2025-10-01 –, OSPO, governance and business
This talk explores the similarities and differences in how organizations from the private and public sectors engage with Open Source. It highlights the growing relevance of Open Source for the digital economy and digital sovereignty, and examines typical organizational models for Open Source communities, including how both sectors can effectively collaborate with them.
A key focus will be on how Open Source can be leveraged as a competitive advantage — outlining not only the benefits, but also the challenges organizations face when embracing it.
These insights will be illustrated through the case of LibreOffice, the free and open source office productivity suite, serving as a role model for sustainable Open Source collaboration.
This talk explores the similarities and differences in how organizations from the private and public sectors engage with Open Source. It highlights the growing relevance of Open Source for the digital economy and digital sovereignty, and examines typical organizational models for Open Source communities, including how both sectors can effectively collaborate with them.
A key focus will be on how Open Source can be leveraged as a competitive advantage — outlining not only the benefits, but also the challenges organizations face when embracing it.
These insights will be illustrated through the case of LibreOffice, the free and open source office productivity suite, serving as a role model for sustainable Open Source collaboration.
Lothar is a long-time Open Source entrepreneur and evangelist with his company .riess-applications.
He has over 25 years of experience with his company in providing services and development for free and open source office productivity systems. With this experience he is a trusted advisor in major current migration projects for digital sovereignty, both in public administration and in the private sector.
He is certified as a LibreOffice Senior Migration Consultant and Senior Trainer. He also co-chairs the certification committee of The Document Foundation. From 2020 to 2022, he served as Chairman of the Board.
As member of the Board of the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) he is lobbying in talks and panels for Open Source, free and open Standards like the Open Document Format and business models with it. He leads the initiative for Open Source in private sector for OSBA.