* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    AMC brings first new Dolby Experience to Gwinnett since 2017 – Wyoming News Now

    AMC Launches First New Dolby Experience in Gwinnett Since 2017

    Hetzel Design: blending architecture and entertainment – Blooloop

    Hetzel Design: Where Architecture and Entertainment Unite in Perfect Harmony

    Country music legend rushed to hospital year after heart surgery. Here’s what we know – PennLive.com

    Country Music Legend Rushed to Hospital One Year After Heart Surgery – What’s Happening Now?

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

    Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 Technology Stocks to Buy Now – Yahoo Finance

    3 Must-Buy Tech Stocks You Can’t Afford to Miss Right Now

    ‘New frontier’: Austin leaders start discussions on air taxi technology – KXAN Austin

    Austin Leaders Ignite Exciting Conversations on the Future of Air Taxi Technology

    How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

    How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

    Italian Technology in Manufacturing: Supporting North American Industries and Keeping Production Local – Thomasnet

    How Italian Technology is Revolutionizing North American Manufacturing and Boosting Local Production

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    AMC brings first new Dolby Experience to Gwinnett since 2017 – Wyoming News Now

    AMC Launches First New Dolby Experience in Gwinnett Since 2017

    Hetzel Design: blending architecture and entertainment – Blooloop

    Hetzel Design: Where Architecture and Entertainment Unite in Perfect Harmony

    Country music legend rushed to hospital year after heart surgery. Here’s what we know – PennLive.com

    Country Music Legend Rushed to Hospital One Year After Heart Surgery – What’s Happening Now?

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

    Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 Technology Stocks to Buy Now – Yahoo Finance

    3 Must-Buy Tech Stocks You Can’t Afford to Miss Right Now

    ‘New frontier’: Austin leaders start discussions on air taxi technology – KXAN Austin

    Austin Leaders Ignite Exciting Conversations on the Future of Air Taxi Technology

    How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

    How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

    Italian Technology in Manufacturing: Supporting North American Industries and Keeping Production Local – Thomasnet

    How Italian Technology is Revolutionizing North American Manufacturing and Boosting Local Production

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

The challenges of open source in government

February 7, 2024
in Technology
The challenges of open source in government
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Public sector bodies may find their policy decisions are stymied due to the inflexibility of the software they deploy. Is open source the answer?

Cliff Saran

By

Cliff Saran,
Managing Editor

Published: 07 Feb 2024 16:45

OpenUK’s State of Open Con 24 London conference has highlighted the challenges governments face when procuring software to support policymaking.

Whether it’s central or local government, public sector bodies have tended to be cautious when procuring technology platforms that need to be built to support their strategy. However, delegates attending the government stream at Open Con 24 heard from two speakers who discussed why a more open and collaborative approach to public sector software projects is needed.

Jan Ainali, codebase steward at the Foundation for Public Code Infrastructure, noted that even if the software is built on open source packages, it may contain layers of proprietary technology. “We think that it’s an absolute necessity of public sector governance to have technological sovereignty, so that policymakers can shape the function of public software just like they can shape legally formulated policies,” he said.

Giving a hypothetical example of how software can curb government policies, Ainali said that in a democracy, a majority of citizens may agree that car parking fees should be higher at weekends to discourage people from driving into the city at that time. “That’s what people say they want,” he said.

The local government gets the majority to push through the bureaucracy to make the policy change, but Ainali said that when they ask the provider of the parking software to enable the change in their software, they are told it’s out of scope for their business.

Looking at a real example, Ainali said: “Two years ago in the Netherlands, the parliament decided that it wanted to remove value-added tax on fruits and vegetables to promote a more healthy lifestyle.”

The legislative change was sent to the tax authority, which tried to put zero in the relevant VAT field of the tax software it uses. “The software didn’t accept it,” he said. “It was proprietary software and it wasn’t very easy for [the tax authority] to get this change through. This should be a no-brainer. The software that public organisations use must be able to reflect the values that society expects.” 

Open collaboration

While every city evolves the software they need in very different ways, Ainali believes there are plenty of opportunities to collaborate. “There are some recurring design patterns and emerging needs,” he said.

While cities build out digital infrastructure, even where open technologies are used, he pointed out that there is little opportunity for reuse. “We need to collaborate here because there’s enormous potential,” said Ainali.

As an example, he said the Netherlands has about 340 municipalities. “Imagine if they all collaborated on the same code base,” he said, explaining that there would be potential savings in terms of coding, expertise and user experience. If cities across Europe also joined in, there would be thousands of public sector organisations that could benefit, leading to potentially the largest collaborative open source code base to date.

Open source offers a big opportunity in government to share know-how and code, to speed up delivery and lower the cost of building and deploying digitally enabled government initiatives.

Mike Schwartz, founder of Gluu, used his presentation to talk about digital public infrastructure. Schwartz is CEO of the Linux Foundation Janssen Project, an open source enterprise digital identity platform recognised as a “digital public good”.

