 Hello everybody and welcome to this talk on public money, public code global problems need global solutions in the next 45 to 15 minutes. I will tell you about our public money public code campaign and how free software can help to tackle global crisis. As we've just seen the corona crisis or as we are still seeing this. And to, first of all, I want to introduce you to free software foundation Europe. We are charity that empowers people or users to control technology. And I'm as if he's policy manager. So in the last month I've been very active around the corona crisis and reaching out to governments and public bodies in order to promote free software. And how it's worked and yeah, what are the results of this. This is what I'm going to talk about in the next minutes. So first of all to give you an impression why free software is so important, especially for governments. I have this comic for you here. I guess you are more or less all familiar with the US nuclear chain of command. So there's the president and but also and this is very important, the red button and the main question for this is, who installed the red button how does the red button looks like is it also really following this chain of command or does the red button doing anything else so and therefore it's crucial that it is transparent and that everybody can check. And this is also true for the software so transparency is one of the most important things when it comes to free software or also called open source software sometimes and but there are more freedoms so it's not just about transparency and for free software always guarantees you for freedoms, and it is about use study share and improve. So the first freedom is to use the software for any purpose without any restrictions so you can do whatever you want with the piece of software you got. You can study the code is transparent so just with the example we had at the moment you can see what the red button does. So we are also free to share the software without any limitations and also the price doesn't matter so free is not free as in beer, you can also earn money with free software. Lots of people doing this, and also lots of companies, and also very important for freedom is that you are free to improve the software you can modify it whenever you want. So this is how you can make the software better adapted to your specific needs and also as we are free to share it. You can give it back to the community and share it again with others. So whenever we have these four freedoms to use study share and improve. Then we talk about free software. And it is very important that especially governments are using free software and I will tell you why. So the first good reason to use free software for governments public bodies is about digital sovereignty. I guess you heard of this term in the last years it became very popular and especially political debates. And in general is about to establish trustworthy systems for public bodies because they must ensure they have the full control over the software and the computer systems at the core of their state digital infrastructure. So whenever you have the full control over the software and you know what the software does. As we know it from the four freedoms of free software, then you have a really trustworthy system and you have the full control and that is about digital serenity. But also especially when it comes to public bodies. Then there's also another issue and it's about money. So public bodies are financed through Texas taxpayers money it's our money and that's why. Public bodies must make sure they spend the funds in the most efficient way possible. And also here free software can help as public bodies have more or less similar demands all over the world and they can share the software they don't have to pay for licenses. And so that's why if they collaborate and use free software, they could save a lot of money and that's why they need to use free software in order to spend their funds efficiently. I'll tell you more about this in a few minutes but just to have very two strong arguments it's about public money and it's about digital serenity. Maybe it becomes clearer if we compare it to proprietary software. So whenever you use proprietary software you have no interoperability at all and interoperability is something very important when it comes to governments. You're using data information and stuff like this across borders and therefore it's very crucial that you can share these data without any problems between public bodies governments and so on. Also whenever you're using proprietary software you're running directly into a vendor login. This means when you buy a piece of software from one vendor it's very likely that you have to buy other pieces of this vendor as well. So it's very important that you know that when you buy this software, this proprietary software from this one vendor you always have to come back to this one vendor whenever you need a change in the software. So whenever you want to update or upgrade if you want to modify you have to go back to this one vendor and ask for a change in the software. And this is called a vendor login because there's no free market afterwards once you choose this proprietary software. So this also leads to unpredictable cost for maintenance, for updating as I just told you you have to go back to this one vendor. And this is the problem when it comes to public money and you want to spend the funds in the most efficient way as I just said because you never know how much you have to pay for this software in two years and five years. And so on because you always have to come back to this one vendor, which makes it really unpredictable for unpredictable for you. How this will turn out. Also, especially if we see now during the corona crisis I will tell you later a bit more on this. There's a low acceptance by citizens when it comes to proprietary software. People want to know what happens with that data people want to know what governments are doing. It's the same like this loss we want to know the laws we want to see and read the text. And, but the software sometimes it's not especially when it is