OW2Con 2021: How public policies can contribute to the sustainability of the European open source ecosystem (and why they should)

Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YWMbBn7VI4

APELL is a federation of national open source business associations in Europe, founded in 2020, in order to increase opportunities for the members of the Association’s member organisations (i.e. European business), and to increase value and advancement for the ultimate customers in both the public and the private sectors. APELL acts as a network for the exchange of best practices between its national member associations, as a think tank on national and European public policies concerning Free Software, and as an interlocutor for the European institutions concerned by these policies. For APELL, European digital sovereignty, claimed by the highest leaders of the Union, requires the development of the European F/OSS industry and the ecosystems that surround it. Public procurement rules, support for collaborative R&D, but also the creation and respect of rules (interoperability, respect of human rights...) allowing European companies to remain or become competitive, are part of the instruments that Europe must put in place for this. Since the publication of the European open source strategy in 2019, and in particular the creation of an European OSPO, APELL and its national member associations have been working to ensure that F/OSS and open standards remain at the heart of the main European initiatives on these subjects (e.g. Digital Markets Act, Data Act, OSPOs everywhere, Bothorel Report in France, GAIA-X, etc.). APELL and its member associations also intend to play an active role in promoting European F/OSS companies, as well as F/OSS projects and products of European origin. This presentation will be an opportunity to take stock of:

- The European political and economic context around F/OSS, both at the EU and Member State level

- APELL's values, objectives and current actions in relation to this context.

Transcript

1. Stéfane Fermigier
   Co-founder and board members, APELL
   Also co-founder and co-president, CNLL, and open source entrepreneur since 2000
   How public policies can contribute to
   the sustainability of the European open
   source ecosystem (and why they should)
   OW2Con 2021
   

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2. • Founded in 2020
   • Members = European Industry associations
   mostly representing the commercial open source
   ecosystem in their respective European nation
   states
   • Current members in: FR, DE, FI, SW, PT, UK.
   • + Associate members: currently OpenForum
   Europe
   

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3. The current context in the EU
   • F/OSS as an engine for economic
   growth and jobs creation
   • F/OSS and digital sovereignty
   • Some existing policies
   

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4. https://cnll.fr/media/2019_CNLL-Syntec-Systematic-Open-Source-Study.pdf
   

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5. Source: Knut Blind (May 2021)
   

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6. A definition for Digital Sovereignty
   "Digital sovereignty" has been defined
   by the French General Secretariat for
   Defense and National Security (SGDSN)
   in the 2018 Strategic Cyber Defense
   Review (p. 93) as:
   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.
   http://www.sgdsn.gouv.fr/uploads/2018/02/20180206-np-revue-cyber-public-v3.3-publication.pdf
   

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7. F/OSS and DS according to the Commission
   In its Oct 2020 open source plan, the Commission
   notes that "the open source model has an impact
   on Europe's digital autonomy. It is likely to give
   Europe a chance to create and maintain its own
   independent digital approach to the digital giants in
   the cloud and allow it to retain control over its
   processes, information and technology."
   https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-source-software-strategy_en
   

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8. CNLL’s 2021 survey
   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
   Source: https://cnll.fr/media/etude-cnll-2021.pdf
   

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9. Digital Sovereignty can be a driver for open source growth
   • 43.2% of French open source companies confirm that their
   customers recognise open source as a factor of sovereignty
   • 29.8% have signed new customers on these grounds.
   • Explaining the added value of open source in terms of
   sovereignty still requires some pedagogy.
   Source: https://cnll.fr/media/etude-cnll-2021.pdf
   ➜ The EU, the State and the regions must define and
   implement an open source industrial strategy, helping
   players to become actively involved in the ecosystem, in order
   to acquire a sovereignty that is also a force (economic,
   decision-making...) to assert democratic, social and
   environmental values.
   

