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new 0f02e85 website: Add open letter in support of NGI.
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commit 0f02e8599cd1710d677c0d0b6ec49fb4dccad7e3
Author: Ludovic Courtès <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Tue Jul 23 17:01:49 2024 +0200
website: Add open letter in support of NGI.
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+title: The European Union must keep funding free software
+authors: The Guix Project
+date: 2024-07-23 17:30:00
+tags: Community
+---
+Guix is the fruit of a combination of volunteer work by an amazing
+number of people, work paid for by employers, but also work sponsored by
+public institutions. The European Commission’s [Next Generation
+Internet](https://www.ngi.eu) (NGI) calls have been instrumental in that
+regard. News that NGI funding could vanish came to us as a warning
+signal.
+
+Since 2020, NGI has supported many free software projects, allowing for
+significant strides on important topics that would otherwise be hard to
+fund. As an example, here are some of the NGI grants that directly
+benefited Guix and related projects:
+
+ - the [full-source
+ bootstrap](https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-fullsource), which
+ includes groundwork not just in Guix but crucially in
+ [Mes](https://www.gnu.org/software/mes) and sister projects ([blog
+
post](https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2023/the-full-source-bootstrap-building-from-source-all-the-way-down/));
+ - [porting Guix to the RISC-V
+ architecture](https://nlnet.nl/project/Guix-Riscv64/);
+ - [porting GNU Mes and associated projects to
+ RISC-V](https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-RISCV/) and
+ [AArch64](https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-ARM_RISC-V);
+ - [porting the full-source bootstrap to the RISC-V
+ architecture](https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-RISCV-bootstrap/);
+ - the [Cuirass continuous integration
+ tool](https://nlnet.nl/project/Cuirass) ([blog
+ post](https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/cuirass-10-released/));
+ - the [Guile implementation of the Guix build
+ daemon](https://nlnet.nl/project/GuixDaemon-Guile/) ([blog
+ post](https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2023/a-build-daemon-in-guile/));
+ - [distributed system daemon management with the Shepherd
+ and Goblins](https://nlnet.nl/project/DistributedShepherd/), under
+ the aegis of the Spritely Institute ([blog
+
post](https://spritely.institute/news/spritely-nlnet-grants-december-2023.html)).
+ - a [new garbage collector for
+ Guile](https://nlnet.nl/project/Whippet/), the Scheme implementation
+ that Guix builds upon.
+
+Over the years, NGI has more than demonstrated that public financial
+support for free software development makes a difference. We strongly
+believe that this support must continue, that it must strengthen the
+development of innovative software where user autonomy and freedom is a
+central aspect.
+
+For these reasons, the Guix project joins a growing number of projects
+and organizations in signing the following open letter to the European
+Commission.
+
+> The open letter below was initially published by [petites
+>
singularités](https://ps.zoethical.org/pub/lettre-publique-aux-ncp-au-sujet-de-ngi/).
+> English translation provided by
+>
[OW2](https://www.ow2.org/view/Events/The_European_Union_must_keep_funding_free_software_open_letter).
+
+## Open Letter to the European Commission
+
+Since 2020, Next Generation Internet ([NGI](https://www.ngi.eu)) programmes,
part of European Commission's Horizon programme, fund free software in Europe
using a cascade funding mechanism (see for example NLnet's
[calls](https://www.nlnet.nl/commonsfund)). This year, according to the Horizon
Europe working draft detailing funding programmes for 2025, we notice that Next
Generation Internet is not mentioned any more as part of Cluster 4.
+
+NGI programmes have shown their strength and importance to supporting the
European software infrastructure, as a generic funding instrument to fund
digital commons and ensure their long-term sustainability. We find this
transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and
economical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most
established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of
European technological innovation, and maintai [...]
+Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from
European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly
initiated by small-scaled organisations.
+
+Previous Cluster 4 allocated 27 million euros to:
+
+- "Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared
in Europe" ;
+- "A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI,
that enables better control of our digital life" ;
+- "A structured ecosystem of talented contributors driving the creation of new
internet commons and the evolution of existing internet commons".
+
+In the name of these challenges, more than 500 projects received NGI funding
in the first 5 years, backed by 18 organisations managing these European
funding consortia.
+
+NGI contributes to a vast ecosystem, as most of its budget is allocated to
fund third parties by the means of open calls, to structure commons that cover
the whole Internet scope - from hardware to application, operating systems,
digital identities or data traffic supervision. This third-party funding is not
renewed in the current program, leaving many projects short on resources for
research and innovation in Europe.
+
+Moreover, NGI allows exchanges and collaborations across all the Euro zone
countries as well as "widening countries" [^1], currently both a success and an
ongoing progress, likewise the Erasmus programme before us. NGI also
contributes to opening and supporting longer relationships than strict project
funding does. It encourages implementing projects funded as pilots, backing
collaboration, identification and reuse of common elements across projects,
interoperability in identification sy [...]
+
+While the USA, China or Russia deploy huge public and private resources to
develop software and infrastructure that massively capture private consumer
data, the EU can't afford this renunciation.
+Free and open source software, as supported by NGI since 2020, is by design
the opposite of potential vectors for foreign interference. It lets us keep our
data local and favors a community-wide economy and know-how, while allowing an
international collaboration.
+
+This is all the more essential in the current geopolitical context: the
challenge of technological sovereignty is central, and free software allows to
address it while acting for peace and sovereignty in the digital world as a
whole.
+
+In this perspective, we urge you to claim for preserving the NGI programme as
part of the 2025 funding programme.
