Re: Sovereign Tech Fund Applications Open

It is great to see that the German government has taken the lead
in supporting our critical open source infrastructure. But, I continue to
be disappointed that the US government doesn't appear to have a similar
program. Some time ago, I contributed to an unsuccessful Schmidt Futures
proposal
<https://www.plaintextgroup.com/reports/securing-open-source-software-at-the-source>
to modify the NDAA to include such a process. I remain hopeful that the US
will, in time, recognize that our open source infrastructure is just as
important as our road, port, and utility infrastructure. My guess is that
supporting Open Source Infrastructure produces a benefit-cost ratio
(benefit/cost) exceeding that of virtually any other government investment.
(Note: The English version of the Sovereign Tech Fund announcement is here:
https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/applications/ )

I'm intrigued by the *minimum funding level of €150,000* and that they have
a budget of €10 million/year. I'm assuming that the minimum is set at
something like a single-year's salary for an experienced developer.

They say they are "*not* looking for user-facing applications, such as
messaging apps or file storage services," which makes sense. They are
properly focused on infrastructure, not applications that use that
infrastructure. The projects they started funding last October give some
sense of their scope and focus. Those were: Bundler/RubyGems, curl, Fortran
Package Manager, OpenBGPd, OpenMLS, OpenPGP.js/GopenPGP, OpenSSH, Sequoia
PGP, and WireGuard. Their feasibility study provides additional insight
into their motivations and process. (
https://sovereigntechfund.de/files/SovereignTechFund_Machbarkeitsstudie_en.pdf
)

bob wyman