Open Source Observatory

OSOR

The study on the impact of Open Source Software and Hardware for the European Commission found that open source software and hardware are key for the region's digital transformation and can be a major boost to the EU’s GDP.

The United Nations organised the event “From Open Software to Open Culture Opportunities and challenges of open source to support the United Nation mandate” on 23 September as a Side Event at General Assembly High Level Week. It convened high-level speakers who discussed the ways to leverage open source technologies for sustainable development and for the benefit of underserved communities.

The voluntary open source community Open Labs has played a role in the introduction of Nextcloud and Libre Office to the municipality of Tirana (the capital of Albania). The goal for this community is to reach local and regional governments in Albania as well as promote FLOSS internationally. Their work happens largely through offline events, however, COVID-19 forced them to find new ways and has stopped the direct influence for now.

The platform Citizenlab has open sourced their code base and made the ‘small package’ free. The platform is intended to stimulate transparency in the democratic process and encourage collective climate action.

BioPAL – The BIOMASS Product Algorithm Laboratory, released in April 2021, is set for mission launch in 2023.

Red Flags is a project by the civil and expert association slovensko.digital. This project consists of ongoing evaluation processes of many state-funded IT projects. 50 criteria are the baseline of all projects and results made public with the intent to influence governmental decisions on software development.

The first 48 hours after a disaster are of utter importance for the management of the situation. An open source software solution will assist the messy and chaotic situation. This disaster management system has a first response application which can be used to coordinate and inform all actors, including all non-operational and governmental administrative layers.

The municipality of Milan has, in collaboration with public staff and a tech company, developed an open source Digital Sustainability Model which measures the effect of the digitalisation process up against three parameters.

The French public administration outlined the governmental programme for open source, open data and public algorithms.

A new initiative of the Indian government aims to expand the government’s existing stack of open source solutions further to new practical implementations. Open source developers all over the country have been called to enter a challenge to develop ideas for innovative solutions, forgoing a typically rigid procurement process.

The European Commission committed to present a reinforced interoperability policy by Q2 2022. The new policy will be based on the learnings from the ongoing evaluations of the European Interoperability Framework and the ISA2 programme and on recommendations of the Expert Group on interoperability of European public services. A wide range of emerging or persisting needs of different stakeholders for future actions on public sector interoperability have already been collected and it is time to start discussing on the legal possibilities of translating the needs into concrete action.

Between 9 and 10 November 2021, 656 Editions and Systematic Paris-Region are organising a hybrid convention on open source that will take place online and physically in Paris (France). For two days, 70 exhibitions and 150 sessions will be dedicated to open technological innovations and the economic dynamism of open source solutions. Over 9000 people are expected to attend to this event.

Collection of open source solutions to support the creation of sustainable mobility indicators through data collected from government sources, concerning the changes in infrastructure or public transport.

Application platform supporting the collaboration between government institutions through digital tools, easing the communication, planning and sharing of documents.

A solution that helps users rights advocates, regulatory bodies and citizens to follow changes in the terms of services of different websites. Developed by the French government.

Discover how the government of the United States of America has encouraged the uptake of OSS through policies and initiatives geared towards its federal agencies.

Learn more about South Korea's political framework for OSS, including the government's involvement in the activities of the Open Source Software Promotion Team.

Open education, the use of open data, and open research are subjects that have been propelled into the spotlight by the COVID-19 crisis and the sudden rise of remote education. In schools, universities and research centres, the use of open source has gained momentum in recent years and even more so during the pandemic, fuelling innovation in education and offering flexibility to institutions that adopt it.