proprietary software then it is transparent. And this will lead to the situation that citizens won't accept your solution and don't use it or just turning out to be angry afterwards. And also after as you have to pay for licenses. And your investments are just lost. I mean, imagine you take the money which you spend for licenses to modify your software or to improve your software. But you don't have the money for it because you spend your money before for just for licenses and so that's also a big issue when it comes to money and the efficient way to to spend your funds so your investments are lost or quickly lost when you just pay for licenses and not in the modification of software, for example. And also, as we've also seen in the last decades in the last years a lot. There are security issues when it comes to proprietary software. So as you can't look into the code it's hard to find backdoors it's hard to prove that for example fundamental rights are respected but also that there is a lot of data protection in place and stuff like this. So therefore this proprietary software always comes a security issue. And so therefore, you should switch to the solution which is free software. When we compare it we see we have interoperability by default due to open standards. So if you are using a free software it is clear that you can share the data with other windows as well. You have these open standards. So interoperability won't be an issue anymore for you. And this is especially important for public bodies and governments. You are really independent as you have the free license so you have the four freedoms which are just mentioned in the beginning and you can do whatever you want with your software and you can easily modify it and adapt it to your needs. And also as sharing is one of the four freedoms you can share and collaborate together so which means you can also share risk and cost you can. And as I just said administrations are having more or less the same demand so it's easy for them to just go on the market and say we both administrations want a solution for this and this. So let's collaborate and buy a solution or do it by our own and share it with others then so, and this is how you can easily share risk and cost and it makes it also more predictable. And this is just to modifying or updating upgrading the software for future terms because you don't have to go to this single window. But you are free to choose a vendor on the market, and you can do it by your own you can search for other partners here. And so this is also pretty good, especially for governments. And also you have this transparency by default, which is, we will see it also later on we may talk about tracing apps for example very good, because citizens can see what the software does and they can see if the rights are respected. If the software really does what the law says, if the red button is really doing what it should or what the cell do. And also we have an example a concrete example here also for you later in the talk, you can involve local partners. As I just said, normally you have to pay for your license and then you have to go back to your vendor if you need to changes. Normally, these are big companies from the US or maybe from China already. And so what you can do with free software is to also involve local partners and to foster your IT market in your region because you can, especially for minor changes, just include local partners and they could help here. And as I just said, I will tell you a bit more on this in a few seconds with the example of Barcelona where we've seen that it works. And also, when it comes to security, it's really important that you have this transparent code so everybody on the world can go through the code and see and check what the software does. And so you can easily find backdoors if you wish you can run bug bounty programs or hackathons or so there are so many possibilities once you have free software in place to fix security issues. And in general, free software doesn't mean that it's secure or that there is security by default, but you have the chance to quickly fix it and also if they are bugs reported, you are able to fix them directly, and you don't have to go to the window before and ask them to please make the software secure. So now you are free to do it by your own, you are free to go on the market and search for local partners, for example, who could help you. And also you are free to include citizens with projects like hackathons or something like this. So you see if you compare it, it makes really a lot of sense, especially for governments to use your software, but for sure it's also true for every other users on the world like you. And I mean citizens in general, but also companies and so yeah, there are many good reasons to choose free software. And also again when it comes to governments it's really interesting that they comprise up to 27% of the revenue of software firms in the world. And normally you would expect a very strong player on the market who could say, we want this, this and this, we want a solution which definitely fits our needs and demands, but the reality is completely the other way around. It's a very separated market, governments, but also public bodies, administrations procuring software, mostly by their own, they are not collaborating, they are not working together, they just buy a license and then they go ahead. But if you just imagine what happens if these 27% revenue made of the governments would be a single voice on the market, and especially when it comes to free software. And if governments stop to reinvent the wheel again and again, that would change the market, but also the situation for taxpayer money, taxpayers money a lot. And let me just, for example, go to France, where they have a, I would say a free software friendly regulation in place since a couple of years. We can see that there is a major change in the market. So there's an increase in companies that use free software. There's an increase of number of IT related startups. There's an increase in the number of individuals employed in the IT sector. And what is also very important there's a decrease