Robin Ginn | 02 May 2023
Investment from Sovereign Tech Fund, underwritten by the German government, points to trend in government support for open source software and aims to improve infrastructure and security for critical projects
SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2023 -- The OpenJS Foundation, providing vendor-neutral support for sustained growth within the open source JavaScript community, is announcing today that the Sovereign Tech Fund, financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, is contracting EUR 875,000 (USD 902,000) in government funding to strengthen open source infrastructure and security.
This is the largest one-time government support investment ever to a Linux Foundation project.
"Governments, private sector and individuals all rely on JavaScript. At OpenJS, we take this responsibility seriously as people need to trust the web technologies they use," said Robin Bender Ginn, OpenJS Foundation Executive Director. "It's encouraging to see the German government leading the way to improve the lives of citizens they serve by investing in the critical open source infrastructure that powers the web. It's exciting to see government leaders work together with our open source communities to make this security commitment a reality. Support from the Sovereign Tech Fund will help improve and build a JavaScript ecosystem that will continue to flourish not only in Germany, but around the globe."
The OpenJS Foundation is receiving support from the Sovereign Tech Fund to help OpenJS Foundation projects move to more secure and modern technologies and policies. This will be accomplished by: 1) Delivering infrastructure updates across OpenJS Foundation projects through a single-scalable solution while implementing a responsible sunset program for inactive projects; and 2) Developing and delivering security and maintenance policies and practices customized for the JavaScript ecosystem.
"Open source software is the foundation of modern communications and business and governments have grown to understand that proper investment is critical. This investment in the OpenJS Foundation demonstrates that governments like Germany are committed to strengthening the digital infrastructure for society through open source development," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. "Governments should look at open source and JavaScript as critical infrastructure. It requires long-term commitment and budgetary support. The OpenJS Foundation is a neutral home to support the healthy growth of JavaScript and related web technologies."
The Sovereign Tech Fund invests in the development, improvement and maintenance of open digital base technologies worldwide.
"Strengthening digital sovereignty is key to ensuring economic growth, self-determination and for protecting our values in a digital world. The sustainability of the open source ecosystem is crucial, and we must understand the support of our digital infrastructure as a public task. Supporting the OpenJS Foundation, a vendor-neutral organization with deep expertise working in these areas, will help infrastructure and security issues on a large scale," said Adriana Groh, co-founder, Sovereign Tech Fund. "We are very excited to be supporting the work of the OpenJS Foundation."
"The goal of digital sovereignty, i.e. the self-determined use and design of digital technologies and systems by individuals, private organizations and the state, cannot be achieved without a robust open source ecosystem," elaborated Fiona Krakenbürger, co-founder, Sovereign Tech Fund. "By supporting a long-term resilient and sustainable open source ecosystem, the development and maintenance of relevant software components can be improved, thus strengthening competitiveness and innovation as well as efficient governance and an empowered civil society."
OpenJS Foundation has also recently received funding from OpenSSF to improve security for Node.js and to reduce potential security incidents for jQuery. To find out more about the OpenJS Foundation and its commitment to infrastructure and security improvements for the open source community, see https://openjsf.org/
OpenJS Resources
To learn more about how you could be a part of the OpenJS Foundation, click here.
The OpenJS Foundation is committed to supporting the healthy growth of the JavaScript ecosystem and web technologies by providing a neutral organization to host and sustain projects, as well as collaboratively fund activities for the benefit of the community at large. The OpenJS Foundation is made up of 41 open source JavaScript projects including Appium, Dojo, Jest, jQuery, Node.js, and webpack and is supported by 30 corporate and end-user members, including GoDaddy, Google, IBM, Joyent, Netflix, Meta, and Microsoft. These members recognize the interconnected nature of the JavaScript ecosystem and the importance of providing a central home for projects which represent significant shared value.
About Sovereign Tech Fund
The Sovereign Tech Fund started its support for the development, improvement and maintenance of open digital infrastructures in 2022 with public funds from the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The goal is the long-term strengthening of digital sovereignty, i.e. the self-determined use of digital technologies and systems by individuals, companies and governments. Its focus lies on security, resilience, technological diversity, and the people behind the code. The projects of the Sovereign Tech Fund are regularly selected according to the proposal of the 2021 feasibility study (available at www.sovereigntechfund.de/en).