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10. Existing policies across the EU (a sample)
    

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11. European Commission
    • The European Commission launched in October 2020 its “think
    open" plan which aims to "develop software solutions, [taking]
    into account openness, sharing and reuse, security, privacy,
    legal issues and accessibility".
    • But this plan, whose quality and intentions we welcome, is
    nonetheless limited to the internal IT of the EU institutions,
    and insufficient for the current challenges.
    • We believe it must be coordinated with a real economic
    policy aiming to develop European open source software
    publishers and integrators, and to support them against
    the influence of foreign software and cloud players
    https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-source-software-strategy_en
    

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12. France - Before 2021
    • 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).”
    • Loi République Numérique (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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13. France - 2021
    • Mission Logiciels Libres (State OSPO) created by the Circulaire
    Castex in April, with action plan:
    • “Develop and facilitate the publication of the administration's
    source code under an open source licence;
    • Make better use of open source software in the administration,
    an action carried out via the "promotion of open source
    software for administrations" project of the LABEL mission;
    • Use open source to make the administration more attractive to
    digital talent, an action carried out by the TALENTS mission.”
    • (Do you notice what’s lacking ?)
    

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14. Member states - Germany
    • Center for digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS)
    • “The initial focus of ZenDiS shall be on the promotion of OSS
    in public administration“
    • Deutsche Verwaltungscloud Strategie (Strategy for a German
    Government Cloud)
    • Focus on open standards and a distributed, federated
    system, does not mention Open Source explicitly, however
    • Three Länder have an explicit preference for F/OSS in the
    public administration: Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and
    Thuringia.
    

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15. Members States - Others
    • Italy: law mandating the use of open source
    software by the public administration passed in
    2012, with zero impact. The public administration
    in Italy is now mostly a Microsoft shop.
    • Sweden: the Agency for Digital Government
    (DIGG) has published the following policy:
    “Software that is developed/procured by the
    agency shall in the normal case be published as
    open source.”
    

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16. What needs to be done at the political level ?
    And how do we achieve this ?
    

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17. Survey results (CNLL, 2021)
    The development of an open source European industry, and
    regulations that encourage the purchase of European F/OSS
    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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18. This is not entirely unheard of (in principle)
    • SGDSN: "an industrial strategy based on open
    source, provided that it is part of a thoughtful
    commercial approach, can enable French or EU
    companies to re-gain market share and thereby
    enable France and the EU to regain sovereignty.”
    • A. de Montchalin: “By accompanying administrations
    so that they use open source to the best of their
    ability, I hope that the Free Software Mission will
    support the French and European economic
    players in this ecosystem, in particular by taking
    better account of the criterion of transparency of
    source codes in public procurement”
    

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19. What should be done ?
    • Enforce existing regulations “encouraging”,
    “preferring” or “mandating” the use of F/OSS in
    the public administration, add missing ones
    • Promote the F/OSS ecosystem, including the EU
    business sector
    • Finance both innovative and maintenance work,
    using the proper financial tools
    

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20. Proposed strategic plan (1/3)
    Double down on OSPOs
    • OSPOs everywhere + network of OSPOs
    • Engagement with the F/OSS EU business
    ecosystems should be explicit in their mission
    • One of the OSPOs’ KPIs should be to explicitly
    increase the proportion of F/OSS in IT
    purchasing by the public administration they
    are working for
    

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21. Proposed strategic plan (2/3)
    Finance open source work
    • Increase the proportion of F/OSS (and OSH…) projects in
    R&D and Innovation financing
    • Ensure that proper, direct contractualisation with F/OSS
    SMEs is possible and regularly activated
    • Ensure that large support contracts, which are usually
    awarded to large IT companies, provide enough value to
    SME that create and maintain the software they support
    • Develop explicit funding schemes for infrastructure
    software when the contractualisation schemes above are
    not an option
    

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22. Proposed strategic plan (3/3)
    Level the playing field for F/OSS
    • Promote F/OSS, either specifically (e.g. directories of
    existing solutions and technologies) or in the context of
    existing promotion schemes for the tech sector (e.g. “La
    French Tech”)
    • Increase awareness around F/OSS in the education and
    higher education curricula
    • Ensure adequate legal frameworks: interoperability
    requirements, public procurement regulations, no software
    patents, GDPR, etc.
    • Keep the influence of “big tech” companies at bay
    

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23. APELL’s current plans
    • Upcoming joint publication of an article
    exposing our vision and propositions
    • National organisations (e.g. CNLL, OSBA…)
    have been doing this for quite some time
    • Online event with EU representatives
    • Push the item on the French presidency’s
    agenda (S1 2022)
    

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24. More information
    • APELL’s website: https://www.apell.info/
    • CNLL’s studies and manifestos: https://cnll.fr/
    publications/
    • OSBA's publications: https://osb-alliance.de/news/
    publikationen
    • Contact (me): sf@fermigier.com or @sfermigier
    on Twitter
    

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