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1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 13-Sep-2024 01:12:07 JST Aral Balkan

   “30% of EU startup businesses that had grown to be valued at more than €1bn—known as unicorns—had moved abroad, and mostly to list on stock markets in the US.”

   – “hard-hitting report by the former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi”, 2024

   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/09/eu-mario-draghi-report-spending-boost

   “Have you heard about Silicon Valley’s unpaid research and development department? It’s called the EU.”

   – Me, 2019

   https://ar.al/2019/06/22/have-you-heard-about-silicon-valleys-unpaid-research-and-development-department-its-called-the-eu/

   And what I told them at the #EU parliament, also in 2019: https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/

   #funding

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 13-Sep-2024 01:32:26 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Jon Worth

     @jon Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ve given up thinking anything I’ll say or do will change anything at the EU level. I can’t compete with their lobbyist neighbours next door. I’m building the tech I want to see—Small Tech and, specifically, the Small Web. And we haven’t gotten a single euro cent of EU funding (not for lack of trying). But hey, we’re still able to build it (not fun, but possible with sacrifices) so I guess you could say the EU’s cluelessness is sad but irrelevant.

   • Embed this notice
     Jon Worth (jon@gruene.social)'s status on Friday, 13-Sep-2024 01:32:27 JST Jon Worth

     in reply to

     @aral Aral, look, you're not wrong. But who can *act*? Who *wants to act*? Draghi can come up with a solid point in a report, but he cannot act. And the incentive for anyone else to act - those with the legislative power to do so in the EU - is too low.

     You being right is all very well, but what's your lever to change this?

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 17:12:51 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:
     • Lewis Cowles

     @lewiscowles1986 @onepict Oh, as someone who was earning a six-figure income in mainstream tech in his early twenties but was only just able to go on a holiday for the first time in three years and is now spending the rest of the month looking at a three figure bank account because of it, trust me, I’d very much welcome EU funding. My problem is I’d rather endure this (at least until my health declines, I guess) than to fuck you and others over by working at Google, etc.

   • Embed this notice
     Lewis Cowles (lewiscowles1986@phpc.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 17:12:53 JST Lewis Cowles

     in reply to

     • Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:

     @onepict @aral
     To be clear, I was not suggesting Aral personally takes money from EU funding projects.

     I think (and I re-read my post) I suggested folks moving to USA that start successful ventures are only adding to their nation increasing debt burden. Even when "successful", they collectively couldn't wipe out that debt burden.

     I went on to suggest VC money isn't the only model.

     I Agree the EU should fund Libre software (as an ideal) and Open software where there are no Libre alternatives.

   • Embed this notice
     Esther Payne :bisexual_flag: (onepict@chaos.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 17:12:54 JST Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:

     in reply to

     • Lewis Cowles

     @lewiscowles1986 @aral

     Aral has not had success from EU funding, other projects have. Much like Aral other Human Rights focused projects haven't achieved funding.

     But there's a European FOSS ecosystem and we need help. We all need support.

     I've written here about the NGI ecosystem
     https://onepict.com/20240813-ecosystem.html

     Here are some general thoughts about FOSS sustainability. It's more than the code, it's the support systems, the people and community.

     https://onepict.com/20240409-sustain.html

   • Embed this notice
     Esther Payne :bisexual_flag: (onepict@chaos.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 17:12:55 JST Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:

     in reply to

     • Lewis Cowles

     @lewiscowles1986 @aral Which would be fine except the things that the EU invests in like AI and Blockchain means there's less space in the budget for grassroots FOSS investment.

     https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/foss_funding_vanishes_from_eus/

   • Embed this notice
     Lewis Cowles (lewiscowles1986@phpc.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 17:12:56 JST Lewis Cowles

     in reply to

     @aral if the EU systems, fund creating these people, I don't see an issue with them moving to the USA, because the starter pipeline is healthy.

     Let the USA drown itself in VC backed debt.

     There are of course lots of EU companies who don't care about VC nightmares, and are quite happy.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 17:19:22 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:
     • Lewis Cowles

     @lewiscowles1986 @onepict (And the only reason we exist at all is because I sold family homes and Laura works with a mainstream company—albeit one that’s about as ethical as you can get. We can’t even afford to have both of us work full time on the Small Web while the fucking EU fucking funds fucking startups with our fucking taxes. So, yeah, excuse me if I’m not their biggest cheerleader or see any actual change of policy here. They were never funding us to begin with.)