in software related patterns. So you can see when you decide as a government as a public body to switch to a free software friendly regulation, then this will also be. You can see it on the market. It will help your local IT market. And so therefore it's also a very good solution in terms of the IT market to switch to free software. And as I just said, I also want to highlight the example of Barcelona, where they have even more ambitious free software policy in place. They have a law which says they have to invest 70% of their budget for software into free software. And that led to the situation that from 3000 companies who have been involved in the procurement procedures and in the coding for the city of Barcelona, that there have been 60% of them smaller medium enterprises. And you can see these are the local partners. I just mentioned smaller medium enterprises and so you can foster your local market, even if you decide as a city to switch to free software. So on all levels, be it on an international but also on a national and a local level whenever you decide as a government as a public body as an administration to bring free software regulations in place. And that will help also your local IT market. So, to sum up, there are so three very good reasons to support free software as a government so you can have strong IT partners in your region. You can foster your IT market, you are free to have a software that fits your needs that is tailored to your needs and demands and it's not just about a Windows business model. No, it's about the software that really does what you need and also, as you can collaborate and also as I just mentioned, administrations are having more or less the same demands all over the world. You don't have to reinvent the wheel again and again, so you can share expertise and costs but also can collaborate in order to make the software better and have a tailored software in the end. So it makes so these these arguments are really really strong for public bodies governments administrations in order to switch to free software. So, let's have a specific look at the corona crisis as we've seen during this crisis in a very clear way why free software is the solution especially when it comes to software which should help to tackle the crisis or crisis in general. So, we've seen during the corona crisis that there is a global problem, so we're just really, pretty clear. And so this global crisis but also comes with similar demands all over the world so the crisis is more or less everywhere the same. And we need specific hardware and we need specific software to tackle this crisis, we need a lot of, we need a lot more, but when it comes to software. We have seen that, especially when it comes to home office or remote working that there have been loads of issues, especially in the beginning of the crisis. And also around these tracing apps we have seen loads of debates that showed us very clearly that the solution can only be free software when it comes to worldwide global solutions. So, again, we have this interoperability to do open standards so this is very important especially for tracing apps for example so if you want to trace something then it's important that you do it across borders, and you just can do it if there are open standards in place and open formats so that you are able to share the data and read the data and make your findings out of it because else you have national silos or regional silos and you're not able to tackle this crisis then. Also again you have the independence through free license and this is also very important to think about sharing so I mean there are countries in the world, which desperately need a software solution for example for for tracing but also for hospital solutions. And they have to go on the market now and have to buy a software. Why this, I mean it would be way better if there would be free software and solutions in place which we can also share with others in the world. And also it's about, especially these days about innovation so once we have a good solution in place in one country, why not just share it with others. And free software makes it easy to share the software across borders across the world and therefore these free licenses help to tackle the crisis. And you can collaborate also across borders and this is also how you can foster innovation. You can work together you don't have to invent or even reinvent the wheel everywhere at every place in the world. But once you have a good solution in place, you can share it but also before this you can collaborate and work together across borders in order to have good software in place. And again, as we've seen especially with the tracing apps, acceptance comes with transparency. So whenever you have transparent systems, people are more eager to use the software because they know what the software does. If you have a black box, people would stay away and say, oh, I'm not sure I'm handing over very personal data to the provider. So, and if I can't see what the software does, I won't use it. And so this is also what we've seen with the corona apps. It's very important that we have transparent code and that we are also this is how we can involve all stakeholders because of the freedom. Especially when it comes, for example, to the tracing apps, it's not just about having a good code in place but you also need specialists from the health sector, and also from the governments as well, a legal experts and with the free free software for freedoms of free software, you are free to discuss openly the best solution and have then a global solution in place, which could work around the world. And as I just mentioned, a couple of time, the tracing apps. This is a very good example of how free software could help. And it is also a very good example on how free software is perceived in governments so far and how debates around free free software are handled these days. So in the very beginning, where the discussion about these tracing apps have been in the early stage we stepped in with a press release and defined three demands for these apps. And first they have to be used voluntarily. They have to respect