Episode 125: Astor Nummelin Carlberg of OFE on the Economic Impact of Open Source

Guest Astor Nummelin Carlberg Panelists Richard Littauer | Amanda
Casari | Ben Nickolls Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The
podcast where we talk about sustaining open source for the long
haul. On this episode, we have joining us, Astor Nummelin Carlberg,
who’s the Executive Director of OpenForum Europe. OFE works with
open technologies and public policy. Today, Astor goes in depth
about a report he co-authored with another team of economists, and
we also find out Astor’s thoughts on what we should do to make open
source more sustainable, what his team at OFE does in terms of
policy work, and he shares the challenges to everyone involved in
the open source ecosystem and how you can engage in them. Go ahead
and download this episode now to learn more! [00:01:11] Astor
explains what OFE is. [00:04:20] We hear about a report that came
out and how the economic impact of open source has been. [00:08:58]
In thinking about policies and recommendations, Amanda wonders what
information would help about understanding open source from a
systems level that Astor hasn’t been able to access but would help
with making better policy decisions. [00:12:19] Astor gives us his
perspective on how we can best use OSPOs and OSPO networks to come
together to release more data. [00:17:38] We hear Astor’s thoughts
on the tension between working in public, protecting individual’s
privacy, and the ability to work in public and not be a target of
harassment, as well as working openly and allowing information to
be transparent for people who are making large scale decisions.
[00:20:18] Now that OFE has released this report, Richard wonders
what we should do to make open source more sustainable and how can
we do that. Astor also tells us the budget was secured for the
Centre for Digital Sovereignty in Germany. [00:24:41] Astor tells
us about his team and what they do in terms of policy work.
[00:31:35] Ben wonders how we can enable that conversation with the
government to happen more authentically and representatively.
[00:34:00] Find out where you can follow Astor and OFE online.
Quotes [00:07:15] “Open source is a good investment.” [00:07:26]
“Open source is a greenfield for policy makers to figure out how to
engage with this ecosystem.” [00:11:06] “Research and data access
to open source is still severely underfunded.” [00:25:29] “The
classic Cathedral and Bazaar metaphor works with policy very well.”
Spotlight [00:35:44] Amanda’s spotlight is a paper recently
published by colleagues of hers called, “The penumbra of open
source.” [00:36:27] Ben’s spotlight is The Linux Foundation report
on open source software security that was recently published.
[00:37:01] Richard’s spotlights are two films he watched: Grandma
and Blue Bayou. [00:37:29] Astor’s spotlights are Find Shelter and
Frank Nagle’s new article in Brookings. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) Richard
Littauer Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Amanda Casari Twitter
(https://twitter.com/amcasari?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Ben Nickolls Twitter
(https://twitter.com/BenJam?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Astor Nummelin Carlberg Twitter (https://twitter.com/astornc) Astor
Nummelin Carlberg LinkedIn
(https://be.linkedin.com/in/astor-nummelin-carlberg) OpenForum
Europe (https://openforumeurope.org/) The Impact of Open Source
Software and Hardware on Technological Independence,
Competitiveness and Innovation in the EU Economy (Open Research
Community)
(https://openresearch.community/documents/knut-blind-et-al-the-impact-of-open-source-software-and-hardware-on-technological-independence-competitiveness-and-innovation-in-the-eu-economy-luxembourg-publications-office-of-the-european-union-2021)
Prof. Dr. Knut Blind-Fraunhofer ISI
(https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/en/competence-center/politik-gesellschaft/mitarbeiter/blind.html)
Sovereign Tech Fund (https://sovereigntechfund.de/en) Open Source
Observatory (OSOR) Joinup
(https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/centre-digital-sovereignty)
Open Source Community List
(https://groups.google.com/a/openforumeurope.org/g/foss-community)
The Cathedral and the Bazaar
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar)
Introducing Open Source Insights data in BigQuery to help secure
software supply chains
(https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/announcing-open-source-insights-data-in-bigquery)
The penumbra of open source: projects outside of centralized
platforms are longer maintained, more academic and more
collaborative (Springer Open)
(https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-022-00345-7)
The Linux Foundation and Open Source Software Security Foundation
(OpenSSF) Gather Industry and Government Leaders for Open Source
Software Security Summit II
(https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-022-00345-7)
Grandma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_(film)) Blue Bayou
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bayou_(film)) Find
Shelter-Accommodation for Ukrainians in France
(https://www.find-shelter.com/) Strengthening digital
infrastructure: A policy agenda for free and open source software
(Brookings)
(https://www.brookings.edu/research/strengthening-digital-infrastructure-a-policy-agenda-for-free-and-open-source-software/)
Credits Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/)
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest:
Astor Nummelin Carlberg.