Digital Sovereignty Needs Foundations – And more Companies Must Step Up

It has long ceased to be a secret that Europe is resolutely embarking on the path toward digital sovereignty. Rather, the crucial question is: How do we make rapid progress — and what stumbling blocks are blocking the way?

First, the positive news: Some (most?…many??) Politicians and authorities have now understood that Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) is the central key to technological independence. It is increasingly recognized as critical that data and infrastructure workloads should no longer be outsourced to proprietary third-party providers without control. Initiatives like ZenDIS in Germany, the consistent IT strategy of Schleswig-Holstein, or the system migrations of international institutions show that the will for change is there.

The Chronic Problem: A Lack of Hands
However, after more than 20 years of my own intensive involvement with free software, one fundamental realization remains: there is quite simply a lack of hands. Whether it is development, system administration, documentation, translation, or community support — personnel has always been chronically scarce in practically all areas. Many dedicated individuals have been working far beyond their limits for years, driven by pure idealism. The current, massively increasing demand from the state and large institutions is now drastically intensifying the pressure on these already thinly staffed community teams. This is leading to a dangerous divergence.

Economic: Excellent career opportunities are opening up for specialists. Integration, support, and consulting service providers are desperately sought after.

The Loss of Substance in the Community: When these specialists are tied up full-time in large-scale commercial or governmental projects, the time for actual community work disappears. The casual expectation that one can generate profits at the company during the day and maintain the core software „on the side“ in the evening is a dangerous illusion. If this foundational work is missing, the quality of the projects suffers noticeably — through a lack of maintenance, incomplete documentation, and delayed security updates.

The Appeal: Share code, secure sovereignty

At this exact point, we face an unsustainable paradox. And here, the focus is clearly directed at the business world: It is an unacceptable state of affairs that countless companies generate billions in revenue by using free software as a cost-free foundation, but give absolutely nothing back to the ecosystem.

Anyone who views open source purely as a free resource is acting short-sightedly and endangering the digital sovereignty from which they themselves benefit. If the foundation collapses, the business models of the profiteers will totter as well. Therefore, a pressing appeal to all companies that benefit from free software: Give substance back to the projects! It is no longer enough to just write checks. Companies must explicitly allocate a fixed portion of their personnel capacity and working time to actively contribute to the upstream projects they use. Developers must be allowed to work on core components, bug fixes, and documentation during their regular, paid working hours. This is not sponsoring; it is a necessary reinvestment in one’s own operational security.

More Usage Must Not Lead to Less Quality
The upsurge of open source in Europe is absolutely necessary, but it is currently overwhelming the existing infrastructure. To resolve this conflict of objectives, we now need structured, sustainable measures across a broad front — and not driven by individual idealists who have understood:

• Paid positions for the long-term maintenance and support of free software, as well as funding programs for documentation and localization.

• Companies must recognize community work as working time and actively promote it.

• A real, functioning interaction on equal footing between public administrations, the business sector, and the communities.

Digital sovereignty is not a software product that you simply buy. It is taking part in a living ecosystem. And this ecosystem only survives if those who harvest from it are also willing to cultivate the soil.

#Share code, secure sovereignty