fundamental rights and they need to be free software in order to check if fundamental rights are respected. For example, if other rights are respected, and in order to see if the software really does what it should do and also to be able to modify the software. As we've seen in the last weeks, there is a need to modify the software, and this is only possible through free software. So in the very beginning, we stepped in with these three demands in the debate we reached out to decision makers all over the world and try to address our concerns and try to talk to them about the advantages of having these apps as a free software, but also in general why free software is a good idea. And so governments and decision makers followed us. For example, the World Health Organization released in May 2020, some guidelines and they for example said these solutions have to be fully transparent and they have to be open source. So with our arguments, we reached out to the World Health Organization. They followed us and so we had the first worldwide organization in place who said open source solutions of free software solutions are a good idea when it comes to tracing apps because of the just mentioned arguments. And also in the European Union, the e-Health network, this is a network of the member states and the European Commission working on health or e-Health related issues released in mid-April, some recommendations for the member states of the European Union on how to create this app. You know, Europe is, I mean, we have lots of countries doing their own way and still today there is no common European tracing app in place but every nation has their own solution and so therefore it's important to have this interoperability. I just mentioned in the very beginning and so that's why these e-Health network understood quite quickly when we reached out to them that free software is the only solution to make it possible, especially when it comes to movement across borders to always trace or to be in the position to trace also across borders. And so in these recommendations, the e-Health network said that they have to be the technical specifications have to be published openly, the source code have to be published, and we have to make it sure that it is interoperability in place and that we can reuse it. And also which what makes us really happy that they also recognize that it's good for security and the transparent code in order to see what software does. So it was not just about interoperability, but they understood the full concept of free software and named it maybe in some other words than we would do it but still this is an important step also for future solutions. So, because whenever now the European Union is trying to do something in the software ecosphere, then we can easily reach out and say hey, you remember the time during Corona when you said it's about interoperability, it's about security, it's about reuse. So why not for future solutions. So, and that's why this makes us really happy that we have this now and written and also later on in, yeah, after mid-summer it was the Commission released also implementing decision on that on, yeah, for the member states on the situation how the apps have to be and I'm mentioning in this document quite a lot. These he has network recommendation, and again, referring to the principle of interoperability, and that's why free software is the only solution these days in Europe to have a good Corona tracing up in place. And already now, as it is written here the travel restrictions are not anymore in place or they are not that hard anymore in Europe so people can travel across borders, and we have like thousands of different Corona tracing apps which are not able to talk to each other. And the Commission just started a couple of weeks ago a first chest run on this in order to share data between some countries in Europe, and they are now going ahead. And therefore it was very good that they in the very beginning said these solutions have to look very similar all over the place, because else, it will be hard to trace international or European wide movements. But therefore this interoperability is crucial for these apps and that's why most of the European countries decided to have a similar and a free and open source solution in place in order to make it possible to work across borders. As you can see with the Corona apps a very good example of how our advocating on the one hand works but also the understanding now step by step by governments that it is a good solution. And also we had a huge debate in Europe around this so also it is not just about very, yeah, way forward net politic politicians who are eager with a digital ecosphere, but also in general we had very general debates on a very fundamental that free software is a good solution for these apps and so this debate in general helped us to advocate also in future for free software because now we have a good example. Still, I mean, if you look at the whole process this could have been faster and there are also some other issues, but still the idea of having a free software solution in place, because this is the only way to have an interoperability in place. This is something which will stay and this will help us also in future debates when it comes to free software and governments. And another issue we've seen during the corona crisis that many countries or even regions companies and so on started to run hackathons so they were desperately searching for software solutions, also some hardware solutions but let's focus on software for now. And they run really big hackathons also global hackathons. And also we stepped into this debate and ask organizers of hackathons but also again decision makers that the results of these governments of these hackathons have to be released as free software. And unfortunately it doesn't work for all hackathons we've seen. But some of them changed their, their, their calls and said if you want to take play, if you want to take part, then it have to pre software and after we stepped into discussion and how we did it. It was sometimes quite easy so we went to Twitter and raised the issue because this is