←back to thread

Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Internet

(nlnet.nl)
473 points edent | 1 comments | 23 Apr 25 07:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
freetonik ◴[23 Apr 25 08:05 UTC] No.43769706[source]▶
NLnet is a great initiative. Among the numerous projects they have supported is Marginalia [1] search engine.

1. https://www.marginalia.nu/

replies(2): >>43769795 #>>43769964 #
zoobab ◴[23 Apr 25 08:23 UTC] No.43769795[source]▶
"NLnet is a great initiative"

Originally, NLNet was *private money* given by the founders of a dutch ISP¨.

Now that this private money run out, they made a partnership with the European Commission, which is *public money* and comes with more strings attached.

replies(1): >>43770757 #
danparsonson ◴[23 Apr 25 11:14 UTC] No.43770757[source]▶
That all sounds like it's meant to sound sinister, but why? Private individuals sometimes fund great initiatives, as do public organisations. What's your concern?
replies(1): >>43771345 #
1. MyPasswordSucks ◴[23 Apr 25 12:34 UTC] No.43771345[source]▶
Both have their ups and downs, but broadly speaking, private money tends to be a lot more flexible and risk-liberal, whereas public money can be like having the worst aspects of the ignorant absentee CEOs-golf-buddy manager and the micromanaging hands-on desperate-to-prove-himself CEOs-nephew manager.

Public money is eventually traced back to some elected official who has absolutely nothing to do with technology but is also very emotionally-invested in showing to the constituents that the money isn't being wasted - to the point where spending the money on something useless but concrete ("ergonomic" coffee mugs) might be deemed preferable to a long-term investment that falls on the wrong side of a term-limit.

Again, public money can be fine and completely no-strings sometimes (and, conversely, private charitable contributions can sometimes end up with plenty of strings too), but there's certainly reasons to point out the differences.