Policy recommendations for public administrators on free and open source software usage

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2013.06.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We provide policy recommendations on issues related to free/open source software.

  • The recommended policy actions are based on review of the current policy framework.

  • The proposed actions can help governments, public administrations and institutions.

  • Open source software can lead to immediate improvements in administrative tasks.

  • The manuscript contributes in fully harvest the benefits of open source software.

Abstract

Free and open source software, holding a strategic position in knowledge economy, reaffirms the critical role of governments and regional authorities in establishing strategies for integrating effective and sustainable Information Technology solutions in the public sector towards economic growth and social welfare. Moreover, public services, organisations and territorial administrations collectively represent a major software user with great impact on the software market. In this sense, software selection in the public sector is a highly political and strategic process; various collateral implications and policy aspects should be considered in order to reach the best possible decisions. Within this context, this manuscript provides policy recommendations on issues and challenges pertaining to the use of free and open source software by European public administrations. The recommended policy actions are mainly based on review of the current policy framework. The main goal of this manuscript is to contribute in providing policy orientations and proposing actions that can help governments, public administrations and European institutions fully harvest the benefits of open source.

Introduction

Public administrations have the mission of best allocating available resources in a socially responsible, transparent and economically efficient manner. Free and Open Source software (FOSS),1 being a public resource based on non-rival use rights and allowing for lower entry barriers in software development, offers public stakeholders a set of cost-effective, re-usable tools and resources that can give impetus to innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth.

Moreover, public organisations play a major role in the software market as mass scale software “consumers” with specialised needs and requirements. In this sense, adopting software environments in public Information Technology (IT) infrastructures sector is not a neutral, “technical” process but a highly political and strategic one with various implications and policy2 aspects to be considered in decision making.

Regional authorities and public administrations could valorise the FOSS potential on a bottom-up approach by fully integrating FOSS solutions in their regional development planning, internal administrative processes and educational networks. On a local or regional level a faster penetration and sustainable use of FOSS can be achieved by clearly outlining needs and wants through public procurement3 and by directly engaging local communities in open source environments.

National governments should support public administrations and particularly small and medium size organisations in using FOSS in effective and sustainable ways providing guidance, resources and reusable software tools and components through national reference centers and repositories. They should also establish clear legal and institutional frameworks to eliminate software discrimination in public tenders and monitor the implementation of certain principles and requirements such as openness, reusability and interoperability of data (Almeida et al., 2011), software and systems in full compliance with the European frameworks and guidelines.

On a European Union (EU)-wide level, there should be more straight forward policies for the implementation of defined requirements and specifications on openness, reusability and interoperability combined with the coordination and fine-tuning of the national strategies of the member states. Successful cases of FOSS integration on a regional or national level should be highlighted, communicated and valorised through EU-wide networks such as JOINUP (https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/, former OSOR). European strategies, initiatives and official policy documents relating to software should be constantly updated or revised where needed in order to reflect software market realities, industry driven achievements and public stakeholders’ needs. Moreover, research and development policies should leverage Europe’s competitive advantage in FOSS development by investing in regional innovation clusters and FOSS-based entrepreneurship.

Within this context, this document outlines the policy framework, describes available options and expected benefits and proposes certain policy actions that can enable policy makers to better assess FOSS as a strategic choice offering competitive advantages for the public sector. It is specifically aimed at: (a) policy makers in governments and public administrations: government officials, elected representatives, senior managers and decision makers in local and regional authorities, (b) IT managers and heads of procurement departments in governments and public administrations and (c) social economy actors and institutions such as non-governmental organisations, policy institutions, professional associations and networks, civil society organisations, FOSS communities and networks, non-profit foundations.

The remainder of this manuscript is structured as follows: in Section 2 the main policy issues and aspects relating to the use of FOSS in the public sector are presented and the need for required measures and actions is analysed. Section 3 provides a review of the current policy framework relating to FOSS within the EU context and defines the FOSS related policy implementation levels and areas. Section 4 proposes certain policy measures and actions in assessing, adopting and further integrating FOSS in public IT infrastructures. Finally, in Section 5 our conclusions and some proposals for future work are drawn up.

Section snippets

FOSS policy issues

Either integrated in the operational tasks of businesses and organisations, or embedded in systems and products, software is omnipresent in most economy sectors and is now a driving force for the European Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry fostering innovation and productivity, supporting growth and creating jobs.

The European software market, including both software products and related services has risen from 228.6 billion € in 2008 to 231 billion € in 2009 and is expected

Policy implementation levels and areas

Legal and institutional frameworks regulating software policies and practices touch upon a wide range of implementation levels and areas. Three main implementation levels are defined and used in this manuscript in order to describe policies and policy makers:

  • Local/regional level: municipalities, local governments and regional authorities,

  • National level: national governments, agencies and associations, parliaments, legislative bodies,

  • EU-wide level: the European Commission, the European Council,

FOSS policy recommendations

This section provides policy recommendations on aspects and issues pertaining to the assessment, adoption and integration of FOSS by European Public Administrations. Based on policy review and analysis, 25 recommendations on policy initiatives and actions have been proposed, grouped in five broad policy areas as defined in Section 3. Table 1 presents how the proposed actions/recommendations are distributed per policy area and highlights the policy level (regional, national, EU) that each

Conclusions and Future Work

The use, adoption and integration of FOSS in the IT infrastructures of European governments and public administrations has not always followed the same pace and has not always moved towards the same direction. Legal and institutional frameworks, social, economic and technological aspects are some of the differentiating factors that explain gaps or divides between regions and countries on the awareness and penetration level of open source. Some countries are leading the way of open source

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    Note: Work supported by the ERDF – EU National funded Interregional Cooperation Programme (INTERREG IVC) under contract number 0918R2 (Project: OSEPA – Open Source software usage by European Public Administrations).

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