I hope you’re right but I can assure you our government is very good at making grand announces not followed by anything, or even by the opposite. Also our far right, which might very well win the next election, is very much pro-Trump.
Our education ministry keeps signing huge Microsoft contracts, our health data is stored by Microsoft, our intelligence agency use Palantir, our government is mostly on X… I’m forgetting a lot of other things. They are also pushing hard for regulations against privacy, weakening encryption, chat-control…
There are some small nice things here and there like our Gendarmerie using Ubuntu, the DINUM making a lot of open-source tools… But it’s really a drop in the water.
Our elites and politicians share a similar playbook when it comes to doing exactly what they want while pretending to struggle to do anything else.
Technology is important for making the government run more efficiently and the US tech sector has historically provided the tools for making that process more efficient. It was easier to use the tools available from a close ally than it was to devote the resources towards building up a domestic technology sector.
We’re in a different world now, both politically and technologically. The US government has been using this dependency to gain advantage in other areas by spying on our allies. The trend towards right-wing nationalism also creates a real danger that this could escalate into even more coercive tactics.
Now, the cost of cultivating a domestic tech sector is now much lower than the cost of having all of your government functions held ransom by a foreign power. Especially when everyone can see how rapidly the US’s posture towards allies has changed.
That being said, it takes time to build a tech industry and swap to domestic production. The US’s tech sector growth was subsidized by the entire world and built over decades. It will take time to replicate that in the EU (and even longer if there isn’t a unified initiative).
Until then, your governments cannot help but be dependent on Microsoft and other US technology companies who are using emerging technology to enable new capabilities (i.e. Palantir).
As one commoner to another, I hope your country is shocked by the turmoil that we’re going through and can build something better.
I hope you’re right but I can assure you our government is very good at making grand announces not followed by anything, or even by the opposite. Also our far right, which might very well win the next election, is very much pro-Trump.
Our education ministry keeps signing huge Microsoft contracts, our health data is stored by Microsoft, our intelligence agency use Palantir, our government is mostly on X… I’m forgetting a lot of other things. They are also pushing hard for regulations against privacy, weakening encryption, chat-control…
There are some small nice things here and there like our Gendarmerie using Ubuntu, the DINUM making a lot of open-source tools… But it’s really a drop in the water.
Our elites and politicians share a similar playbook when it comes to doing exactly what they want while pretending to struggle to do anything else.
Technology is important for making the government run more efficiently and the US tech sector has historically provided the tools for making that process more efficient. It was easier to use the tools available from a close ally than it was to devote the resources towards building up a domestic technology sector.
We’re in a different world now, both politically and technologically. The US government has been using this dependency to gain advantage in other areas by spying on our allies. The trend towards right-wing nationalism also creates a real danger that this could escalate into even more coercive tactics.
Now, the cost of cultivating a domestic tech sector is now much lower than the cost of having all of your government functions held ransom by a foreign power. Especially when everyone can see how rapidly the US’s posture towards allies has changed.
That being said, it takes time to build a tech industry and swap to domestic production. The US’s tech sector growth was subsidized by the entire world and built over decades. It will take time to replicate that in the EU (and even longer if there isn’t a unified initiative).
Until then, your governments cannot help but be dependent on Microsoft and other US technology companies who are using emerging technology to enable new capabilities (i.e. Palantir).
As one commoner to another, I hope your country is shocked by the turmoil that we’re going through and can build something better.