“The objective of the study was to investigate and quantify the economic impact of OSS and OSH [Open Source Software and Open Source Hardware] on the European economy,” the study’s authors, working for the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission, explain.
“The study also identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of open source in relevant ICT policies, such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), digitising European industry, the connected car, high performance computing, big data, distributed ledger technologies, and more.
“The main breakthrough of the study,” its authors note, “is the identification of open source as a public good. This shows a change of paradigm from the previous irreconcilable difference between closed and open source, and points to a new era in which digital businesses are built using open source assets. This information is essential to develop policy actions in the field. The study also values the economic impact of open source commitments on the EU economy.”
#technology #EU #opensource #government #economy
With all the billions that the EU is spending on farmers and industry it would be a good idea if they actually start funding existing free and open source projects. Perhaps in the same way NLnet (https://nlnet.nl/project/current.html) is funding free and open source. Imagine what could be done.
NLnet’s current funding actually comes from the EU to a large extend.
Now that’s good spending of EU money. Where did you find that information because I couldn’t find it. The only thing I could find is this on the NLnet website ‘The foundation’s current funding comes from donations, legacies, collaborative funding and subgranting mechanisms, after having been kickstarted by a substantial capital established by pioneers of the European internet’
Their “NGI” funding is part of the EU Commission’s Next Generation Internet project.
Thanks the link is much appreciated. I’d never heard of the NGI and I’m glad that the EU is putting the money where their mouth is.
Yeah except that the current focus seems to be on all sorts of stupid blockchain stuff. I guess this kind of prioritization driven by political buzzwords is the curse of all these public funded endeavors and I am glad at least some of the funds are handed over to organisations like NLnet that seem to have a much better understanding what makes sense and what is just blockchain BS.
Yeah, it’s hard to imagine how the blockchain stuff coincides with the sustainability goal of the NGI Initiative. I also find it ironic that the pdf that explains the research and innovation program, specifically targeting open source privacy, is made with MS Word on OSX. https://www.ngi.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2020/04/NGI4ALL_NGI_Projects-and-people.pdf
If done well it could also boost the local economy. A lot of money in the Software industry goes to huge multinational companies outside of the EU or residing in tax havens.
I wish one day the EU wakes up and starts building its own Google equivalent but based on Free Software. I’m afraid it won’t happen in my lifetime, though.
They are working on something called GAIA-X which aims to be something like AWS.
But as with many such initiatives it sounds good in theory, but the practical implementation has issues and is driven largely by lobbyism and revolving-door corruption.
I had never heard of that project, it indeed sounds interesting. Can you provide more info on the project itself and on what makes you say that last paragraph? Would love to read more on this
Nexcloud had some marketing blub about it recently when they were selected for internal cooperation within the Gaia-x consortium.
About the latter… loads of small details here and there as discussed in the German IT press.
Yes I was also thinking there could be some sort of funding incentive for top voted contributors or something.
