[PublicPolicy] Open Sourcing Government Code

[Alexander Sander]

Hi Shimon, hi all,

I am Alex, also working for FSFE.


>> Why should a government open source their code?
> 
> That's a question we received a lot during the years. Meanwhile as a
> first step we often use this short 3:37 minute video on
> https://publiccode.eu/#about available in English, French, German,
> Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and we would love to have more
> languages. (The Open Letter there is also supported by many
> organisations whom I suspect here on the list
> https://publiccode.eu/openletter/ .)
> 
> After this initial argumentation about the "why" we often use the
> brochure: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure (in English,
> German, Czech, and Brazilian Portuguese) providing some more background
> about software freedom, some examples, etc. 
> 

As the coordinator of this campaign I would like to give you a little
more background information.

This campaign started two and half year ago with our website
publiccode.eu and an open letter. We want legislation requiring that
publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made
publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it
is public money, it should be public code as well.
Until now, more than 28.000 individuals and more than 190 organisation
signed our open letter. Also three administrations signed: Barcelona,
Parliament of Asturias and Samtgemeinde Elbmarch. Also more and more
administrations mention our demand in policy papers and parliaments vote
in favour of Public Money, Public Code.

Also we have created a bunch of activities for the Free Software
community to help. If you want to learn more about the campaign
framework you can watch a talk by Matthias and Bonnie [1]

Also, if you haven't done yet, please feel free to add your signature
and spread the word.


Best

Alex



[1] https://fahrplan.chaos-west.de/36c3/talk/LF3YYH/

-- 
Alexander Sander - EU Public Policy Programme Manager
Free Software Foundation Europe
Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-157 923 472 12
Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030  |   (fsfe.org/join)