also very important so sometimes just social networks could be a help here in order to reach out to decision makers and raise your concerns and your, your, your point and this is what we, what we've done. And as I just said with some hackathon is worked, it worked out so we can could convince the organizers of the hackathons to release this software as free software with this one, especially it doesn't work, but still I think it's important to reach out to make your point because also in future debates. And it is important that they at least heard about it, and that they know about the concept and that they easily understand what you are talking about. And especially when it comes to software solutions in general, I just want to mention that they have been loads of software, especially for the health sector in place already before which is free software and it was helpful during the crisis. And this is the new house project that this is amazing project. And we just did during the crisis also a special podcast episode on this was loose Falcon and accept Brown from the new house project, and they told us a bit in this podcast, which free software solutions are already in place and could be used in order to tackle the crisis. And so this is also something we should keep in mind that there have been a world before Corona and that they have been good solutions in place already before Corona. And so that's why this is just something I want to mention because this is really awesome project. And if you want to learn more about it, just go on their website or listen to our podcast. Yeah, it's really interesting what they already have in place and what they have done in the last years. Another issue I want to address is the case of remote working. As most of you somehow had some strings connected to the to the situation of remote working home office and pretty sure some of you also occurred some problems during that time. And also we try to help here users and together with our supporters, which I want to thank you in this place also. So we collected in a wiki the best free software solutions for remote working. So if it just is it shared pets for example or video conferencing tools, and so on so we have a living document so it's still in a, it's still working However, you see another solution, another free software solution, which should be in the wiki. Please reach out to us or just edit in the wiki. And I think this is also something very important to not just say, Oh, you should really use free tools also to help here with concrete examples. And so, especially we but other organizations. I mean, we are somehow very familiar with remote working already before the crisis still some things had to be tested and some things had to have to be reorganized also for us, but especially also for our supporters and they helped us here in order to solve these solutions so you can just go on our website you will find it there or directly in our wiki and please also feel free to add solutions if you have them. If you have some in place, because I think this is also very important to present solutions to the users out there, and that they are good and very good free software solutions in place. And something what I want to also address here is that we've seen, especially during the crisis, I mean, it generally happens often, but especially during the crisis in the beginning of the crisis. You have seen that there have been loads of software companies around the world offering and their software somehow for free, or with specific gimmicks or something like this and they sometimes called it free software. And I think this is very important to distinguish between free software and freeware or something else. Because as I just said free software open source software is just when the four freedoms used share study and improve guaranteed. And so, therefore, I just want to go through the most dangerous things I've seen so far in the internet or we've seen so far in the internet, around offers of free software, which are not free software in the end. And so if you see, for example, offer which says this software is for free, but time limited, then it is not free software, because you will end up in this situation that you have to pay fees and licenses because for the license after this time limited period. So it's clearly not free software. As you have to pay after a time limited period. And the code is also not free or something like this. So this is clearly not free software but something else maybe freeware shareware whatever. Also, we have seen loads of commercials stating that you can use the software for free, but only for a limited number of workstations or limited number of users. And also again this is clearly not free software, because it's very likely that you have to pay fees for using the software. For example, so once you want to have another workstation running with the software, then you have to pay. But also just imagine you want to upgrade or update, or especially in this case upgrade your software, then it's also very likely that you have to pay for all workstations one day if you want to continue to use this software. So this is also again clearly not free software, but something else. Again, it's something similar to the Bose examples I just presented. If the word trial is included in the description of the software then it's also clearly not free software because after this trial period, you have to pay the full fees for the tool. And so it's clearly then again not free software but something else. The same is true for the situation that and this is something we specifically seen during Corona crisis so far. If the software is only available for specific sectors, for example, hospitals or schools. A situation where companies said they want to help here, but in the end it's about their business. So what looks like a very good offer today will also end up in a vendor lock in tomorrow. You have to pay for the software one day. And this is also again clearly not free software free software would guarantee you the right to use it wherever you want and not just only in the hospital or in the school. So again, this is not free