Niko Bonnieure ( @nextgraph):

• Interoperability is a component of usability. It’s not only a problem for proprietary software. Open source solutions lose when they require complex configuration.

• We need symmetric Internet connections (equal upload and download connectivity). To increase ownership of data on devices we own, people will do more uploading. Limited upload connectivity hurts the UX of peer-to-peer solutions.

Related: The EU needs to accelerate IPv6 adoption.

#NGIForum25

“Why do these companies use NGI-funded #OpenSource solutions instead of a commercial service for software supply chain compliance and #cybersecurity options? Because the American providers are only doing best-effort. In 🇺🇸 you can buy your way out of cyber mistakes. In 🇪🇺 you’re liable for damages thanks to CRA, so the tools we provide for the #EU market are simply much better” at tracking provenance.
#NGIForum25

Moderator (female, as all other staff member on stage): “what is your wish on #EuroHPC and #LLM?”
Panelist 1: “We need more compute! By the end of the year there will be 5 times more capacity, and it will still not be enough!”
Panelist 2: “I wish you guys (sic) make the most use of these resources”
Panelist 4: “Use us, use us, use us!”
#NGIForum25

How is it possible to have a male-only panel in 2025 at #NGIForum25, under the aegis of an institution whose beautiful motto is “United in diversity”, in a context where we claim to want to fight back against loss of democratic values, human rights, erosion of #DEI ?

European Parliamentarian @alexandrageese:

We don’t want a "European Google". We want a independent, federation of viable alternatives to Google.

#NGIForum25

European Parliamentarian @alexandrageese examined the US far right’s “attack on knowledge”. She warned about the "industrial censorship complex" false narrative being used to attack freedom of speech.

Article 34 of DSA can help counter, but better option would be for more EU-based tech infrastructure and less dependence on the US Big Tech companies whose leaders have kissed Trump’s ring.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/capitol-hill-hearing-biden-censorship-trump?ref=activitypub

#NGIForum25

Michael Granitzer: Distributing a web index is a legal challenge. Over 80 laws across the EU related to content legality, copyright, AI, and others. Currently, data is only distributed under a research license, so no commercial use of the data is possible at the moment.

#NGIForum25

The equivalent to Google/Bing webmaster tools for info on its crawl of your site: https://openwebindex.eu/websites/www.jeremiahlee.com?ref=activitypub

#NGIForum25

Day 2 kicked off with focus on EU’s ambition to have its own search engine.

Search is critical Internet infrastructure. ~“What if Europe only had 2 newspapers?” — @grani

Technically, search engines require a large amount storage and compute. They also require ongoing human infrastructure for ML refinement, operation, legal.

I am not sure how this can be done in a federated way, but @openwebsearcheu is trying.

https://openwebsearch.eu/?ref=activitypub

#NGIForum25

Good morning Fediverse's EU tech policy nerds!

Up today: the @EUCommission's #DMA workshop with #gatekeeper#Microsoft.

(Sorry #NGIForum25 two floors below, no time for you today 😌)

We haven't started yet and the room is still empty, but I'm hoping we'll discuss how #Windows is abused to dominate other markets, by aggressively nudging users to #Edge, #Xbox, #OneDrive, #ChatGPT, etc.

#DigitalMarketsAct#competition #antitrust#monopolies

Niko Bonnieure ( @nextgraph):

• Interoperability is a component of usability. It’s not only a problem for proprietary software. Open source solutions lose when they require complex configuration.

• We need symmetric Internet connections (equal upload and download connectivity). To increase ownership of data on devices we own, people will do more uploading. Limited upload connectivity hurts the UX of peer-to-peer solutions.

Related: The EU needs to accelerate IPv6 adoption.

#NGIForum25

#NGIForum25

Brand awareness of non-US-based cloud service providers is low, so let’s make finding local vendors easier.

I started the https://www.eucloud.tech/ wiki years ago when I was CTO of a Svenska e-bike manufacturer and needed to find EU-based cloud service providers.

#NGIForum25

“Red Hat does 70% of the commits on the Linux kernel because it makes a shitload of money from Red Hat Linux. We need to remember that free software is free as in speech, not free as in beer. We can build #OpenSource communities, but we shouldn't build open products, because that's how providers don't have anything to sell and thus no money” to maintain the software. “We need a Buy European act to ensure SMEs have a share of all 🇪🇺 public procurement.” — @waxzce from @clevercloud
#NGIForum25

Ok, I’m done with the Clever Cloud guy on this panel after his declaration that free and open source is free as in speech, but not beer.

#NGIForum25

A panel on open infrastructure started.

Nina Müller from @nextcloud shared how businesses can more easily operate a server they own that provides most of their business software needs.

Nicola Rustignoli represents the SCION, a protocol for routing network traffic only thru trusted paths. https://www.scion.org/about-scion/?ref=activitypub

Quentin Adam from Clever Cloud started with bold, controversial claim that it cannot be fully open source and have a sustainable business… Sir, that’s vendor lockin.

#NGIForum25

People started holding hackathons all over the place, but hackathons didn’t provide the innovation benefit to open source they were hoping for. — @senficon, Director of Developer Policy at GitHub

“We don’t fund hackathons.” — @michiel, NLnet Foundation

#NGIForum25

Vote up my Q&A question: We heard Director Kleiner start this section with the Commission’s priorities for this community. Since he’s here now, what is 1 priority you have as experts that wasn’t mentioned that you would like the Commission to consider?

https://ars.particify.de/p/54508987/comments

#NGIForum25

“Why do people come to NGI? Because they have this tiny piece of land where they feel welcome, where technical people can talk with them and give them the resource they need. I sometimes compare that to a refugee camp of sorts, where you get given some food and a tent and a bit of time.” — @michiel
💯 matches our @opentermsarchive experience with @nlnet: finally a funding mechanism with an assumption of trust, an understanding of operating context and flexibility on constraints 🙇
#NGIForum25

So cool to now also see @matrix's @Amandine at #NGIForum25 to speak about sovereign and secure messaging #infrastructure (and strongly warn against the nationalist version of the digital #sovereignty narrative 💪):

"Does self-sufficiency even make sense in a globalised and digitised world?"

EU tech Brussels really has come a long way 😊 🎉