Free and open source software in Europe
policies & implementations
Gijs Hillenius
@sjig
Come again?!
Dutch Parliament urges increase of open source
“Recent years, however, have been pretty quiet.”
The Dutch government has been encouraging open source and open standards for a decade.
It has had:
Have you not heard?
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes: 'EC must not accept closed standards'
“I know a smart business decision when I see one”
Peter de Beijer: 'Open source only' at Dutch police Internet forensics
“The technologies are open. We are all performing the same tasks, we want to share and re-use and that is why we only consider open source tools.”
About this talk
The big trends
Give lots of examples
First: thanks, T-Dose!
About me, OSOR and Joinup
The big trends
Public administrations increasingly use free and open source
French Gendarmerie: "Open source desktop lowers TCO by 40%"
“Using an open source desktop lowers the total cost of ownership by 40%, in savings on proprietary software licences and by reducing costs on IT management.”
The number of politicians that dig open source is rising
New MEPs urge building links to open source communities
Julia Reda and Max Andersson, newly elected Members of the European Parliament, want to build links with well-known free software communities.
Public administrations use open source
for everything, everywhere
- content management
- document management
- database applications
- e-government services
- citizen participation
- geo-information systems
- open data
- software development
and across all sectors
Open source is everywhere:
In the EU's institutions
European parliament releases its amendment software as open source
EC recommends supporting open document format
Two hundred ways to switch an EC Directorate to open source
Open source to formalise European railway specifications
Open source software assists European citizens to petition the EU
EUPL and CeCILL become compatible
Circabc 3.6 now available on Joinup
Open source is everywhere:
In ministries
French Interior ministry: open source 5 to 10 times cheaper
Finland's ministry of Justice migrates to OpenOffice
Polish Economy ministry makes consultation site open source
Spain's Finance ministry offers open source email cloud service
Norway local gov ministry uses open source version control system
Open source is everywhere:
In capitals, big cities, towns and tiny villages
Germany's Munich, Leipzig, Gummersbach and perhaps next in Hamburg
Spanish cities Zaragoza, Madrid, Bilbao and Badajoz
Portugal's Vieira do Minho
Denmark's second-largest city Århus
Dutch city of Ede
Towns of Grygov and Jihlava in the Czech Republic
Villages of Toulouse, Arles, Voreppe and many others in France
Poland's Poznan
Italy's Bologna, Genoa, Udine and towns in the Umbria region
Open source is everywhere:
Across all sectors, including
healthcare
More and more Linux in Riga children hospital
Hospitals eyeing open source patient record system
Hospital in Porto to switch 3000 PCs to open source office suite
Danish hospital: "Hassle free use of ODF across competing office suites"
Rotterdam hospital selects open source for internal ordering system
Open source is everywhere:
Across all sectors, including
education
such as a Epoptes - PC lab management tool - in over 500 Greek schools
Or schools in Austria and Switzerland
And the Westcliff High School for Girls Academy in the UK
WHSG school's Network Manager, Malcolm Moore:
“This school specialises in science and engineering and if our students are to go on to do great things like start the next Google or collapse the universe at CERN... they will certainly need to know Linux.”
Open source is everywhere:
Across all sectors, including
defence
Open source advancing at Dutch defence ministry
Polish Defence Ministry moving to open source email and groupware
NATO makes ODF one of its mandatory standards
First problem: Too few politicians dig open source
Politicians should recognise the value of open source in terms of responsable government, sustainability, openess and independence from IT vendors. They should recognise that governments using open source create future benefits.
Serafín Olcoz Yanguas, the former chief information officer of Basque Country
“(Free and open source software) creates a virtuous loop between the public and private sector, with a recurring public contribution.”
Second problem: The desktop.
Even the EC admits it is locked-in.
Open office choices grip multiple languages
Do as I say, not as I do.
Third problem: Procurement.
MEP Andersdotter: 'EC procurement practice blocks European firms'
EC calls for use of ICT standards to battle IT vendor lock-in
EC considering hotline for procurement errors
'Discriminatory procurement specifications widespread'
Openforum Europe: Procurement law fails to address discriminatory practices
Open Standards for ICT Procurement
must hear Procuring software by mentioning brand names
must read Issues in open source procurement in the European public sector I
Fourth problem:
Shy and unsure
Public administrations are shy when releasing their code as open source, and seem unsure about contributing to well-known open source projects.
Even though this was extensively researched at the EC, and there are no objections.
Public administrations, as system owner of a software asset, have every right to 'give away' an asset via the appropriate licensing scheme, as explained here.
Though many get it:
Top three most visible open source implementations
1. French Gendarmerie
72,000 Ubuntu Linux & LibreOffice desktops
Major Stéphane Dumond (Gendarmerie, France): “The direct benefits of saving on licences are the tip of the iceberg. An industrialised open source desktop is a powerful lever for IT governance.”
2. The government of Spain's Exremadura autonomous region
42,000 Ubuntu Linux desktops (target)
Manuel Velardo (Cenatic, Spain): "Young CIOs are more used to open source than older ones."
Issues in open source procurement in the European public sector II
update:
- 10,000 PCs in healthcare organisations use Lingobex Salud
- 22,000 PCs in government offices will use Lingobex
- 93,000 school PCs and laptops run Linex
3. The city administration of Munich
14,800 Ubuntu Linux and LibreOffice desktops, now
Christian Ude (Mayor of Munich, Germany) meets Bill Gates. Gates: “Mr. Ude, why are you doing this?”. Ude: “To gain freedom.” Gates: “Freedom from what?” Ude: “Freedom from you, Mr. Gates.”
Five striking examples
- Sweden
procurement - Norway
cloud services - Belgium
municipalities developing software together - France
an open source culture - United Kingdom
Open Document Format
'All Is Not Well'
- Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- German cities of Freiburg and Mannheim and alert Munich
- Finnish city of Helsinki
- Administrations ignoring national guidelines on document formats
- Swiss court DMS OpenJustitia
Policies on Sharing and Re-Use
ISA Report on Policies and Initiatives on Sharing and Re-use shows:
- All EU member states address sharing and re-use
- About half of them have legislation
- by listing standards or
- with a policy on sharing and re-use of software
Policy examples
- Report on Policies and Initiatives on Sharing and Re-use
- Italy
Code of Digital Administration, December 2013 - Spain
eGovernment Law (Law 11/2007) - Basque country
Openness and Reuse of Applications of Public Administration of Basque Country Decree, July 2012 - France
Ayrault memorandum, September 2012 - Netherlands
Standardisation Board and Forum - EU: DAE #23
Against lock-in
Last words
The European Commission says:
“Many organisations are locked into their ICT systems, so that when they need to buy new components or licenses there are only few potential suppliers (or even just a single one).”
“This lack of competition leads to higher prices. Some 1.1 billion euro per year is lost unnecessarily in the public sector alone.”
Thanks
Courtesy to the Herculean
and the stirring
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