Open letter initially published in French by the Petites Singularités association, translation by OW2 - with French original version below.
To sign it: please publish it on your web site (French, English or both), then add yourself in this table.

The European Union must keep funding free software

Since 2020, Next Generation Internet (NGI) programmes, part of European Commission's Horizon programme, fund free software in Europe using a cascade funding mechanism (see for example NLnet's calls). This year, according to the Horizon Europe working draft detailing funding programmes for 2025, we notice that Next Generation Internet is not mentioned any more as part of Cluster 4.

NGI programmes have shown their strength and importance to support the European software infrastructure, as a generic funding instrument to fund digital commons and ensure their long-term sustainability. We find this transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and ecomomical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of European technological innovation, and maintaining the NGI initiative to provide structural support to software projects at the heart of worldwide innovation is key to enforce the sovereignty of a European infrastructure.
Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly initiated by small-scaled organizations.

Previous Cluster 4 allocated 27 millions euros to:

    "Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared in Europe" ;
    "A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI, that enables better control of our digital life" ;
    "A structured eco-system of talented contributors driving the creation of new internet commons and the evolution of existing internet commons" .

In the name of these challenges, more than 500 projects received NGI funding in the first 5 years, backed by 18 organisations managing these European funding consortia.

NGI contributes to a vast ecosystem, as most of its budget is allocated to fund third parties by the means of open calls, to structure commons that cover the whole Internet scope - from hardware to application, operating systems, digital identities or data traffic supervision. This third-party funding is not renewed in the current program, leaving many projects short on resources for research and innovation in Europe.

Moreover, NGI allows exchanges and collaborations across all the Euro zone countries as well as "widening countries"¹, currently both a success and and an ongoing progress, likewise the Erasmus programme before us. NGI also contributes to opening and supporting longer relationships than strict project funding does. It encourages to implement projects funded as pilots, backing collaboration, identification and reuse of common elements across projects, interoperability in identification systems and beyond, and setting up development models that mix diverse scales and types of European funding schemes.

While the USA, China or Russia deploy huge public and private resources to develop software and infrastructure that massively capture private consumer data, the EU can't afford this renunciation.
Free and open source software, as supported by NGI since 2020, is by design the opposite of potential vectors for foreign interference. It lets us keep our data local and favors a community-wide economy and know-how, while allowing an international collaboration.
This is all the more essential in the current geopolitical context: the challenge of technological sovereignty is central, and free software allows to address it while acting for peace and sovereignty in the digital world as a whole.

L’Union Européenne doit poursuivre le financement des logiciels libres

Depuis 2020, les programmes Next Generation Internet (NGI), sous-branche du programme Horizon Europe de la Commission Européenne financent en cascade (via les appels de NLnet) le logiciel libre en Europe. Cette année, à la lecture du brouillon du Programme de Travail de Horizon Europe détaillant les programmes de financement de la commission européenne pour 2025, nous nous apercevons que les programmes Next Generation Internet ne sont plus mentionnés dans le Cluster 4.

Les programmes NGI ont démontré leur force et leur importance dans le soutien à l’infrastructure logicielle européenne, formant un instrument générique de financement des communs numériques qui doivent être rendus accessibles dans la durée. Nous sommes dans l’incompréhension face à cette transformation, d’autant plus que le fonctionnement de NGI est efficace et économique puisqu’il soutient l’ensemble des projets de logiciel libre des plus petites initiatives aux mieux assises. La diversité de cet écosystème fait la grande force de l’innovation technologique européenne et le maintien de l’initiative NGI pour former un soutien structurel à ces projets logiciels, qui sont au cœur de l’innovation mondiale, permet de garantir la souveraineté d’une infrastructure européenne. Contrairement à la perception courante, les innovations techniques sont issues des communautés de programmeurs européens plutôt que nord-américains, et le plus souvent issues de structures de taille réduite.

Le Cluster 4 allouait 27 millions d’euros au service de :

    « Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared in Europe » ;
    « A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI, that enables better control of our digital life » ;
    « A structured eco-system of talented contributors driving the creation of new internet commons and the evolution of existing internet common« .

Au nom de ces enjeux, ce sont plus de 500 projets qui ont reçu un financement NGI0 dans les 5 premières années d’exercice, ainsi que plus de 18 organisations collaborant à faire vivre ces consortia européens.

NGI contribue à un vaste écosystème puisque la plupart du budget est dévolue au financement de tierces parties par le biais des appels ouverts (open calls). Ils structurent des communs qui recouvrent l’ensemble de l’Internet, du matériel aux applications d’intégration verticale en passant par la virtualisation, les protocoles, les systèmes d’exploitation, les identités électroniques ou la supervision du trafic de données. Ce financement des tierces parties n’est pas renouvelé dans le programme actuel, ce qui laissera de nombreux projets sans ressources adéquates pour la recherche et l’innovation en Europe.

