 I'm happy to start the sustainability track. I think it's the first sustainability track at BSFS con and We have a lot of Interesting talks today, and I will start with a more broad overview. So the speakers will go more in depth I will start the broad overview about what we need for a more sustainable digital society and Let's start with the software so I think Many of us are aware that when we run software that we need energy to run the software But actually we also need already energy to beforehand so to produce the software to write the software at least before corona for example, you are driving to the office and we turn on the light we Have a climatization. We spend a lot of woman hours in coding the project and of course a lot of brain power and So there's a lot of energy invested already, but unfortunately Very often not for a long time. So this is famous Google cemetery. It shows all the projects Google is not developing anymore and Has a total death count since 2006 is more than 160. So there's more than 10 a year and The average lifespan of a Google product seems to be four years and one month This is not a lot regarding or thinking that how much energy has been invested to produce that software So it would be a way more sustainable if I could reuse that software if I could just take one of these projects and develop them further This is what free software will allow does allow us There's a lot of experts here in the room. I don't think I have to explain what is free software Just to be sure when I say free software then I mean software that is licensed under the for freedom and under a license That gives us the four freedoms to use study share and improve the software So the point I want to make is These four freedoms have a lot of benefits, but they also allow us to reuse software and Basically have kind of a circular use of software where we develop software and even if you stop it we can reuse it and Develop it further and stop it again And so have like this wheel going off a circular use of software Which is important if you think about how much energy is invested just in producing that software and Yeah, so how much sustainable it is to reuse it Also reuse optimizes efficiency over time seems to be so here's the famous Linux kernel It's used in the 500 top supercomputers in the world. It's used on the most servers in the internet It's also used on old hardware. So it's very dynamic. It seems to be very efficient. So it seems also reuse has a very positive benefit on the efficiency of the software Which is also again very important because in the beginning I said software also needs energy to run so a more efficient software is also good in that regard and It's especially important these reuse things Like reusing software and also have efficient software if we think about what will happen in this decade We will have we will see an exponential growth of devices and of software that we need to run these devices And of the energy that we need to run these devices as in particular in these fields artificial intelligence the internet of things or let's say connected devices and Smart everything smart cities smart homes smart agriculture in all of these fields we will see exponential growth and So let's reuse the software so we can save more resources in the production and in the efficiency so picking up the the campaign from the Free Software Foundation Europe This is the first point I want to make let's start a circular use and reuse of software I mean of course it would be beneficial if like all software would be free software, but Let's be realistic and start with one step after the other it's very natural to say public money whenever public money is invested should be public code and We will see a lot of public infrastructure will be set up in this decade. So this should be with free software and public code Did you know that free software can save lives No, but don't know what you are thinking about but at least they can deserve save lives of hardware This is very important because the biggest footprint occurs during the production of hardware and not during his lifetime and If we would use our devices just one year longer Then we could save a hundreds of millions of devices from being wasted or produced Like when I was a child there was this joke about a guy who owns a Porsche the car Porsche and He buys a new one when the ashtray is full that seems very absurd, but actually that is Happening with our devices currently. So we buy a new device when the battery is not working properly anymore or the screen is broken and Even more absurd We could buy a new device because we don't get update of the software anymore. That is a big problem That is called software obsolescence So this is how I would expect Like a natural Sustainable digital society a via device today that comes with the operating System version X There's a follow-up version X plus one. I installed that on my device and the circle goes on However, that is not in practice not the case. Normally I buy this device today with the version X Then the manufacturer says, okay It has no interest anymore and supporting that device Declares the end of support and that basically leads to the end of hardware because now as a user I'm faced with the dilemma either I run my old software and have a security issue or I just or I have to buy a new phone just in order to run the new software So this problem is called software obsolescence because the hardware is devalued by software Fortunately free software can help us with this So these examples here are all as you see with in the Android system This is also because the it's very Obvious in the Android system the problem also the solution, but this is also true for other environments So I buy a new device that comes with the version X and there's a free software alternative version of This version X. There's also the free software alternative version of the version X plus one So in this case because no manufacturer can tell me now is the end of support I can just if I install the free software version I can go on to the next version and maybe to the next version and I can keep using my device and Save a lot of natural resources this way Also, not only I can install a new upgrade of the Initial operating system it would be even more beneficial if you can replace it with another totally different operating system like When my phone is not working anymore I don't want to use it anymore and I can reuse it for example in my Personal home infrastructure for my automatic water system or something like that and In order to do that that's my second point what we need is we need general purpose devices Our phones are as powerful as the first As the computer who will shot the first rocket to the moon so Why wasting them away just because the operating system is not updated anymore. We can just use them for another purpose When we have the right to install alternative software and operating systems That would Yeah, that would be a big step in towards a more sustainable digital society If we unlock these technical legal restrictions that hinder us today the Until we are dares like until we have the solution or like we can use any device with the software that we like to use it with that Until we are there. We have the we have another Solution for a problem because this is the solution. We just had a problem. We just had so I have a device There's the end of support and there's the end of hardware, but we can solve that solution if we upcycle a software meaning if the manufacturer has an obligation To publish the source code after the end of support under a free software license Then a third party can pick up the code Upcycle the code like develop it further and give this way give the device a second life Of course, this is not a law of nature that this will happen immediately or something But it is to expect it that with very popular devices It will start that there's some company community something someone who who up cycles the software in this way and The more we see that happen the more Repetition will follow and this way we enable an aftermarket after the end of life of the software and save a Lot of resources again. So this is the third point here the upcycling of software With the in with an obligation to publish the source code of a manufacturer under a free license after the end of support To stop linear product waste through software obsolescence the problem. We just had before the Last issue we have here or that I pick up today is the incompatibility of products. So that's another big issue. So We have a problem I buy a product from one manufacturer and that cannot talk with the product from the other manufacturer, which is Very artificial because if they if they would like to speak to each other, they could it's just artificial Because they what and what they want to create island solutions So that one if I once decide for one manufacturer I should keep in that family of products but this Ends in the situation where I Maybe have two or three products from different manufacturers and then I cannot combine them and then I have to waste two of the three and choose the other one and This seems very unsustainable so In the industrial age there was the solution of standardization, which is very important here in this regard and it was very important back in that time for Analog standardization of things and digitally we can do this a little bit more smart I would say with an interoperability so the obligation to have interoperable products via open standards and Open drivers interfaces this will be especially Thinking back with the exponential growth of smart everything of the Internet of Things This will be key for not wasting Millions and millions of devices just because they're incompatible with the next version of or with the product of the other manufacturer and Also avoid this way monopolies of Things yeah, so this will be basically interoperability of things and this is so my fourth point here that I want to make the day the Ability to combine and reuse different hardware and software via open standards drivers and interfaces and via this we are able to transform the Internet of Linear of Things into one of their reusable devices and Think again thinking back again. This is very important because The production of devices is that what has the biggest footprint so whenever we can reuse a device We can use it longer. We can combine it with some other device a lot of natural resources are saved actually the last two points I made like the publication of source code and Having open standards and interfaces and drivers That is also very important for the right to repair and to enable third-party for repairing devices We will hear later in this same track more about this Just here's a side note