Dries Buytaert

Open Source won the technical argument a long time ago. But it still hasn't solved the funding and sustainability problem, one I've spent much of my career chipping away at.

Now governments around the world are pushing for digital sovereignty: control over critical technology they depend on.

Open Source began as a volunteer movement, and commercialization helped it scale. Now digital sovereignty could accelerate Open Source's third and final chapter: governments helping to fund the Open Source software they depend on, just as they fund roads, schools, and defense.

It could be a rare win-win: Open Source becomes more sustainable, while governments and society get the resilience and independence they are looking for.

That is what makes this moment feel so important, and why I've been writing about digital sovereignty so much lately.

I got into all of this on the latest episode of EU Scream, hosted by James Kanter, who covered the EU for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for twelve years.

James also pushed the conversation further, into the broader public debate about technology, the risks ahead, and why I believe Open Source can help keep some of the more dystopian scenarios at bay.

Much of what we talked about builds on arguments I've made before, in the Software Sovereignty Scale and The Sovereignty Prerequisite. But if long blog posts aren't your thing, this conversation covers the same ideas and adds a few new ones. Listen to the episode.