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Digital Sovereignty: Shared Values of OSB Alliance, ownCloud

ownCloud is a member of the OSB Alliance, and stands for building a digitally sovereign society on the pillars of Open Source and Open Standard.

About OSB Alliance

The OSB Alliance – Federal Association for Digital Sovereignty represents over 190 companies belonging to the open source realm. OSB Alliance is focused on strengthening Open Source software and Open Standards towards building a digitally sovereign society.

Europe, including Germany, is at the risk of losing control over the data generated, which can have devastating consequences for government action, competitiveness and innovation. Moreover, the threat of loss of control over data violates basic humanistic European values. OSB Alliance is committed to combating this very challenge and bring about a digital change based on digital sovereignty, flexibility and security.

ownCloud and OSB Alliance: A Shared Mission

ownCloud is a proud member of the OSB Alliance and committed to the same values. Both ownCloud and OSB Alliance are on a mission to uphold digital sovereignty, which would benefit governments, enterprises, organizations and citizens alike. Both OSB and ownCloud regard Open Source and Open Standards as the pillars of the revolutionary concept of digital sovereignty.

 

Digital sovereignty and digital resilience exist together - Holger Dyroff

Holger Dyroff, COO and Co-Founder, ownCloud

Holger Dyroff, COO and Co-Founder of ownCloud, is a member of the extended board of OSB Alliance. Holger has been deeply involved in Open Source and business models based on open source since 1993.

Holger, along with the ownCloud team, stands for business models that are built on the pillars of open source and fully guarantee digital sovereignty, and works towards giving a clear voice to the concerns related to the loss of control over data.

Holger wholeheartedly supports the work that the German government has initiated with GAIA-X and is striving to ensure that this work is massively expanded all over Europe.

 

Peter Ganten, Chairman of OSB Alliance, advocates the concept that lies at the very core of OSB Alliance: successful implementation of Open Source software and relevant business models.

In his own words, the contributions of the OSB Alliance to a sustainable digitalization process that allows for control and innovation, has now reached the center of the political realm. This is evident in the coalition agreement of the federal government, in the digital strategy adopted by them, in the launch of ZenDiS and Sovereign Tech Fund, and the fact that the OSB Alliance was given its due importance in the budget deliberations.

However, as Ganten explains, implementation of this idea still remains a major challenge. With the increasing digitalization of the modern world, the economy, the state, science, civil society and private lives of individuals will depend on the digital world to an unimaginable extent in the coming years. It is therefore crucial that we retain the ability to control and shape this vital infrastructure and do not depend on individual governments or companies.

Anwesha Ray

November 24, 2022

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