software and it's very likely that you will end up in a vendor lock in if you are using such a such a software. And the most strange thing I've seen so far is that you can win a license. And it was also framed with the term free software, but to win a license is clearly not free software so there is the license in place or other users have to pay for the license. You have to pay for the license also if you want to upgrade or if you want to have your future software of this vendor. And so also if you are around the lucky winners. And also very likely that you will end up in a vendor lock in so and please be also very careful with these commercials so it's clearly not free software to win a license and then say it is free software. And then we've also seen the situation that some companies said they will make the tool open source. This is for sure not free software because it is currently obviously not because if I want to make something open software open source of free software, then it is not at the moment. And also be careful with these kind of promises so even if they release then this tool as free software it might only include parts of the software. So you have to carefully check if the whole software package is released as free software. And also, again, if there need to be upgrades, for example, or you get the older version of the software, you might to upgrade soon. So be careful with this and check out if future solutions will be also free software and if the vendor is changing their strategy for open source. So there are companies going more into the direction of free software releasing more free software this is also quite good but still always be careful with these kinds of others and clearly check after for freedoms are guaranteed and because else you might up and in a vendor lock in with all the problems, unpredictable costs and so on. So even if you are in a situation of a crisis, it's better to take some time. And to have a solution which is also which makes you fit for the for the future as well and not just only for today. So always think about future and not just about today and as we did. I mean, in order to give us a chance to to be a heard voice in the debate, for example, around the corona apps, these tracing apps, we've been in place with a campaign already before the crisis and hundreds of organizations and 10 of 1000 of people demanded that publicly free software developed for the public sector must be publicly available under a free software license. And we've seen, especially this this crisis, again that it is now even more important than ever before. And I hope that there are some learnings and we hope that there are some learnings. And we've seen that our public money public code campaign which we started around three years ago now was very helpful during the pandemic because we were able, as I just said with the support of the hundreds of organizations and 10 of 1000 of people who signed this call to reach out to public administrations and governments already before the crisis and tell them about our campaign, the advantages of free as mentioned in the beginning of this talk. And so what we are doing with this campaign is to reach out directly to decision makers all over Europe but also around the world and demand that if it's public money. It should be public code as well. It's pretty easy so actually we want legislation requiring that publicly finance software developed for the public sector must be publicly available under a free software license and so we released a lot of campaign material, for example, we also have dedicated brochure for administrations in place, in order to tell them about procurement procedures for example. So how do they practically can procure free software, but also what solutions are already in place we have best practices examples and so on so this is a dedicated brochure for decision makers. In the last years we had loads of successes with this campaign for example the biggest conservative party in Europe, the German CDU followed our demand. Also in some election and coalition treaties we have also termed public money public code we have seen loads of votes. We are happy that we not just have NGOs as supporters but also administrations and supporting and signed our call so far we have administrations from Sweden, Germany and Spain. For example the city of Barcelona signed our call and this is how we try to reach out and to promote the idea of free software around governments and this had also a lot during the crisis that we had already contacts in place. So it was kind of easy to reach out to us and to get hurt during the debate and this helped a lot in order to make sure that at least for example tracing apps have been released as free software. Still I mean it's an ongoing process advocating for free software in governments is a long term project and we know that there's a lot of work to do for us in the next years. So if you want to help us here you can be part of the free software foundation Europe for sure. You can help us to spread the word, you can join a local group. You can add for example as I just mentioned to the wiki we have in place, in order to talk about free software solutions which are in place but also we have campaign material for activists in order to help them to reach out to their local administrations and convince them we have material here in place. So I think it's important that we all work together here and as you know many small people in many small places do many small things that can hold at the face of the world and I think this is especially true for free software. One of the freedoms is to share and I think this is something which is important so let's share let's collaborate. Let's work together and make free software. The basic fundamental principle for procurement procedures and governments, and I think this could help us, not just in crisis but also for the future. And as we've seen during the crisis, this is more important than ever to use free software and government and to, yeah, to have digital serenity. And so this helps a lot. So now I'm open for your questions. Thank you for listening to the talk. Bye bye.