2021-06-23 –, Auditorium
OSOR’s (European Open Source Observatory) Guidelines for Sustainable Open Source Communities in the Public Sector offer practical tips for civil servants at all administrative levels, project managers, IT developers, and open source software (OSS) enthusiasts looking to engage with OSS. The purpose of the Guidelines is to act as a practical tool that can be used by public sector officials interested in establishing or joining open source communities or by members of such communities.
Building on the belief that OSS projects are sustainable when there are healthy communities surrounding them, the Guidelines focus on three key topics: setting a sustainable foundation to engage with OSS in the public sector, joining an existing OSS community, and setting up a new public sector OSS community from scratch.
The production of the Guidelines entailed multiple steps: an academic literature review, a community survey and development of five case studies looking at successful OSS communities. It was key to develop Guidelines that would be deemed meaningful for their target audience.
We have discovered that there are five key success factors that contribute to the sustainability of open source communities in the public sector: software maturity, sustainable finance, community vibrancy, community governance, and public sector adoption incentives. The Guidelines build on each of these factors and further explore them.
The Guidelines were produced in close collaboration with public sector open source community members and published by the European Commission Open Source Observatory (OSOR). Available since November 2020, the Guidelines are also currently open to further feedback from the community as well as testimonies on their application.
The production of the Guidelines was motivated by the observation that adopting OSS across public administrations has historically been a slow and often unsustainable journey. Unless the creation of an OSS can attract contributors, communities face difficulties with long term sustainability. There are many examples of public administrations adopting OSS, only to switch back to a proprietary solution at a later stage. However, there are also many instances of flourishing public sector OSS communities with diverse user bases and a wide array of contributors. This observed variation raises questions about the factors that determine their sustainability.
Recognising the different experiences of public administrations in adopting and maintaining OSS and building on the belief that the sustainability of open source projects relies heavily on the communities around them, the research team set out to answer the following research questions:
• What are the key success factors behind sustainable open source communities?
• What are the key requirements for public administrations to sustainably engage with open source software?
• What are the key steps that public administrations can take to engage with open source software sustainably?
The Guidelines aim to demonstrate that there are different ways to launch an OSS project and a community around it within a public administration and to guide readers through this process.
Barbora Kudzmanaite and Vivien Devenyi are senior research consultants at Wavestone. On behalf of the European Commission Open Source Observatory (OSOR), they will present the Guidelines for Sustainable Open Source Communities in the Public Sector. OSOR is a European Commission project. It serves as middle-ground to connect European public administrations with other relevant stakeholders involved or interested in open source. It also continuously supports the dynamic community and promotes the use of open source software in the public sector by publishing news articles and engaging with the community through events. Barbora and Vivien are in charge of the publication of various studies published on OSOR's Knowledge Centre, such as the country reports on open source policies, and the Guidelines.
OSOR’s Guidelines offer practical tips for those looking to engage with open source and the communities behind them. Barbora's and Vivien's short presentation will focus on the steps that one should take to sustainably deploy open source software in the public sector, as well as present examples of good practices based on the identified key success factors.
Barbora Kudzmanaite and Vivien Devenyi are senior research consultants at Wavestone. On behalf of the European Commission Open Source Observatory (OSOR), they will present the Guidelines for Sustainable Open Source Communities in the Public Sector. OSOR is a European Commission project. It serves as middle-ground to connect European public administrations with other relevant stakeholders involved or interested in open source. It also continuously supports the dynamic community and promotes the use of open source software in the public sector by publishing news articles and engaging with the community through events. Barbora and Vivien are in charge of the publication of various studies published on OSOR's Knowledge Centre, such as the country reports on open source policies, and the Guidelines.
OSOR’s Guidelines offer practical tips for those looking to engage with open source and the communities behind them. Barbora's and Vivien's short presentation will focus on the steps that one should take to sustainably deploy open source software in the public sector, as well as present examples of good practices based on the identified key success factors.