Why Free Software needs sustainable and long-term funding

Alexander Sander
Alexander has studied politics in Marburg, Germany. He has been an MEP Assistant in Brussels and the General Manager of Digitale Gesellschaft e.V. in Berlin. Furthermore he is the founder of NoPNR!, a campaign against the retention of travel data. He is an expert on digital rights and this regard also a Member of the Advisory Board of the ZMI of the Univeristy of Gießen and the Initiative gegen Totalüberwachung. He is also a member of several other associations that advocate for digital rights. Alexander consults national and European institutions, administrations and organisations, is available as an expert to the media and gives lectures and workshops at international conferences and events.
During the summer the European Commission made the decision to stop funding Free Software projects within the Next Generation Internet initiative (NGI). This decision results in a loss of €27 million for software freedom. Since 2018, the European Commission has supported the Free Software ecosystem through NGI, that provided funding and technical assistance to Free Software projects. This decision unfortunately exposes a larger issue: that software freedom in the EU needs more stable, long-term financial support. The ease with which this funding was excluded underlines this need. This talk will analyse the current situation and present proposals for upcoming legislation.
- Date:
- 2025 June 20 - 10:30
- Duration:
- 45 min
- Room:
- Sala Canillas - 13
- Conference:
- OpenSouthCode 2025
- Language:
- English
- Track:
- Difficulty:
- Easy
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