• News Jordan Maris Europe’s Open Source Opportunity: our vision for the EU Open Digital Ecosystems strategy Last week, the OSI submitted its feedback to the Open Digital Ecosystems strategy, which comes at a time when both Open Source communities and the European Union face unprecedented challenges. • We highlighted the benefits of Open Source for Europe, and how to leverage them in a way that strengthens Open Source communities. • TheOpen Digital Ecosystems Strategyis the follow up to the European Commission’sOpen Source Strategywhich expired in 2023, and comes at a time when the European Union (EU) and its member states are seeking greater digital sovereignty, and competitiveness. • In ourfeedback, we highlight how we see Open Source as a way to achieve that goal, and the pitfalls that must be avoided. • Europe is uniquely positioned to benefit from Open Source: figures fromGitHubshow EU developers being the largest group of contributors to Open Source projects globally. • In short, Europe has a hidden silicon valley in addition to its already flourishing Commercial Open Source sector.
Article Summaries:
- The Open Source Initiative (OSI) submitted feedback to the European Commission’s new Open Digital Ecosystems strategy, emphasizing how open‑source software can advance EU digital sovereignty and competitiveness. OSI highlighted Europe’s leading role in global open‑source contributions and urged continued EU funding, proposing an EU Sovereign Tech Fund to support critical, early‑stage, and strategically valuable projects. It also called for a sub‑fund to enhance features requested by public administrations and for “Open Source Attestations” under the Cyber Resilience Act to ease compliance and raise project revenue. The feedback stresses that sustained investment and regulatory support will spur economic growth, foster alternatives to dominant ICT solutions, and strengthen EU cyber resilience.
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