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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi, <br>
I agree too that we need to raise our voices. I had a deep look,
and fitting into European formalism is not that easy, but worth
the try. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I also think that we should debate what
could be pragmatically improved with european public policies
regarding our project. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">From my corner, having been on the side
of public funder, contributor in a company, and now benevolent in
a research institute that uses QGIS, I see these bottlenecks : </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">- The IT culture around open source is
very low, and many IT departement, or even public market try to
fit open source business into the mold of closed source habits.
Europe could improve things by a directive that forces countries
to change their public market rules to allow open source service
buying for any contract. This would secure a lot of contracts. And
allow those contracts to be more agile, because open source moves
fast. <br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">- The cyber stuff pushes us back into a
vendor pattern, where we are a lot more responsible of our
distribution packages than the GPL licence for our own code says.
This increases infra and administrative tasks a lot, and only big
projects can follow the flow and our obligation. The CRA open
source stewardship stuff releases the legal pressure, but
customers will still treat open source as vendors and will expect
the same level of reactivity over disclosures. That means we need
to secure our package process, anticipate scanner issues, have a
proactive security strategy. That means more QGIS.org funded work
in the long run. What can Europe do? Find ways to secure the
funding of open source stewards, but how? Communication and budget
helpers can help, but it is already done currently. If we are in a
new IT cold war, I would be in favor of a tax on numeric giants
that would be funding open source foundations. The real political
question would then be the way this money can be redistributed (
I'd rather let the economy find its way and not depend too much on
polical choices, but I'm afraid that doesn't work fast enough) . </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">- Github centralization fears me too.
Funding codeberg sufficiently so that they are strong enough to
allow project have decent CI minutes, on par features, so that
open source project can grow without paying the AI/closed system
toll in Europe would also be necessary. An open source tool, with
one majors strong public funded instance. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">- Renewing the motivation to
contribute to open source in schools. I think modern centralized
IT platform, and AI move contributors away from the project. I can
only see a public educational program to mitigate this. Open
source basics, contribution basics should be pushed in educational
programs (in France, a team is doing a great job currently with a
long term strategy based on open source and commons :
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.education.gouv.fr/feuilles-de-route-450426">https://www.education.gouv.fr/feuilles-de-route-450426</a> ) . To me
Europe should also launch a funded program alike the Google Summer
of Code, publicly funded. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">- Finally, Europe should push rules to
forbid IT tools that block real interoperability and lock users in
companies in closed ecosystem. We have shy initiatives around RGPD
data portability. Europe should go further and set up a "vendor
locking" score, added to all the IT audits I see. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">@Saber if you take the lead to write
something, maybe we could share a collaborative pad to gather our
notes and ideas? </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Best regards</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Régis</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/21/26 08:49, Andreas Neumann via
QGIS-PSC wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAB2Z92Cq5b+G2vTpi22fvmktpTCLbYVKK5rt8LS8uffWjjZ-Zg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Yes - I agree
it is important.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">It is pretty
obvious for us (and the European governments), that the US
government (with a lot of influence on the US economy) is not
anymore a reliable partner. So I believe Open Source and other
European software alternatives to US commercial software where
Europe is dependent on is probably of quite some importance.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">PSC will try
to submit something before the deadline.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Andreas</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 at 05:20,
Valentin Buira via QGIS-PSC <<a
href="mailto:qgis-psc@lists.osgeo.org"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">qgis-psc@lists.osgeo.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">Hi Saber
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Thanks a lot for bringing the topic, I
submitted my feedback as an individual. </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Now I strongly suggest the PSC to do so as
well for QGIS. Because from the way the call for evidence
is worded, it is very obvious (and explicit even) that
it's preliminary work for a new a new law on open source. </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">QGIS has this unique ability to trickle down
on so many disciplines, and in the end on the life of
people</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">*If the EU is putting open source software
on its strategic road map*, this could mean securing new
funding for QGIS. And it would benefit to the QGIS project
worldwide. </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">And it could also help to deter side effects
of this future regulation. What I mean by that, it would
be cool to avoid the same burden as the Cyber Resilience
Act(CRA) </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">P.S: The deadline for submitting a feedback
is on 3 February, so it's getting closer. [1]</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">P.P.S: I also recently suggested the
creation of a Europe QGIS user group with potential perks
for the EU [2]</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Cheers, </div>
<div dir="auto">Valentin </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">[1] <a
href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16213-European-Open-Digital-Ecosystems_en"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16213-European-Open-Digital-Ecosystems_en</a></div>
<div dir="auto">[2] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/2026-January/055990.html"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/2026-January/055990.html</a></div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<div><br clear="all">
</div>
<br>
<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
--<br>
Andreas Neumann<br>
</div>
<a href="http://QGIS.ORG" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">QGIS.ORG</a> board member (treasurer)<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">_______________________________________________
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