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Cover image for Upstream preview: Government carrot, government stick: Exploring two contrasting approaches to improving open source security
Kristina Kaldenbach for Tidelift

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Upstream preview: Government carrot, government stick: Exploring two contrasting approaches to improving open source security

Upstream is tomorrow on June 5, and wow, our schedule is brillant. We’re giving you a sneak preview into some of the talks and the speakers giving them via posts like these. RSVP now!

Governments are starting to believe that their traditional hands-off approach to open source no longer makes sense. But what then? Europe is providing examples of both “carrot” and “stick”: providing incentives to people and organizations to do more security work (i.e. the carrot) or penalizing them for not doing the work or after security incidents happen (i.e. the stick).

In this fireside chat, Tidelift co-founder and Upstream host Luis Villa sits down with Fiona Krakenbürger from the Sovereign Tech Fund and Mirko Boehm from the Linux Foundation Europe to discuss the impending CRA legislation in the EU (the biggest government stick to date) and the Sovereign Tech Fund’s “carrot” approach to funding open security.

If this conversation about the contrast to “carrot” and “stick” of support and regulation peaks your interest, be sure to join us at Upstream on June 5! 

RSVP now

About the speakers

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. He joined the Linux Foundation in June 2023 as senior director for community development for Linux Foundation Europe, where he focuses on driving engagement and collaboration between all European open source stakeholders. 

Fiona Krakenbürger is the co-founder of the Sovereign Tech Fund, an initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, to support Open Source Infrastructure in the Public Interest. Fiona has a background in Open Source Funding and has helped bootstrap and implement programs in Germany and the US. Besides her career in Open Source Funding, Fiona supported and founded various initiatives for more diversity in tech communities. She serves as a member on several boards and committees in the open source and technology ecosystem.

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