European Digital Sovereignty: Perspectives from the French Open Source sector

Transcript

1. Stéfane Fermigier
   Co-Président du CNLL
   European Digital Sovereignty:
   Perspectives from the French Open Source sector
   

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2. How is Digital Sovereignty viewed in France by… ?
   The Military, the Government, the OSS business ecosystem
   

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3. … the French Military
   • "Digital sovereignty" was defined by the General Secretariat for
   Defense and National Security (SGDSN) in the 2018 Strategic Cyber
   Defense Review (p. 93): a strategic autonomy in which, without
   seeking to do everything internally, it is a matter of "preserving
   an autonomous capacity for assessment, decision and action"
   in the digital space.
   • The SGDSN states, "an industrial strategy based on open
   source, provided that it is part of a thoughtful commercial
   approach, can enable French or European manufacturers to gain
   market share where they are absent today and thereby enable
   France and the European Union to regain sovereignty. "
   

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4. … the French Government
   • From the Circulaire Ayrault (2012):
   • “[…] it is now possible to retain a series of guidelines and
   recommendations on the proper use of free software. These
   demonstrated in particular the advantages of free software
   (lower cost, flexibility of use, negotiation leverage with
   software vendors).”
   • To the Loi Lemaire (2016):
   • “[Public administrations] take care to preserve the control, the
   durability and the independence of their information systems.
   They encourage the use of free software and open formats […]”
   Tactical
   considerations
   Strategic
   considerations
   

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5. … the French open source entrepreneurs
   Based on a survey of 134 business leaders in the French open source
   sector:
   • 93.1% of industry leaders believe that digital sovereignty should be
   a priority for the economic and democratic future of France and
   Europe.
   • But only 29.3% of respondents believe that France is
   implementing an open source industrial strategy to regain digital
   sovereignty.
   • 88.3% of respondents believe that the key principles of open source
   can help preserve the digital sovereignty of France and Europe
   

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6. What needs to be done
   The development of an open source European industry, and
   regulations that encourage the purchase of French and European
   products and services, particularly from SMEs (“Small Business Act”),
   are priority levers for regaining sovereignty:
   Promote local purchasing of French and European open
   source solutions through regulatory tools
   Support the development of strong European open source
   companies offering alternative to the hyperscalers
   Reserve a part of the public order for European SMEs in the
   free digital sector (Small Business Act)
   Train more French and European talents in free and open
   source digital technologies
   

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7. Gaia-X - the view from the French OSS ecosystem
   Pros and cons
   

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8. Gaia-X - Vision
   • Gaia-X’s values are aligned with values that we share both as Europeans
   and members of the open source community
   • But we do not recognise ourselves in the original vision of Altmaier ("The
   Airbus of the Cloud” = too centralised) nor in that of CIGREF (excessively
   focussed on legal issues and governance)
   • To thrive, the European cloud must be:
   • decentralised,
   • comprised on possibly independent services that are interoperable
   thanks to open standards and open source,
   • based in large part on existing European technologies
   

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9. Gaia-X - Communication
   • We regret that the red carpet was rolled out from the beginning to
   American and Chinese hyperscalers
   • It should be first and foremost about promoting European cloud
   technologies and companies
   • We are surprised by the lack of communication and public discussion on
   the technological aspects of the project (at least in France)
   • Openness and transparency should be at the heart of the project
   • We believe that the sub-project, which is currently underway, of
   creating a rich directory of European cloud services is a good first
   step
   

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