Public services instinctively recognise the opportunities in openness and open data. Openness, to increase trust in government services and to get citizens involved. Open data, to make government data free to use and reuse for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Underpinning these two is open technology.

Most readers of the European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) already know that public services are increasingly moving in this direction. It makes perfect sense to share and reuse ICT solutions, and open source is by far the easiest way to make that happen.

OSOR in 2012 quoted experts who predicted that open data would nudge public services towards open source. Four years later, we showed that nearly all of Europe's open data portals rely on open source.

There are many examples of public administrations that laud open technology. See, for example, our recent report on the city of Hämeenlinna (Finland). The city believes that open technology will help attract innovative companies and research organisations and involve citizens. Next, read why the Dutch government is encouraging public services to share their software solutions as open source:

[It] benefits public interests including innovation, economic activity, openness and information security, and reduces the amount of money wasted.

Importantly, citizens are starting to demand openness and open technology. OSOR reports how public pressure in Italy convinced the government to switch from proprietary software to open source for its Covid-19 track-and-trace app.

Citizens are aware of the opportunities and possibilities of open source. The majority of Europeans use an Android smartphone, proving that the open source ecosystem is industry-grade and easy to use. Increasing numbers of ordinary people run open source servers, either in the cloud or perhaps on a Raspberry Pi at home.

That is why our report on the city of Rianxo (Spain) is no surprise. Using open source is indeed easier than ever.

Webinar

Preparing for the next phase, OSOR is aggregating knowledge on how to sustain open source in public services. Tune in for our next webinar on 4 June, where we will be sharing experiences on how to get citizens involved. Examples include the city of Groningen (Netherlands) and Germany's Integreat project.