- Github wants the EU to create a sovereign technological fund for the maintenance of OSS
- Microsoft has not yet made any contribution
- Github says OSS is a crucial infrastructure, just like the roads
The developer platform belonging to Microsoft GitHub urges the European Union to establish a sovereign technological fund funded by the State to support the maintenance of open source software (OSS).
Github’s developer director Felix Reda explained in a blog post that the open source continues to be underfunded, and that the public sector could get involved to help support development financially.
The proposal is based on a study commissioned by Github and conducted by Open Forum Europe, Fraunhofer ISI and the European University Institute, and describes open source software a critical digital infrastructure on which economies and companies count.
Github wants the EU to finance open-source development
Reda, as well as research, noted that the open source left sub-financed compared to traditional physical infrastructure such as roads, despite the contribution of 65 to 95 billion euros per year to the EU economy, and up to 8.8 billions of dollars in the world.
The survey has shown that in three open source software is not remunerated, another in three unable to earn a living only from their open source work.
As such, Github offers that the EU adds 350 million euros to its budget to finance the maintenance of open source software. Governments and national industries should also contribute to funding, says Github, although the company belonging to Microsoft has volunteer.
Github has identified five key investment areas, in particular: the identification of critical dependencies of the EU OSS; Invest in the maintenance of oss; Financing of ISS security improvements; Support project improvements; And strengthen the OSS global ecosystem.
Supporting GitHub’s argument, Mincedes-Benz, software director, Magnus Östberg, wrote: “Without funding and sustainable support, it is entirely predictable that increasingly open source software projects will not receive diligence and appropriate control for software of such criticality.”
With the first legislative proposals for the EU budget “[ting] The offices “of the European Parliament and the national governments of the Council of Ministers, Github urges the community to express its support for the sovereign technological fund.
