Lothar K. Becker
Lothar is a long-time contributor and member of The Document Foundation.
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 he is lobbying in talks and panels for Open Source, free and open Standards like the Open Document Format and business models with it.
Sessions
This talk explores the various challenges that public sector organisations face when trying to international jointly fund improvements and bug fixes in the LibreOffice project. Many such agencies rely on LibreOffice for daily operations, yet coordinated contributions remain rare. The presentation examines institutional, legal, and procedural differences that make joint funding difficult. Barriers include mismatched budget timelines, procurement constraints, and internal decision-making complexity. Additional factors like unclear shared benefits, differing priorities, and limited cross-agency communication further hinder collaboration. The talk includes examples from past funding attempts, both failed and successful, to highlight real-world dynamics.
The talk aims to structure these problems and work on a process and set up, that could support joint investment efforts, which could overcome these challenges in a WIN-WIN-WIN model for all stakeholders. By fostering better alignment and mutual understanding, the session is to spark discussion and offer concrete strategies for moving from fragmented to coordinated action.