public sector

CIVI/CON Wuppertal

September 18, 2026
open source, public sector

I was invited as a keynote speaker for CIVI/CON in Wuppertal. The conference connects players in local municipalities and municipal companies to discuss digital challenges related to security, open source and AI. Coming from an ASF open source background that is largely driven by the private sector, the challenges were surprisingly similar - but also different in many important details. Coming from an FSFE background with a love for the children’s book “Ada und Zangemann” and as a supporter of the “public money, public code” campaign, many of the talks felt a bit too good to be true: There are people out there outside of the classic free and open source software bubble that support the arguments that have driven the digital ecosystem for more than two decades - carrying them over to the public sector. ...

What makes ASF projects successful

September 3, 2026
ASF, OSS, public sector

Yesterday I was invited to give a keynote at CiviCon. After a brief call on the background and scope of the conference I decided to focus on the three pillars of a successful open source strategy: informed usage, upstream first and intentional publishing as a last step. Both, during hallway conversations but also in the panel moderated by Markus Beckedahl one topic came up frequently: What makes the ASF so successful, how does that differ from projects discussed at the conference which originate from the public sector. ...