The maturing OSS community draws European regulators' attention

By Mirko Boehm of Linux Foundation Europe
Time: 10:30 Room: Auditorium K

Abstract

As open source software becomes the foundation to build digital products, to run the backbones of ICT infrastructure and to ensure digital sovereignty and cyber resilience, both the technology as well as the communities that develop it inevitably move into the focus of regulators. The European Union is advancing a number of policy initiatives that regulate liability, cyber security, data handling and AI applications in digital products, among others. This is a challenge for the still quite decentralized and globally operating open source community. How will the open source community participate in the legislative processes, and what may be the potential impacts of the upcoming regulation on the open source development process and community dynamics?

Biography

Mirko Boehm is a Free and Open Source Software contributor, community manager, licensing expert and researcher, with contributions to major Open Source projects like the KDE Desktop (since 1997, including several years on the KDE e.V. board), the Open Invention Network, the Open Source Initiative and others. He is a visiting lecturer and researcher on Free and Open Source Software at the Technical University of Berlin. Mirko Boehm has a wide range of experience as an entrepreneur, corporate manager, software developer and German Air Force officer. He joined the Linux Foundation in June 2023 as Senior Director for Community Development for LF Europe, where he focuses on driving engagement and collaboration between all European Open Source stakeholders. Mirko speaks English and German and lives in the Berlin area.