While such initiatives are designed to help poorer countries build out technology infrastructure cost-effectively, such projects have the potential to benefit richer nations, he said, adding: “In the European Union, we’re trying to figure out digital identity and wallets. I feel Western countries are still in a learning phase.”

Schwartz noted that the government’s role is to govern, not operate. This means governments are unlikely to have domain expertise to implement and deploy digital public infrastructure. He said that an ecosystem of local technology partners are needed, especially in areas such as deployment using the software.

When asked whether offering code templates would help public sector bodies to benefit from collaborative efforts, he said: “I’m very sceptical of the idea that we’re going to give boilerplates to public sector organisations to implement in every country.”

Schwartz said public sector bodies have to manage legacy code and technical debt. “Giving them templates isn’t going to help,” he added. Instead, Schwartz said public sector organisations need to be provided with high-level guidance on the standards they should use and best practices. 

Beyond layers of technical debt, the challenge richer countries face is the way government procurement is run, making it impossible for open source projects to bid.

Although an organisation like the UN’s Digital Public Goods Association facilitates the discovery and deployment of open source technologies, Schwartz said the tender process favours large IT providers and system integrators. “We can’t forget the concerns of the government as an enterprise customer are legitimate,” he said. “They need to know that they’re going to get support for five to 10 years if a software emergency happens. They need the terms and conditions and the contract in order to run the business of government.”

However, while government procurement favours big business, Schwartz said: “Sometimes there needs to be more flexibility in these bids to enable small companies to bid.”

While the two presentations offered delegates an opportunity to see how the public could collaborate and build sophisticated systems by using open source to support public policy, there are numerous barriers. But there is one big takeaway: the public sector needs a strategy for technical sovereignty, to avoid being tied into highly restrictive IT contracts.

Read more on Open source software


NetApp cloud storage evolving for stateful K8s, AI

TimMcCarthy

By: Tim McCarthy


AWS public cloud advocate talks cloud spend, ChatGPT and ESG

TimMcCarthy

By: Tim McCarthy


CIO interview: David Schwartz, vice-president, PepsiCo Labs

MarkSamuels

By: Mark Samuels


NetApp launches BlueXP as single console across on-prem and cloud

AntonyAdshead

By: Antony Adshead

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Computer Weekly – https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366569099/The-challenges-of-open-source-in-government

Tags: challengessourcetechnology
Previous Post

BCS report shows lack of improvement in tech diversity

Next Post

Security Think Tank: The phishing forecast for 2024

Jacobson earns program’s first medal at U23 World Championships – nmuwildcats.com

Jacobson Breaks New Ground with Program’s First Medal at U23 World Championships

October 22, 2025
AHLA: Hotels generate $7B for Denver economy – Hotel Management

Hotels Drive Denver’s Economy to Soar by $7 Billion

October 22, 2025
AMC brings first new Dolby Experience to Gwinnett since 2017 – Wyoming News Now

AMC Launches First New Dolby Experience in Gwinnett Since 2017

October 22, 2025
UCare, other carriers dropping Medicare Advantage Plans, leaving 200K Minnesota seniors without health insurance – CBS News

UCare, other carriers dropping Medicare Advantage Plans, leaving 200K Minnesota seniors without health insurance – CBS News

October 22, 2025
With Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire, Some Pro-Palestinian Protesters Look Back at Their Movement, Ruefully – The New York Times

With Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire, Some Pro-Palestinian Protesters Look Back at Their Movement, Ruefully – The New York Times

October 21, 2025
Fusobacterium nucleatum : ecology, pathogenesis and clinical implications – Nature

Unveiling Fusobacterium nucleatum: Exploring Its Ecology, Disease Connections, and Health Impact

October 21, 2025
Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code – Science | AAAS

Escherichia coli Engineered with a Revolutionary 57-Codon Genetic Code

October 21, 2025
LOCALIZE IT: Over 420 anti-science bills target public health protections in statehouses across US – newspressnow.com

More Than 420 Anti-Science Bills Jeopardize Public Health Across the Nation

October 21, 2025
Halloween not your thing? Here’s when Christmas at the Newport mansions will start. – The Providence Journal

Not a Halloween Fan? Find Out When Christmas Magic Begins at the Newport Mansions!

October 21, 2025
Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

October 21, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (879)
  • Economy (901)
  • Entertainment (21,772)
  • General (17,729)
  • Health (9,942)
  • Lifestyle (913)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (901)
  • Politics (911)
  • Science (16,111)
  • Sports (21,400)
  • Technology (15,880)
  • World (884)

Recent News

Jacobson earns program’s first medal at U23 World Championships – nmuwildcats.com

Jacobson Breaks New Ground with Program’s First Medal at U23 World Championships

October 22, 2025
AHLA: Hotels generate $7B for Denver economy – Hotel Management

Hotels Drive Denver’s Economy to Soar by $7 Billion

October 22, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version