Following the release of the EU study on the impact of open source software and hardware on the EU economy, where our Joint Managing Partner and Head of Tech and IP, Andrew Katz led the Open Hardware section and co-authored the study – OpenForum Europe is hosting the annual EU Open Source Policy Summit on 4 February 2022.

The summit will happen both in person in Brussels and online with the theme of Open Source & the Grand Challenges. It will offer the opportunity for global technology and policy leaders to come together to discuss how collaboration and competition are being rethought as we are innovating to solve the complex global challenges we are facing collectively.

Open Hardware and Chip Shortages

Andrew Katz will form a panel alongside Luca Benini, Ebrahim Bushehri, Julia Hess, Andrew Huang to discuss Open Hardware and Chip Shortages.

The European Union has experienced chip shortages which affected businesses, citizens and researchers alike. EU’s dependency in the critical area of semiconductors is a challenge that needs to be solved by collaborative action on technological, business and policy sides.

European policymakers have started to increase the ambition to strengthen the European semiconductor industry and the region’s critical digital infrastructures, products and services. Open chips have the potential to be beneficial in terms of their adaptability, speed and potential for increasing digital sovereignty in several sectors, including automotive industry, edge computing, data storage solutions, aerospace, energy or health. There is a need to leverage these benefits and allow European industrial partners to innovate and become major players in this competitive market. In this session, our speakers will discuss if openness can support these goals and provide for a less fragmented and more innovative semiconductor landscape in the EU.

Speakers

Keynote speakers include: Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation and Hans Roth, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Services, Red Hat, Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Public Sector Transformation and the Civil Service, France, Gerald Pfeifer, CTO SUSE.

Other speakers, include the likes of Maria Francesca Spatolisano (UN),Frank Karlitschek (Nextcloud),Natalia Aristimuño Pérez (European Commission),Frederik Blachetta (Strategy&), Pia Karger (Federal Ministry of the Interior).

For more information on the sessions, panels and speakers visit: https://summit.openforumeurope.org 

About the Summit

2022 will be the eighth year OpenForum Europe hosts its Open Source policy event right before FOSDEM. What started as a 10-person meeting of minds on the then-niche subject of Open Source policy is now a successful annual gathering of policymakers, Open Source businesses, community members, developers, foundations and those involved with diverse digital policy subjects. In 2020, the event attracted more than 130 participants, indicating a shift in momentum. The 2020 event was the last in-person event before the COVID19 crisis hit. Despite the circumstances, and in response to the high priority European governments had started to place on Open Source Policy, OFE increased its ambition level to make the conference the main Open Source policy event in Europe. The demand was higher than expected and the 2021 conference attracted more than a thousand participants.

The Study

The study, which forms the underlying basis of the summit investigated and quantified the economic impact of Open Source Software and Hardware on the European economy. The study has identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of open source in relevant ICT policies (e.g. cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Digitising the European industry, the connected car, HPC, Big Data, Distributed ledger technologies, etc.). Economic evidence of the footprint of open source in the EU was collected. A list of policy options to maximise the benefit of open source supporting a competitive EU software and hardware industry supporting the twin environmental and digital transformation of the EU economy was also proposed.

In the short-term, the findings of the study will be used as a basis for policy options in many digital areas. In the long-term, it can be used for a new open source policy focussed in the EU economy as a whole.

The main break-through of the study was the identification of open source as a public good. This shows a change of paradigm from the previous irreconcilable difference between closed and open source, and points to a new era in which digital businesses are built using open source assets. This information is essential to develop policy actions in the field. The study also values the economic impact of open source commitments on the EU economy.

About OFE 

OpenForum Europe (OFE) is a not-for-profit, Brussels-based independent think tank which explains the merits of openness in computing to policy makers and communities across Europe. Originally launched in 2002, OFE covers topics such as: Open Source, Open standards, Digital Government Government, public procurement, Intellectual Property, cloud computing and Internet policy. OFE also hosts an independent global network of OpenForum Academy Fellows and works closely with the European Commission, the European Parliament, national and local governments, both directly and via its national partners. 

More information

To access the Open Hardware and Chip Shortages video, visit OpenForum Europe’s YouTube channel.