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When it comes to European tech funding, I'm a big fan of NL Net's Next Generation Internet (NGI) grants[0]. These grants the only kind of investment I care abou

When it comes to European tech funding, I'm a big fan of NL Net's Next Generation Internet (NGI) grants[0]. These grants the only kind of investment I care about and the only kind I want to see. My opinion towards this is influenced by the enshittification[1] that has unfortunately been embraced by large tech companies and financial powers in the United States. Overall I'm not confident this is actually good news, but the fact that the financing is also available to researchers seems like a possible silver lining. [0] https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund/ https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

therebase 1y ago
I can totally second that. I have just stumbled over a project that was developed as part of that fund. Super minimal probably the funding and obviously only a start, but this has a 'dutch flair' of being practical, usable etc. As always: please send people to teach the germans about how to build things (2 extra cookies if you teach us how to *Railway*) I do think the way to success for EU is to start with this little elements. Maybe EU cloud infra later relies on one little OS component that is still maintained by 3 people - not one ;). If we invest our time in something else than cloning hyperscalers - maybe there is a silver lining in form of a technological jump on the horizon. What about a Eurocloud that is a distributed system and not a 'monolith by monopoly'. The Systems we replace are not cheap, so there is even money on the table. Building EU hyperscalers just would suck OS projects dry of their 'IP' and siff money to a account on the caimans or UAE somewhere. Not building them is the way. Maybe not make this a 'bring US startup culture to europe' thing as well? It leads to monopolies and a lot of 'loosers'. Not a super efficient way to build what in fact is infrastructure.

therebase 1y ago

I can totally second that. I have just stumbled over a project that was developed as part of that fund. Super minimal probably the funding and obviously only a start, but this has a 'dutch flair' of being practical, usable etc. As always: please send people to teach the germans about how to build things (2 extra cookies if you teach us how to *Railway*) I do think the way to success for EU is to start with this little elements. Maybe EU cloud infra later relies on one little OS component that is still maintained by 3 people - not one ;). If we invest our time in something else than cloning hyperscalers - maybe there is a silver lining in form of a technological jump on the horizon. What about a Eurocloud that is a distributed system and not a 'monolith by monopoly'. The Systems we replace are not cheap, so there is even money on the table. Building EU hyperscalers just would suck OS projects dry of their 'IP' and siff money to a account on the caimans or UAE somewhere. Not building them is the way. Maybe not make this a 'bring US startup culture to europe' thing as well? It leads to monopolies and a lot of 'loosers'. Not a super efficient way to build what in fact is infrastructure.