Anerkennung von Open-Source-Arbeit als Ehrenamt in Deutschland - Online-Petition
www.openpetition.de
Open-Source-Software bildet heute das Fundament großer Teile der digitalen Infrastruktur – in Verwaltung, Wirtschaft, Forschung und im täglichen Leben. Selbst im aktuellen Koalitionsvertrag der Bundesregierung wird Open-Source-Software als elementarer Baustein zur Erreichung digitaler Souveränität genannt. Dennoch wird die Arbeit, die tausende Freiwillige dafür leisten, in Deutschland steuer- und förderrechtlich nicht als Ehrenamt anerkannt. Dieses Ungleichgewicht zwischen gesellschaftlicher Bed
  • arendjr@programming.dev
    3·
    3 hours ago

    I’m not even sure such recognition is a good idea. Civic service is intended to benefit a (local) community, while open-source work has no such implication. Of course a lot of open-source work does have public benefit, but then maybe it’s better performed as public service, through government funding? I’m an open-source maintainer myself, but I don’t think we should be blind to how open-source can very much be used for commercial benefit.

    • jaaake@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 hours ago

      Doesn’t that depend on what you’re developing? I’ve long thought that I would love to be able to volunteer using my skillset instead of just doing something that is unspecialized like working in a soup kitchen or something. I could write an app that tracks and reserves open beds in a homeless shelter so people who need a place to sleep don’t waste their time commuting to somewhere with no vacancy. That could make smaller (vetted) locations more viable and essentially make AirBnB for the unhoused. Why isn’t there a place to go to propose and contribute to projects like this that are focused on making someone’s life better instead of making shareholders more profit? It seems like you could convince a non-capitalist government to fund such a thing and employ people to assist in maintaining the project, facilitating compliance with existing or new regulation, and coordinating communication with agencies/organizations that would essentially be the clients of the development team (to create feature requests and illuminate challenges).

      • arendjr@programming.dev
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Yeah, absolutely, but I think as soon as you’re getting government funding you would fall under public service rather than civic service, that’s kinda the distinction I was trying to point out.

        But I like your idea!

  • onlinepersona@programming.dev
    6·
    13 hours ago

    Doesnt Germany, like the UK have a formal and official petition platform? Petitions that reach the quorum have to be discussed in the second house of government. Stop Killing Games did the same.

    This is a great ides, but why not use the formal channels?

    • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      Perhaps they are looking for an open discussion with affected people, before drafting something for the official channels.