OpenForum Europe

See the following -

European Commissioner Outlines Open Source Priorities

The Commissioner welcomed developments in open source throughout public administrations in Europe to seize the economic and innovative potential of open source. These include the Action Plan on Free Software and Digital Commons in France, the initiatives in Estonia, Spain and Italy, as well as the newly created Centre for Digital Sovereignty in Germany. According to the Commissioner, several factors are needed to use the potential of open source and to reach the political goals of the EU: nurturing a tech startup culture, utilising the digital single market for lean and sustainable tech industry, overcoming planned obsolescence, pooling the efforts of the EU’s Member States for technological independence and improving cybersecurity.

European Commission Releases Study on the Impact of Open Source

The European Commission’s landmark study on the impact of Open Source Software and Hardware finds that investments in open source software can be a major boost to the EU’s post-recovery economy, digital transformation and digital autonomy...The economic analysis shows that the open source sector is mature to the point of being considered for a tailored industrial policy, as well as inclusion in the EU’s  major policy frameworks, such as the European Green Deal and the AI Act. 

Read More »

Open Source Recognized As A Key Economic Pillar In European Union Study

A September 2021 study on the economic impact of open source software and hardware concluded that open source technologies injected EUR 65-95 billion into the European economy. This study is timely given the current rollout of the European Union's EUR 750 billion recovery investment, which has allotted 20% for digital transformation. Growing political efforts to understand and quantify the importance of open source in realizing EU digital sovereignty accentuate the study's significance. The European Union sponsored the study, which was written by Fraunhofer ISI and OpenForum Europe.

Read More »

Upstream Conference to Feature Open Source Maintainers

Imagine the chaos that would occur if all open source software vanished with the snap of a finger. Picture the devices that would turn to bricks in our hands, the infrastructure that would fail, and the machinery that would fall silent. The truth is we probably don't stop to think about all the open source libraries, frameworks, and components we depend on-until something goes wrong. The extraordinary impact of open source is difficult to measure or quantify...Open source is a testament to human ingenuity, and it's not often that we take the time to celebrate what we-the creators and users of open source-have made together. We think it's time we did. That's why we're announcing a new type of open source event called Upstream. It's a one-day celebration of open source for the developers who use it and the maintainers that create it. We'd like you to join us on June 7 for this entirely virtual and free event where we'll focus on the creators behind essential open source packages and the developers who build amazing things with them.

Read More »

Open Strategic Autonomy: Public and Private Sector Perspectives

Event Details
Type: 
Seminar/Webinar
Date: 
March 23, 2022 (All day)

The increased attention on digital autonomy stems from concerns regarding user-control of IT infrastructures, services and products that our economy depends on. In a soon-to-be-published paper by OpenForum Europe, we outline how these concerns are nothing new to people following the open technology space. Put simply, open technologies, in particular open source and open standards, give the user and developer the control that at a societal level delivers digital autonomy.