Open Source Observatory

OSOR

OSOR invites you to the second of three webinars on Tuesday 13 June, from 1 to 3pm CET, on "Policy & Strategy Aspects of OSS in Public Administration". The number of regions using Open Source Software (OSS) has increased a lot this decade. The number of experts too. In 2023, OSOR is gathering this collective knowledge, to make it available to others who are working on strategies and implementations. This series of webinars will spread this knowledge to as large an audience as possible - both on the day, and through the recording and the materials that will be produced after the webinar.

We are happy to share a presentation of the first of a series of three webinars which focused on "Policy & Strategy Aspects of OSS in Public Administration" on 4th May 2023. The event, which took place from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM CET, aimed to share valuable insights gathered from dialogues with thirty local experts on various challenges and solutions encountered in the field of open source software adoption in public administration. The webinar attracted a diverse audience and provided a platform for knowledge exchange among professionals involved in IT policy and decision-making within the public sector.

Software catalogues make public procurement easier by helping people find software and by presenting, as much as possible, the information required for procurement procedures. There's a lot of discussion taking place, including at the EU level, but there's also a lot of work already done by various national and regional entities. Below are some exa

In 2001, Schwäbisch Hall in Germany decided to migrate to open source software to reduce costs and decrease dependence on software companies. The migration included servers and desktops, with a central administration system using OpenLDAP. The city's motivation came from Microsoft's announcement to phase out support for Windows NT 4.0 and the uncertainty of Office 2000's support. They aimed to achieve independence, enhance security, and promote competition.

OSSBIG—the Austrian FOSS group consisting of high-ranking IT-managers and professionals from various companies and public sectors with the aim of working for open-source in the public sector—has published a new paper that provides a blueprint for public administrations on how to achieve digital sovereignty via open source.

Sharing and reuse is a basic efficiency principle in public IT services. In this vein, the German government offers the “Government Site Builder” (GSB) as a basis for governmental websites. The GSB is a web content management solution for the creation, quality assurance, release and publication of content on the internet, intranet and extranet, specifically engineered for the needs of the German public sector.

Slovakia's Action Plan for Smart Cities and regions for 2023-2026 promotes open source solutions as part of its digital transformation strategy for smart cities and regions. The plan recognises the importance of leveraging synergies between local governments and implementing a comprehensive approach to the development and implementation of digital solutions. To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation of the Slovak Republic is setting up two measures aiming at facilitating the use of open source in local administrations.

The UN Open GIS (Geographic Information System) Initiative, led by the United Nations Geospatial Network, aims to develop an Open Source GIS bundle to support UN operations. Supported by various partners, including Member States and international organizations, this initiative focuses on addressing capability gaps in GIS and improving the efficiency of Open Source GIS worldwide.

The Stadtnavi web platform is a project from the German city of Herrenberg aiming to improve urban air quality by promoting sustainable mobility. The platform gives the potential to navigate from A to B quickly, environmentally friendly and anonymously. The project was part of the model city initiative "Clean Air" (“Saubere Luft”), which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) from 2018 to 2021. Herrenberg was one of five model municipalities selected for this project, and the city implemented the Stadtnavi platform with funding from the BMVI

The United Nations Envoy on Technology and the Office of Information and Communications Technology are hosting an event titled "OSPOs for Good: Building & Designing Cooperative Digital Infrastructure" on 21 June. The event aims to address collaboration issues among institutional Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs). It will provide education, challenges, and networking opportunities to foster the development of OSPOs for Good. Through discussions, workshops, and interactive sessions, the event will promote this concept, explore infrastructure opportunities, and scale up initiatives. Participants will gain hands-on experience through sample organizations and case studies.

On Friday 9 June 2023, the Dutch OSPO knowledge network, in collaboration with OSPO++ and the OSPO network of the European Commission, is organizing a meeting at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in The Hague. During this meeting participants will reflect on the role of Open source software and the phenomenon of OSPOs in the transformation to digital community goods within the public sector. With the help of workshops they will explore the potential of more ( international ) cooperation & Codeswap.

Dr Sven Herpig will present his recently-published paper on: "Fostering Open Source Software Security. Blueprint for a Government Cybersecurity Open Source Program Office" The paper explains how FOSS is the basis of most regions' plans for digitalisation of public services, and this makes FOSS an issue of national security. "Governments can serve as internal coordinators, role models, supporters and regulators."

The X-Road Community Event is taking place on September 22nd, 2023! This virtual gathering welcomes individuals from all backgrounds who are interested in X-Road. We're excited to announce that the call for speakers/papers is now open. Share your insights and expertise by submitting a talk or paper through the provided link. Your valuable contributions will enrich the collective knowledge of the X-Road community.

Bits & Bäume NRW is a two-day conference that explores how digitalisation of our society can be done more democratically. Throughout various presentation, speakers will discuss subjects such as sustainability, democratic transparency, self-determination, and market monopolies. These questions are often inherent to the choice done by public administrations all over Europe to use open source. Whether it be for its increased transparency towards citizens, its respect of private and personal data, or the capacity to control the way it affects citizens as a whole, open source tools will be part of the discussions.

The OSOR team also published the updated report on the state of Open Source in Poland. In this report, you can read about the new role of the ministry of Digital affairs and the efforts of civil society towards the use of open source. The report also includes the latest local initiatives and a list of actors who are active at the associative and governmental level in the use of open source. You can also find the factsheet summarizing these findings in a user-friendly way.

The OSOR team just published the updated report on the state of Open Source in Sweden. It describes the important advances and policy changes related to digitalisation in the country. In this report, you can read about the advancement of the work of the Agency of Digital Government (DIGG). The report also includes the latest local initiatives and a list of actors who are active at the associative and governmental level in the use of open source. You can also find the factsheet summarizing these findings in a user-friendly way.

Owlyshield is malware detection software for GNU/Linux and Windows systems. It finds malware activity in real-time by monitoring file system activity and by using machine learning to detect vulnerability exploitation. For the technical details: for both platforms, it combines a kernel module and a user-space module. Released under the EUPL.