6 ms·

Well put. Would it make more sense if this Sovereign Tech Agency behaved less like a Sovereign Tech Fund and simply hired the developers? Or is civil servants

Well put. Would it make more sense if this Sovereign Tech Agency behaved less like a Sovereign Tech Fund and simply hired the developers? Or is civil servants developing OSS commodities too much of a heresy?

oytis 19d ago
> is civil servants developing OSS commodities too much of a heresy I see two problems here for Germany. First, the salaries of civil servants are regulated, and might be not what most developers, even German ones, expect. In addition civil servant status is bundled with privileges and duties that make it painful to lay it down. Most developers are used to job flexibility though, especially as, as I said, the salaries are not going to be great. Second, there is a decision by the Constitutional Court that prohibits the state from competing with the market. Temporary grants to independent actors are among other things a way to work around it.
- repelsteeltje 19d ago
  The first part boils down to any civil servant: inflexibility and lower wages aren't for everyone, but it should not be impossible to attract talent intrinsically motivated to contribute to public cause. Especially when it's OSS. The second part is a bit closer to the heresy angle: new public management forbids competing with "free market". Of course, many EU governments have always found and used all kinds of loopholes to support "independent enterprises" like railways, airlines, power companies and banks once they become too big to fail. Maybe commodity open source software has reached that level too...
- ho_schi 19d ago
  I agree on the second point. I assume we all know that this weird EU free market religion is harmful. The EU would be 1000% better for us, without the economy stuff it was originally build upon. Free markets are dysfunctional and never fair. How we now? Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta proof it every day. The US and China don’t even care about fairness. Why they should? Someone mentioned above the limited money STF has. I agree. I did not considered it noteworthy.
  - yywwbbn 19d ago
    [dead]
  - fungusmind 16d ago
    Free markets do not exist. The company becomes the government. The government becomes a company. Citizens become consumers. Even Adam Smith knew that.
ximm 19d ago
There is also the option of structural funding (Strukturförderung in german) where important organizations receive multi-year contracts instead of short term project funding.

oytis 19d ago

> is civil servants developing OSS commodities too much of a heresy I see two problems here for Germany. First, the salaries of civil servants are regulated, and might be not what most developers, even German ones, expect. In addition civil servant status is bundled with privileges and duties that make it painful to lay it down. Most developers are used to job flexibility though, especially as, as I said, the salaries are not going to be great. Second, there is a decision by the Constitutional Court that prohibits the state from competing with the market. Temporary grants to independent actors are among other things a way to work around it.

repelsteeltje 19d ago
The first part boils down to any civil servant: inflexibility and lower wages aren't for everyone, but it should not be impossible to attract talent intrinsically motivated to contribute to public cause. Especially when it's OSS. The second part is a bit closer to the heresy angle: new public management forbids competing with "free market". Of course, many EU governments have always found and used all kinds of loopholes to support "independent enterprises" like railways, airlines, power companies and banks once they become too big to fail. Maybe commodity open source software has reached that level too...
ho_schi 19d ago
I agree on the second point. I assume we all know that this weird EU free market religion is harmful. The EU would be 1000% better for us, without the economy stuff it was originally build upon. Free markets are dysfunctional and never fair. How we now? Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta proof it every day. The US and China don’t even care about fairness. Why they should? Someone mentioned above the limited money STF has. I agree. I did not considered it noteworthy.
- yywwbbn 19d ago
  [dead]
- fungusmind 16d ago
  Free markets do not exist. The company becomes the government. The government becomes a company. Citizens become consumers. Even Adam Smith knew that.

ximm 19d ago

There is also the option of structural funding (Strukturförderung in german) where important organizations receive multi-year contracts instead of short term project funding.