Open source software now forms the foundation of large parts of the digital infrastructure – in administration, business, research and everyday life. Even in the current coalition agreement of the German government, open source software is mentioned as a fundamental building block for achieving digital sovereignty.
Unfortunately, many citizens are unaware of how often they come into contact with open source software. Whether it's a website on the internet, a ticket machine for the train, a game console or even video streaming, open source software is everywhere – mostly created, maintained and developed by volunteers and made available to everyone as free software.
Nevertheless, the work that thousands of volunteers do for this is not recognised as voluntary work in Germany for tax and funding purposes. This imbalance between social significance and legal status needs to be corrected.
As an active contributor to open source projects, I therefore call for open source work to be recognised as voluntary work for the common good – on a par with voluntary work for associations, youth work or emergency services.
Recognition for the many volunteers out there who work on open source projects every day is really a matter close to my heart. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, suggestions or ideas on how we can spread the word about the petition. Please support my petition here: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/anerkennung-von-open-source-arbeit-als-ehrenamt-in-deutschland