Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

Phreeli founder Nick Merrill “is somebody who is extremely principled and willing to take a stand for his principles,” EFF’s Cindy Cohn told @WIRED “He's careful and thoughtful, but also, at a certain level, kind of fearless.” https://www.wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/

"The Dutch government has quietly removed #Google #tracking tools from job listings for its intelligence services over concerns that the data would expose aspirant spies to U.S. #surveillance," according to POLITICO.

"The intervention would put an end to Google’s processing of the data of job seekers interested in applying to #spy service jobs, after members of parliament in The Hague raised security concerns." 💥

5 visitors of my 6th Exhibition already use F-Droid. After all, 15 visitors have noticed that there is also F-Droid. And 100 visitors didn't know it at all.

(There have been 120 visitors so far)

25 days until the end of the #exhibition in #radebeul

#fdroid

15 years fly by like last week, when you're the package manager for #Android, but you feel the technical debt more and more.

What to do? Rip it out and start over? Improve bit by bit? RiiR?

Find out how #FDroid prepares for the next 15 here: https://f-droid.org/2025/11/24/an-experiment-in-automated-building-from-source-15-years-later.html

Dr Lagodinsky went on a valid rant about Parliament needing better information on funding plans.

~“Where is the strategic thinking in having AI gigafactories? Why are we pumping billions into gigafactories when even potential investors can’t identify a business case. We have a lot of GPUs using resources, but doing what?”

He’s right. The EU basically wrote a €30M check to Nvidia instead of addressing more fundamental problem of no EU-made AI hardware.

Context: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_467?ref=activitypub

#DCPS25

Benjamin Bögel (Cabinet of EVP Henna Virkkunen at European Commission): ~“We can be sovereign and open at the same time. It doesn’t force us to shut off our market. We can continue to collaborate at international level.”

#DCPS25

Fabrizia Benini closed with the most powerful call for engagement from FOSS developers I have ever heard from the Commission.

~“Your input is crucial. Help identify which digital commons are most strategic for open Internet stack. Share experiences with sustainable governance models that have a chance of making it in the European market. We can align policy and funding. We can turn this strength into a competitive advantage. I count on your ideas and frank feedback today and tomorrow.”

#DCPS25

Benjamin Bögel attended FOSDEM. He recognized how much FOSS is created by individuals and how many libraries don’t have a distinct business case, but still are extremely valuable building blocks. Grants work well for this.

Fabrizia Benini: While NGI program is ending, its cascading grants model for individuals not able to access other kinds of funding due to administrative overhead will continue with the Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (DC-EDIC).

#DCPS25

🚀@HansChristophSteiner (Technical Lead, F-Droid) joins the session: “What Do the Commons Need? Towards a New Funding Architecture & Technical Reference Framework”

We’ll explore:
📌 Long-term sustainability for commons-based projects
📌 Open-source in infrastructure layers
📌 Standards, interoperability & sustainable development
📌 Real-world commons-led stack examples

📆 21 Nov ⏰ 10:45–11:45 🇧🇪 Brussels & online
🎟️ Grab your ticket: https://commons.ngi.eu/event/digital-commons-policy-summit-2025/

#DigitalCommons #OpenSource #FOSS #Commons

💡 Governments play a crucial role to support the #DigitalCommons.

@ChristopherWilson (from @MyDataglobal) highlights their vital role and emphasises that the design challenge is also a key consideration.

Let’s build systems that serve people, not platforms.
https://commons.ngi.eu/videos/

#FOSS #PublicTech #Interoperability #Data #DigitalCommons

@martelinnovate @OpenForumEurope @openfuture @cnrs @linuxfoundation @ngi

Seeing open source and privacy companies having Discord as their support channel feels like a vegan community meeting at a steak house for events.

#discord #privacy

@eff As far as I can tell, Google's plan means that citizens of countries sanctioned by the US can no longer develop Android software, as Google can't legally accept their payment to become approved developers even if the developer is willing to go through the process. No matter if they are dissidents against whatever regime the US disapproves of.

@eff This is a cause for concern for business develops like my team. We build internal apps and decoy them via MDM software. Never used play store or Google dev account. This could block us deploying our apps so it's been raised with the hardware manufacturer of the Android handheld scanners.

Big news! 🚨 More countries opt for #OpenSource to protect their digital sovereignty.

The Austrian Ministry for Economic Affairs migrates away from Microsoft 365 to a Nextcloud and LibreOffice solution. 💪

Read the story in @FOSSForce recent article:

https://fossforce.com/2025/10/austria-says-auf-wiedersehen-to-proprietary-and-willkommen-to-open-source/