As things wind down over the summer, it’s a good moment to catch up on reading that gets pushed aside during busier months. OpenForum Europe’s summer reading list brings together a mix of our own work, research papers, and policy pieces.
You’ll find pieces on public sector adoption of open source, EU policy developments such as the Tech Sovereignty Package, and case studies from countries and organisations putting open technologies into practice. Some are short reads, others go deeper into the data and the arguments behind them. All are worth your time.
Here’s what’s on our list.
OFE publications
Open Source Software in Europe’s Telecoms Industry: Capabilities, Ecosystems, and Policies for More Sovereign and Competitive Future.
The report examines the role open source plays in Europe’s telecoms industry today, the structural and regulatory barriers that constrain its potential, and the policy choices that could make it a lever for a more open, horizontal, and sovereign European telecoms ecosystem. Read more
Funding Europe’s Open Digital Infrastructure: The Economic, Legal, and Political Feasibility of an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF).
The report examines how Europe can strengthen and sustain the open digital infrastructure on which its digital economy depends. It provides a detailed roadmap for establishing an EU Sovereign Tech Fund capable of investing strategically in critical open source technologies that underpin Europe’s digital sovereignty, cybersecurity and resilience, and long-term competitiveness. Read more
ALLPROS.EU policy briefs.
OpenForum Europe has contributed five policy briefs to the ALLPROS.EU project. The policy briefs explore different dimensions of the project’s work focused on the European semiconductor industry. Read more
OSOR paper on progress and trends.
This paper analyses findings from 23 Open Source Software Country Intelligence Reports, examining open source adoption in European public administrations through legal frameworks, governance mechanisms, reuse initiatives, and cross-border collaboration. Read more
Open Source Software in the Automotive Industry.
This vision paper explores the burgeoning role of Open Source Software (OSS) within the automotive industry and it draws insights from industry leaders to outline the current adoption and future potential of OSS. Read more
Research and reports
Openness in AI
State of Open Source AI
Mozilla’s report on open source AI gives a detailed, interactive rundown of AI model performance pointing to the rise of AI openness and the challenges that remain. Read more.
AI Systems as Digital Public Goods
A report from the UN University and the Office of Digital and Emergency Technologies examines the tension between the potential for AI to become Digital Public Goods through model openness, and the reality of so many systems falling short of this standard. Recommendations detail what must change for AI as Digital Public Goods to become a credible, implementable pathway. Read more.
Perspectives for Open Source AI Regulatory approaches of the EU, U.S., and China
With the EU’s AI Act enforcement increasing this August, this article gives a systematic rundown of AI regulatory regimes to understand questions of enforcement and efficacy. Building on the Open Source AI Definition from Open Source Initiative, the analysis addresses legal gaps and misalignments. Read more.
Digital Sovereignty
Digital commons can help governments secure digital sovereignty, save money and build trust
The Digital Commons Policy Council held collaborative workshops to better understand how people can create digital commons to share knowledge and build networks outside of Big Tech. This report builds on these workshops to highlight how digital sovereignty can be built through collective governance. Read more.
Open for debate : governance, power, and the limits of internet openness
Analysing the idea of an open internet, the report draws from an interdisciplinary set of academics and practitioners to better understand the current technical, economic, and geopolitical state of the Internet. Read more.
Innovation, Sovereignty, and Open Science
This policy brief addresses the evolving relationship between intellectual property, open science, technological sovereignty, and innovation ecosystems. Analysing structural challenges in current modes of innovation, the brief identifies emerging models for open science to support strategic autonomy. Read more.
Open Infrastructure
Why digital public infrastructures?
Exploring initiatives for digital public infrastructures (DPI) in India, Brazil, and the EU, the report identifies how DPI extends beyond digital sovereignty into tools of rhetoric to legitimize public investments. Addressing the institutional and technical architecture of these projects leads author Mila Samdub to argue that oftentimes the public themselves are missing in their development. Read more.
Public sector open source program offices — Archetypes for how to grow (common) institutional capabilities.
The growing recognition of open source as a critical component of digital infrastructure has led to its institutionalisation in Europe through Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs). This study cross analyses 16 instances of these OSPOs to create six OSPO archetypes to better understand their structures, responsibilities, and contributions to open source. Read more.
Derisking the Finance of Open Source Hardware Development.
The standard model of innovation is slowed by licence processing and the cost of proprietary equipment. This article addresses how open source hardware can bring down costs and decouple risk from financial returns through its democratised access and incentives for wider adoption. Read more.
Policy
Digital Sovereignty
EU Commission’s Technological Sovereignty Package.
The European Commission’s flagship policy package addressing Europe’s structural dependency on non-EU digital infrastructure, comprising the Chips Act 2.0, the Cloud and AI Development Act, the EU Open Source Strategy, and a Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy. Read more
- How the EU’s Tech Sovereignty Package Finally Puts Open Source to the Test. A comprehensive analysis by OFE of the package from an open source perspective, Read more.
- EU Tech Sovereignty: A milestone for Public Code? Now implementation is key. The Free Software Foundation Europe’s reaction to the package that welcomes the “public money, public code” direction but flags that binding rules and long-term funding will determine whether it delivers. Read more.
- A Vision for the EU’s Open Digital Ecosystem: Beyond an Open Source Strategy. OFE’s blog post tracing open source’s journey from misunderstood technical preference to strategic EU policy priority, explaining the four objectives of the Open Source Strategy and what the community needs to do now that it is in force. Read more.
JRC study Open but Not Powerless: Towards a Common Understanding of EU Digital Sovereignty
A JRC policy brief mapping the conceptual foundations of EU digital sovereignty, defining it as strategic independence across data governance, infrastructure and innovation, and outlining a research agenda for translating it from an aspirational concept into evidence-based policy. Read more
AI and Openness
A vision on AI openness. The G7 Vision on AI Openness and the OSI’s account of how it was shaped.
The EU’s AI Act at One Year: Continuing to push for open-source AI and transparency
Mozilla’s one-year assessment of the AI Act, arguing for stronger open source AI protections and greater transparency obligations as the regulation moves from text to enforcement. Read more.
Cyber Resilience Act
The Cyber Resilience Act and Open-Source Software: A Fine Balancing Act. This academic paper analyses exactly how the CRA exemptions for open source work and where the tensions lie. Read more.
What the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act Means for Open Source
A practitioner-focused explainer on how the Cyber Resilience Act applies to open source developers, covering the nuances of when individual maintainers fall in or out of scope depending on how they monetise their work. Read more.
What Open Source Developers Need to Know about the EU AI Act
A clear explainer from Linux Foundation Europe on how the AI Act treats open source, covering exemptions for developers, compliance obligations for open source GPAI models, and what changes as enforcement deadlines approach. Read more.
Public Procurement Act
This article summarises the contents of the recently leaked EU Public Procurement Act proposal from the European Commission. The official proposal is due in September, but the leaked draft already gives an early view of the EU’s attempt to change how public money is spent. Read more.
European Interoperability Framework
Written during the legislative procedure of the Interoperable Europe Act, this academic article traces how EU interoperability policy evolved and why it took its present shape. Read more.