Par ailleurs, NGI permet des échanges et des collaborations à travers tous les pays de la zone euro et aussi avec ceux des widening countries¹, ce qui est actuellement une réussite tout autant qu’un progrès en cours, comme le fut le programme Erasmus avant nous. NGI0 est aussi une initiative qui participe à l’ouverture et à l’entretien de relation sur un temps plus long que les financements de projets. NGI encourage également à l’implémentation des projets financés par le biais de pilotes, et soutient la collaboration au sein des initiatives, ainsi que l’identification et la réutilisation d’éléments communs au travers des projets, l’interopérabilité notamment des systèmes d’identification, et la mise en place de modèles de développement intégrant les autres sources de financements aux différentes échelles en Europe.

Alors que les États-Unis d’Amérique, la Chine ou la Russie déploient des moyens publics et privés colossaux pour développer des logiciels et infrastructures captant massivement les données des consommateurs, l’Union Européenne ne peut pas se permettre ce renoncement. Les logiciels libres et open source tels que soutenus par les projets NGI depuis 2020 sont, par construction, à l’opposée des potentiels vecteurs d’ingérence étrangère. Ils permettent de conserver localement les données et de favoriser une économie et des savoirs-faire à l’échelle communautaire, tout en permettant à la fois une collaboration internationale. Ceci est d’autant plus indispensable dans le contexte géopolitique que nous connaissons actuellement. L’enjeu de la souveraineté technologique y est prépondérant et le logiciel libre permet d’y répondre sans renier la nécessité d’œuvrer pour la paix et la citoyenneté dans l’ensemble du monde numérique.

Dans ces perspectives, nous vous demandons urgemment de réclamer la préservation du programme NGI dans le programme de financement 2025.

¹ Tels que définis par Horizon Europe, les États Membres élargis sont la Bulgarie, la Croatie, Chypre, la République Tchèque, l’Estonie, la Grèce, la Hongrie, la Lettonie, la Lituanie, Malte, la Pologne, le Portugal, la Roumanie, la Slovaquie et la Slovénie. Les pays associés élargies (sous conditions d’un accord d’association) l’Albanie, l’Arménie, la Bosnie Herzégovine, les Iles Féroé, la Géorgie, le Kosovo, la Moldavie, le Monténégro, le Maroc, la Macédoine du Nord, la Serbie, la Tunisie, la Turquie et l’Ukraine. Les régions élargies d’outre-mer sont : la Guadeloupe, la Guyane Française, la Martinique, La Réunion, Mayotte, Saint-Martin, Les Açores, Madère, les Iles Canaries.
In this perpective, we urge you to claim for preserving the NGI programme as part of the 2025 funding programme.

¹ As defined by Horizon Europe, widening Member States are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lituania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Widening associated countries (under condition of an association agreement) include Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Feroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldavia, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine. Widening overseas regions are : Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Reunion Island, Mayotte, Saint-Martin, The Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands.

Open Expo Europe 2024
June 13 in Madrid

OW2 will be represented at Open Expo Europe by its partner Linknovate to present and showcase NGI Search european initiative. 

If you are an OW2 project or a beneficiary of NGI Search and located not far from Madrid, do not hesitate to contact us to join the booth and take the opportunity to showcase your project! 

More information: https://openexpoeurope.com/en/

OW2 is co-organizing monthly webinars about open source software management in the framework of the OSPO Alliance.
To discover the next topics and speakers, visit the OSPO Alliance website.

Free Software Professional Meeting

(Rencontres Professionnelles du Logiciel Libre)
Date: June 10, from 9:00 to 18:00
Venue: Hôtel de La Métropole, 20 rue du Lac, Lyon.

OW2 will not participate physically this year to the RPLL as this is happening the day before OW2con'24. However we will be represented by some of our members and with a poster. 

This event is organized by PLOSS-RA (PLOSS Auvergne Rhône-Alpes), and aim at facilitate the development of a solid and persistent open source ecosystem. 

More information about the RPLL: https://www.rpll.fr/ (in French)

For the first time we have organized a local conference on open source software, in the area of Grenoble. 

AlpOSS "Alpes Open Source Software" took place on Thursday March 21, 2024, at the premises of the town of Echirolles. 

This event is the result of a collective initiative of three local digital players with varied profiles: Belledonne Communication (publisher of the Linphone open source solution), the town of Échirolles and OW2 for the community side. 

