Jeremiah Lee

Bigger Than All Of Us Above & Beyond, Justine Suissa · Bigger Than All Of Us · Song · 2025

I am going to my first Above & Beyond concert tonight in Stockholm! I have listened to Group Therapy weekly for years. Maybe one day I will get a shoutout in the messages.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2HfTxYgChOY7XIaZXaQGgx?si=124eb99fdf494d9e

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

5 panelists sitting with moderator in middle of wood desk with screen behind them displaying photos, names, and titles.

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 […]

[Original post on alpaca.gold]

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

#DCPS25

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The EU has a special purpose organization type (“legal person” in the business sense) called an EDIC. They are composed of EU member states and approved by the Commission to enable international collaboration.

A new EC-EDIC with FR, DE, NL, IT as initial members was announced at the end of […]

4 panelists and moderator sitting at desk in front of screen with their photos, names, and titles.

Next panel is “EDIC & Member States: How to Operationalize Digital Commons at Scale” with:

• Bartek Tokarz, Legal Officer at European Commission

• Sachiko Muto, Chair at OpenForum Europe, Senior Researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

• Emma Ghariani […]

[Original post on alpaca.gold]

First audience question spanned communism, colonialism, and somehow blockchain. Fabrizia Benini said she asked for “raw, candid, provocative” engagement and got it.

This is my third NGI event. Breaks usually involve people from the Commission trying to escape FOSS nerds who understand how fine […]

Dr Lagodinsky went on a valid rant about Parliament needing better information on funding plans.

~“Where is the strategic thinking in having AI gigafactories? Why are we pumping billions into gigafactories when even potential investors can’t identify a business case. We have a lot of GPUs using […]

[Day 2 is starting. I'm still behind on posting, so going to take notes and follow up this afternoon.]

Dr Sergey Lagodinsky (MEP)

~“When big tech companies kneel before a president, it becomes toxic to work with them and there is no trust any more. Doesn’t mean we are against international cooperation or global solutions.”

(I expected an applause break for this 🎤-drop line, but this is not a […]

Dr Sergey Lagodinsky (MEP) said the EU must and will allocate more EU competitiveness funds to compete with the funding within the US and from governments like Saudi Arabia and China. Great!

He also proposed ideas of a digital tax and a data tax to force US-based companies to pay for more of […]

Dr Sergey Lagodinsky (MEP) made some provocative comments.

~“We don’t need an EU LLM. We don’t have the capability. The train has left the station, but there are other options where we still have a competitive advantage.”

I agree LLMs are not a good use of EU grants. LLMs are a less useful […]

Dependency

The xkcd dependency comic got referenced at 15:30, almost exactly an hour into the agenda.

https://xkcd.com/2347/

#DCPS25

[I did not catch up last night. I went to dinner with a friend and then explored the Brussels gayborhood. Catching up now before day 2 agenda starts…]

[The moderators are doing an excellent job ensuring a high density of insight for panel discussions. I am now a few sessions behind the schedule because the conversation is fast. I will catch up later tonight.]

Benjamin Bögel: ~“The Commission needs to practice what it preaches regarding procurement.”

It launched a €180 million tender for public cloud procurement with a new sovereignty score framework to assess providers’ compliance with EU rules. It was written to be reusable by any member state […]

Benjamin Bögel attended FOSDEM. He recognized how much FOSS is created by individuals and how many libraries don’t have a distinct business case, but still are extremely valuable building blocks. Grants work well for this.

Fabrizia Benini: While NGI program is ending, its cascading grants model […]

Benjamin Bögel (Cabinet of EVP Henna Virkkunen at European Commission): ~“We can be sovereign and open at the same time. It doesn’t force us to shut off our market. We can continue to collaborate at international level.”

#DCPS25

Next a panel is Digital Sovereignty: The Role of the EU Budget and public investment in Shaping the Internet

Moderator Zuzanna Warso (Director of Research at Open Future Foundation): EU is changing FOSS funding goal to a “single investment journey from research to deployment.”

Dr Sergey […]

Fabrizia Benini closed with the most powerful call for engagement from FOSS developers I have ever heard from the Commission.

~“Your input is crucial. Help identify which digital commons are most strategic for open Internet stack. Share experiences with sustainable governance models that have a […]

Fabrizia Benini continued with championing “public money, public code” and prioritizing FOSS in government procurement. She wants an open source procurement office to help administrations draft outcome-based tenders, assess solutions, and support suppliers in meeting the EU security and […]

Fabrizia Benini, Head of unit at the European Commission DG CNECT E: Next Generation Internet opened with many wonderful policy admissions that deserved more than just the applause she got at the end.

She mentioned the importance of FOSS finding “sustainable funding models” based on support […]

Dr Monique Calisti (CEO of Martel Innovate and NGI Commons Coordinator) kicked off by referencing the Franco-German summit earlier this week.

"We import 80% of our digital services from the US and China. Europe needs to own technological solutions, not just better regulations! Do we have […]

A panel discussion featuring three individuals seated at a table with microphones. A presentation is displayed on a screen behind them, discussing the NGI Commons initiative aimed at enhancing policy coherence in Europe regarding Digital Commons. The setting appears to be a conference or summit.

Getting started now. There were issues with live streaming. It will be recorded and provided later, I think.

#DCPS25