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NGI project may lose funding

The Next Generation Internet (NGI) project, an initiative of the EU's European Commission (EC), provides funding in the form of grants for a wide variety of open-source software, including Redox, Briar, SourceHut, and many more. But the NGI project is not among those that would be funded under the current draft budget for 2025, as The Register reports. More than 60 organizations have signed on to an open letter asking the EC to reconsider:

We find this transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and economical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of European technological innovation, and maintaining the NGI initiative to provide structural support to software projects at the heart of worldwide innovation is key to enforce the sovereignty of a European infrastructure. Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly initiated by small-scaled organizations.


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bcachefs

Posted Jul 19, 2024 19:06 UTC (Fri) by koverstreet (✭ supporter ✭, #4296) [Link] (2 responses)

bcachefs has also been funded recently by NGI, so this is painful news

bcachefs

Posted Jul 20, 2024 9:24 UTC (Sat) by garloff (subscriber, #319) [Link]

That would be a pity.
We want bcachefs to have some sustainable funding.

bcachefs

Posted Jul 20, 2024 10:16 UTC (Sat) by matttbe (guest, #129626) [Link]

That's a pity. MPTCPl is also being supported by the NGI0 Core fund!
https://blog.mptcp.dev

What is their focus?

Posted Jul 19, 2024 19:10 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

They lack focus. What exactly are they doing? Are they a research organization that provides grants for interesting projects like https://www.ngi.eu/funded_solution/authenticateddnssecboo... , or are they a foundation that sponsors the development of an end-user software like Briar?

The funding models and the choice of supported software for these two scenarios are completely different.

As if to celebrate this decision... the Crowd Strikes!

Posted Jul 20, 2024 6:58 UTC (Sat) by oldtomas (guest, #72579) [Link] (1 responses)

If we want a somewhat resilient and sustainable infrastructure, we should be exploring more, not less financing alternatives which don't rely on externalising costs.

Otherwise, shareholders, the ultimate decision point, will always be pushing to skimp on quality.

(You don't believe me? Solarwinds is still around!)

NLNET and these programs are the primary things keeping the bufferbloat projects' alive

Posted Jul 20, 2024 22:53 UTC (Sat) by mtaht (subscriber, #11087) [Link]

cake-maint and LibreQos get the bulk of their funding from this. It's not much, but it keeps the lights on. Off into an ever more uncertain future!

NGI's purpose seems unclear

Posted Jul 22, 2024 16:55 UTC (Mon) by ttuttle (subscriber, #51118) [Link] (1 responses)

Looking at their website, it's super unclear to me what NGI's actual purpose is.

I expected a focus on projects developing and maintaining the dependencies for future Internet usage: new networking hardware, protocols, and software; core dependencies for web and mobile apps; etc.

I found no clear focus, and projects like this:

In this experiment, we intend to learn from the data we have collected for several years of evaluating employees of large corporations to create models to forecast employees’ performance. Incorporating AI technology in current products is a must for SME to remain competitive.

I'm not sure how NGI can fund this dystopian shit with a clear conscience, and I have no clue how it connects to the "next generation Internet". I wouldn't fund an org funding that either.

Sympathies to the well-liked projects NGI funds and those who depend on them, though.

NGI's purpose seems unclear

Posted Jul 22, 2024 16:59 UTC (Mon) by ttuttle (subscriber, #51118) [Link]

(Actually looking at NGI's "about" page, their stated aim is

to shape the development and evolution of the Internet into an Internet of Trust. An Internet that responds to people’s fundamental needs, including trust, security, and inclusion, while reflecting the values and the norms all citizens enjoy in Europe.

to which fire4talent seems completely irrelevant.)


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