Its aim is to create links between suppliers of innovative open source technologies and users, to discuss collaboration models and business models, and to structure and revitalize the local ecosystem.

For more information please visit the website: https://alposs.fr/

See the replay of the full conference:

OW2 presented during AlpOSS the NGI Zero Commons Fund project. For more information, please visit https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund/.

FOSDEM

 
Date : February 3 - 4, 2023
Venue: ULB Solbosch Campus, Brussels  

If you have planned to be at FOSDEM'24, do not miss the opportunities to meet with the OW2 Community members, while the Management Office team will join NLNet Foundation booth, Building K level 2 together showcasing the new cascade funding project NGI0Commons Fund. 

In the conferences

OW2 will also be represented in Brussels by is members talking at the conference. Click on the links below to see the replays. 

- On Saturday Feb 4 at 14:00: openDesk - The Open Source collaborative suite
Speakers: Clément Aubin, Wieland Lindenthal

- On Saturday Feb 4 at 16:40: Cristal: a new Wiki UI to rule them all
Speakers: Ludovic Dubost, Manuel Leduc.

- on Saturday Feb 4 : FusionIAM a full open source identity access management solution
Speaker: Clément Oudot, Worteks

- on Sunday Feb 5 at 14h25: The good governance handbook enabling good oss usage through OSPOs
Speaker: Boris Baldassari, Eclipse

Visit our Community Booth # H24!

Come visit us during OSXP, we'll be pleased to welcome you and introduce the various projects and technologies presented on our booth. 

Project	Main capabilities
	The OSS Good Governance initiative is a joint effort led by OW2 and many partners from the OSPO Alliance to grow awareness and expertise on how to properly use and contribute to open source software.
	CiteLibre  is part of the Lutece software suite provided by the City of Paris to help loval administrations implement a broad range of digital services, right out of the box.
	XWiki is a professional wiki that has powerful extensibility features such as scripting in pages, plugins and a highly modular architecture.
	Waarp is an Open Source Managed File Transfer Solution aimed at improving the reliability, security, monitoring and integrability of file transfers in a scalable IT system.
	NGI Search is a program from the European Commission  aiming to bring forth the next innovative software for searching, discovering and exploiting data on the internet.

Discover OW2 presence in the conferences

Keynote speech by OW2 CEO Pierre-Yves Gibello

Schedule: December 7, 09:50, room Passy.
Title: Fuel your project with NGI commons: European funding for FOSS and open models with social impact, open to all
Abstract : NGI (Next Generation Internet), part of the European Commission’s Horizon program, offers a cascading funding scheme based on calls for projects, open to all. NGI Commons is NGI’s vehicle for the next 3 years: its aim, to finance the future of a European Internet and digital commons based on open source, integrates a societal vision founded on the protection of private data, inclusivity, public liberties, sobriety and network neutrality.
More information: https://www.opensource-experience.com/event/#sticky-14462

• Download the English slides.

More talks

Reuse and open source: a guarantee of digital sustainability?

Schedule: December 6, 15:00.
Speakers: Pierre-Yves Gibello, OW2 CEO and Cyril Desmit, IGE
Abstract : Recently, the French interministerial department for digital technology (DINUM) opened the way to factoring in free software in the durability index of the hardware supporting it, by publishing a positive answer to the following question: “Do you think it is possible to install a free operating system that increases the sustainability of computers and smartphones?”
This answer is supported by a synthesized report by OW2, to which Electrocycle has contributed alongside several players. It shows that free software contributes to sustainability well beyond operating systems. The main factor is found in a free software / hardware repurposing mix. Hardware represents 75% of the impact of electric equipment. Free software helps delay its obsolescence. Other areas appear essential like APIs and open protocols that give a new lease of life to several connected objects besides computers and smartphones.

Reconciling business needs and free software

Speaker: Maxime Besson, Worteks
Schedule: December 6 at 12:40.
Abstract: Some free software is funded by service contracts sold to large corporations which legitimately expect a certain number of features in return. How to implement these sometimes hyper specific needs within free software without encroaching on the needs of other users, compromising security or making maintenance more cumbersome? I talk about my experience as a free software developer and as a consultant paid by customers to solve their problems with this same software.

Telephony in the workplace: how to support the transition to software-only solutions.

