Open Source Observatory

OSOR

Italy’s law favouring open source software in public procurement and sharing of code is generally considered to be a good example of primary law. Yet, the law is also thought to have had little real-life effect. To address this, the Italian government adopted guidelines in May 2019 to help with the implementation. Two years later, it’s “slowly but firmly going in the right direction”, says Leonardo Favario, Open Source Project Leader at the Italian Department for the Digital Transformation.

Petteri Kivimäki, CTO at the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS), agreed to be interviewed on the history and the impact of X-Road®, the open source data exchange layer solution.

The Polish Parliament unanimously voted for the law transposing the directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information on 23 July.

In compliance with the 1 July deadline, all the Member States as well as other non-EU countries effectively connected with the EU Gateway, thus going live with the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

The French Ministry of Research shared its Second National Plan for Open Science for the years 2021-2024 on 6 July. The Plan foresees several initiatives aimed at increasing the reach of open science principles, and, for the first time, includes open source as a critical component of scientific research that needs to be recognised and supported.

The European cloud platform is a reaction to a market dominated by tech-giants. It is an initiative for establishing digital sovereignty through open technologies and EU data strategies. The next step is to create decentralised Hubs for innovation and implementation.

The National Library of Luxembourg has developed an OCR-tool, that users of historical open data can find pre-trained on GitHub. This software tool is an enhancer of quality of existing XML schema or the regular OCR-engine. It currently comes with a “training set” for the software.

Since 2017, individuals and small businesses in Australia have had the possibility of comparing products and services of, for instance, accredited banks. The system behind these products and services, consisting of a number of APIs, is tested on an ongoing basis by an open source mock version. This testing increases the security of the Consumer Data Right Register.

In July 2020 the French National Assembly convened a special mission on building and promoting national and European digital sovereignty. The mission has just published its first report last month with a set of recommendations, among which it suggests using open source software as a default in public administrations.

On June 8th, the Committee on Architecture and Standards under the Danish Agency for Digitisation decided to create a joint guide on the use of open source in the Danish public sector. The project and the first version of the guide will be finished by the end of 2021.

The 17th International Symposium on Open Collaboration (OpenSym 2021) is a three-day hybrid conference that will take place online and physically in Madrid between 15 and 17 September 2021. The conference will be centered around various aspects of open collaboration, research and practice, including open source, open data, open science, open education, the use of wikis and related social media, as well as IT-driven open innovation research.

On 24 September 2021, OpenForum Europe will host the EU Open Source Policy Community Meeting 2021. This webinar is designed to serve as an open space for the European open source community to discuss and share recent developments and insights on open source, and more specifically on EU open source-related policies.

Between 27 and 30 September 2021, the Linux Foundation is organising the Open Source Summit in a hybrid format, taking place in Seattle (USA) and virtually. This event will be focused on the latest trends in open source and open collaboration and on how open source is shaping innovation. Attendees will have a variety of ways to collaborate and share ideas with their peers, as well as to learn how to help create richer open source communities, how to grow their technical skills and much more.

The State Personal Address Register (SPAR) is a public register that includes all persons registered in Sweden, updated each day with data from the Swedish Population Register. The purpose of the platform is to disclose information electronically for users who meet the required conditions.

Secure electronic mailbox for exchange of messages between the Belgian government, businesses and citizens. The service also gives users access to government documents.

Open source process and task system that helps Dutch municipalities automatically manage and categorise reports about issues in the public space, initially developed by the municipality of Amsterdam.

iMio, short for Intercommunale de Mutualisation Informatique et Organisationnelle in French, is a Belgian inter-municipal organisation that coordinates the sharing of solutions and services for local authorities of the Walloon Region. iMio carries out three types of activities: the production of interoperable open source software (OSS), the purchase of IT solutions from central purchasing bodies and/or markets, and the organisational structuring of local governments’ working processes.

Find out how open source software is promoted in Argentina through the various public bodies involved in OSS development and the role of the different strategic players in further contributing to the country's lively open source ecosystem.

With the most recent political framework listing the use of open source software in government services and reaffirming its use in the public sector, learn how the Icelandic government and the various initiatives geared towards citizens have promoted the use of OSS in the country.

Discover the many OSS initiatives that are used in Ukrainian public administrations and read more about the responsible governmental bodies.