Digital Sovereignty with Free Software: From the French OSPO to Software Heritage

Digital Sovereignty with Free Software From the French OSPO to Software Heritage Bastien Guerry - [email protected] A path to digital independence, Copenhague - 25 Nov. 2025 Hello world ! ●47yo, no Internet access before I was ~20yo ●Studied philosophy, the Turing test ●Became a Free Software hacktivist ●And learned how to program ●One Laptop Per Child (2008) ●Wikimedia France (2010) ●Emacs Org mode maintainer (2011) ●Etalab then DINUM as Free Software officer (2018) ●Software Heritage head of partnerships (2025) (Philosophical parenthesis) The power of experience What you see when others don’t. The value of reason To reflect upon what shapes your experience. (We’re not AI.) Two concepts of liberty Isaiah Berlin, 1958 Negative and positive liberty ●Negative : absence of obstacle or constraints ●Positive : possibility of acting, empowerment. The Four Freedoms ●Freedom of speech and expression ●Freedom of worship ●Freedom from want ●Freedom from fear Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941 State of the Union address A sensitive geopolitical context ●Pending EU fines against US tech companies ●A push for « simplification » (deregulation ?) ●General Data Protection Regulation ●Artificial Intelligence Act ●Delayed EU law enforcement ●Digital Market Act ●Digital Services Act Declaration for European Digital Sovereignty "At the heart of European digital policy lies digital sovereignty. It refers to the EU and its Member States’ ability to act autonomously and to freely choose their own solutions, while reaping the benefits of collaboration with global partners, when possible." Where is Free Software (aka open-source) ? "Open-source solutions can play an important role enhancing digital sovereignty, provided they meet high cybersecurity standards and are complemented by reliable proprietary technologies where appropriate." "Creating European common assets in artificial intelligence, data, cloud capacities and space infrastructure, including through public-private partnerships and open-source solutions (without prejudging the negotiations on the MFF), will strengthen Europe’s ability to protect data and secure critical infrastructures." Where is Free Software (aka open digital ecosystem) ? « We, the signatories, declare our shared ambition to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty in an open manner* as a cornerstone of our economic resilience, social prosperity, competitiveness and security. » * FR, DE: in line with the concilier conclusion of the 23rd of October 2025 endorsed by the 27 head of states of Government, France and Germany calls instead for a shared ambition to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty and strengthened on open digital ecosystem. Free Software in the French public sector at the Interministerial Digital Directorate marche.png marche.png marche.png Free Software in Europe Preserving our core assets : source code What to do now ? What to do now ? A European wake-up call ? "[...] a European strategy for developing the new information technologies must openly acknowledge the inevitability of some form of mixed economy— the creative and antagonistic mix of state, corporate, and d.i.y. initiatives. [It] must also celebrate the creative powers of the digital artisans. Because their labour cannot be deskilled or mechanised, members of the 'virtual class' exercise great control over their own work. Rather than succumbing to the fatalism of the Californian Ideology, we should embrace the Promethean possibilities of hypermedia. Within the limitations of the mixed economy, digital artisans are able to invent something completely new—something which has not been predicted in any sci-fi novel." The Californian Ideology, R. Barbrook & A. Cameron, 1995 « There's worse software out there, but it's more expensive. » Thanks ! Bastien Guerry - [email protected]