SPECSY.Photoelectrochemistry<p>A prominent example of what can happen if institutions are dependent on commercial enterprises sitting in the USA: The Trump administration made Microsoft block the email account of the <a href="https://xn--baw-joa.social/tags/ICC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ICC</span></a> prosecutor:</p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/icc-trump-sanctions-karim-khan-court-a4b4c02751ab84c09718b1b95cbd5db3" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">apnews.com/article/icc-trump-s</span><span class="invisible">anctions-karim-khan-court-a4b4c02751ab84c09718b1b95cbd5db3</span></a></p><p>Given this recent example and the circumstance that this administration is in a constant quarrel with scientific institutions and also science in general, it is quite scary how dependent many - not all - German universities are for their core IT infrastructure on Microsoft services.</p><p>I hope this is a wake-up call for the IT service departments of our universities? We are increasingly encouraged to publish scientific findings (data, articles) according to <a href="https://xn--baw-joa.social/tags/FAIRPrinciples" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FAIRPrinciples</span></a> in <a href="https://xn--baw-joa.social/tags/OpenScience" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OpenScience</span></a> , but shouldn't we also think more about the vulnerability of our whole workflow, if the underlying IT can be shut down simply by an order of someone on the other side of the planet? Open alternatives do exist!</p><p><a href="https://xn--baw-joa.social/tags/FOSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FOSS</span></a> <a href="https://xn--baw-joa.social/tags/opensource" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>opensource</span></a> <a href="https://xn--baw-joa.social/tags/linux" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>linux</span></a></p>