of people who are concerned about this. The words we use change who feels this is a concern for them.”

She recommended talking about ‘digital public goods’ and the use cases for them.

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Sachiko Muto: ~”We’ve heard the Commission talk about business model for the commons. Is there a tension or clash there?” (Great question!)

Mirko Presser referenced “I am not a Supplier” blog post and the challenge of moving a community building freely to become a commercial entity to support itself.

https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/not-a-supplier?ref=activitypub

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Gemma started strong re: NGI program transition to Open Internet Stack.

~“There is no Open Internet Stack without the digital commons.”

Funding will shift from exclusively development grants to “deployment”, Commission-speak for software having some commercialization that enables the FOSS to become self-sustaining.

Funding “innovation” is attractive to grantors, but we need grants for maintenance, non-functional requirements, support to increase quality concerns preventing adoption.

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The next panel is “Open Internet Stack (OIS): What role can the Commons play in the Stack” with:

• Mirko Presser, Prof at Aarhus University

• Tom Collins, Research Expert at CityMesh

• Moderator: Dr. Monique Calisti, CEO of Martel Innovate, President of Digital for Planet

• Sachiko Muto, Chair at OpenForum Europe, Sr Researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sverige

• Sophie Bloemen, Co-founder & Director of Commons Network

• Gemma Carolillo, Deputy Head of NGI Unit at EC

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~”Independence is not ‘doing it yourself’. It’s ‘not being dependent on one vendor.’” —Adriana Groh, CEO of the Sovereign Tech Agency

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Sachiko Muto, Chair at OpenForum Europe:

~”Grants are not enough to sustain. The power of procurement is not a new topic. We need the possibility of non-price criteria, to give preference to companies that show they contribute to FOSS in meaningful ways. We need to establish criteria for this together with experts.”

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Sachiko Muto, Chair at OpenForum Europe:

~”Many individuals [FOSS developers] who are critical to our digital infrastructure are overwhelmed, underpaid, and close to burnout.”

Context: Psychologist Miranda Heath’s report on the problem of burnout in FOSS.

https://opensourcepledge.com/blog/burnout-in-open-source-a-structural-problem-we-can-fix-together/?ref=activitypub

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Emma shared the EC-EDIC’s intentions.

~”We don’t yet know the 5, 10 year plans for the EDIC. We have a vision and will deliver step-by-step.”

It will address both supply and demand.

~”What we want to achieve is open source adoption.”

~”If we support open source ecosystems, but don’t gain users, we don’t make a difference. If we gain users, but don’t support ecosystems, we have an imbalance”

Adriana: ~”If we only let volunteers maintain it, that’s not sustainable and not fair.”

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Adriana Groh, CEO of the Sovereign Tech Agency:

~”Stuff doesn’t get less complicated with more people involved. We need to practice using the instruments we have,” referring to EDICs.

But also:

~”Why don’t we have EU-level foundations and companies?”

This is an excellent question. I support expanding the categories of EU-registered and regulated organization (“legal persons”) types beyond Societas Europaea and Societas Cooperativa Europaea.

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