Building together: Government and the Open Source Ecosystem
Open source software is an integral part of digital sustainability. Publishing public code facilitates transparency, re-usability and more effective collaboration. Governments have good reason to expand their use of open alternatives beyond simple procurement, by strengthening the open source ecosystem. This is visible in several public sector initatives, especially in the impressive collaboration of European governments across the EDIC and EuroCommons. Open source software ensures digital sovereignty. Genuine, long-term digital sustainability is what comes after it. Governments that support the open source ecosystem, in the open and upstream, help keep the software everyone depends on independent and strong.
Gina Plat was the Interim Lead of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) for the Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). She recently joined the open source industry as Head of GovTech at OpenProject, where she helps governments become more digitally sovereign. With a background in IT management and open source policy, Gina has firsthand experience with public sector challenges of procurement, policy, and governance around open source alternatives. Gina advocates for collaboration between governments, the private sector and open source communities.