Speaker: Jehan Monnier, the cofounder of Belledonne Communications
Schedule: December 6 at 16:20.
Abstract: The company telephony is constantly evolving, with IT and telecoms departments coming closer together within organisations over the last decade. Hardware IP telephones and physical servers are gradually being supplemented, or even replaced, by workstations on PCs and virtualised servers, or even by solutions offered in SaaS mode by service providers. Increased teleworking requires solutions that allow users to be mobile, and raises new issues of network and communications security. Finally, the rise of smartphones in the 2010s has rapidly led to the emergence of proprietary communications applications for the mass market, posing new challenges for developers of telecoms solutions. We will be presenting the complete open source client/server software solution for deploying and modernising your Voice over IP infrastructure.

The Importance of Collaborative Applications for European Digital Sovereignty

Speaker: Ludovic Dubost, XWiki
Schedule: December 6 at 15:20.
Abstract: Progress and challenges of alternatives facing the BigTechs.
In the latest years, the subject of European Digital Sovereignty is gaining ground. Clearly the dominant position of the BigTechs is making both European companies, Countries but also individual increasingly dependent on the product and services of the BigTechs. In order to regain our sovereignty we need to look at the full stack, from hardware, to cloud and to the software running on those hardware and clouds. In this talk I would like to present the importance of Collaborative applications as the entry point of all collaboration and the need to regain ground and move to Open Source solutions. I will show the progress made in the last years by different providers of Open Source solutions (NextCloud, Matrix, BigBlueButton, Jitsi, XWiki, CryptPad and many others), and also talk about initiatives to build alternative solutions in Europe, such as the Sovereign Workplace Project in Germany or the initiatives in France. 

The challenges and role of sovereign messaging in the Digital Workplace

Speaker: Pierre Baudracco,
Schedule: December 6 at 15:20.
Abstract: 2023: Digital Workplaces no longer ring the death knell of email! They have finally understood the importance and ubiquity of the leading communication channel. Collaborative messaging challenges are huge:
– The challenge of extending the scope of collaboration and integrating further into the Digital Workplace
– The challenge of sovereignty for the most widely used and exposed application
– The challenge of scalability and resilience for the most widely used and critical application
– And above all, the challenge of usage and respect for user habits, without which users will reject the solution.
Native Outlook support, revamped UX at the heart of development, instant upgrades and PRA, extensibility and collaborative interfaces.
This talk will discuss how BlueMind, the French open source messaging solution, has become the first alternative to Exchange and 365 by responding in practical ways to these challenges.

Round table: How to create a sustainable business based on an open source project

Speakers: Pierre-Yves Gibello, OW2, Elisa Nectoux, Belledonne Communications.
Schedule: December 6 at 17:00. 

How and why secure communications today against tomorrow's attacks?

Speaker: Johan Pascal, Freelance software security consultant for Belledonne Communications.
Schedule: December 7 at 13:30.
Abstract: We are going to talk about current developments in the field of quantum computing, which pose a growing threat to the cryptographic algorithms used today, for example in secure voice-over-IP and instant messaging applications. Although such a quantum computer has not yet been officially announced, some governments recommends protecting data against this type of attack by 2030. The encrypted data shared today could be stored and decrypted soon thanks to this breakthrough innovation. This is because encrypted data shared today could be stored and decrypted in the future by such quantum computers. That's why it's important to encrypt them today using algorithms that are robust to this type of attack. The Linphone application, for example, is one of the world's first open source communications software applications to have implemented the winning algorithm in the encryption key category, CRYSTALS-Kyber. One of the key milestones was the development of a modified version of the standard ZRTP encryption protocol.

About Open Source Experience:
Led by Systematic Paris Région, Open Source Experience is the meeting place for the entire free software sector, which brings together more than 6 000 professionals for 2 days! A place for technological exchanges, meetings and business opportunities dedicated to open source and all open digital players.
Visit: https://www.opensource-experience.com/en/

Practical information for OW2 members:
If you are an OW2 member, please consider joining us and sharing the village to showcase your projects and solutions. The Community village will be ideally located along OSXP main aisle and close from our partners. The illustration below gives an idea of the booth set up. 

The package includes:
- global signage and visibility as an exhibitor (entry on OSXP exhibitor directory)
- individual counter + stool
- the blue carpet
- the generic OW2 visual on partition including OW2 member logos
- individual signage for each booth with member logo and tagline
- a screen
- to be shared: brochure holder and meeting space (table and three chairs)

Contact us for more information and cost to participate. 

OpenStudio is OW2 Corporate Member since 2023 and has a regular activity of publication of books and whitepapers. 

During the year 2023, OW2 contributed in the book dedicated to "Open Source and Free Software: perspectives and visions of Open Source players" with an interview from Pierre-Yves Gibello and from many other members of the OW2 community or outside open source stake-holders. 

To read the book (in French): Open Source et Logiciels Libres : perspectives et visions des acteurs de l’Open Source