Germany's Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) and Vitako, a industry association for local government ICT providers in the country, are calling on the government to start a national repository for the source code of open source software built by and for the country’s public services. The groups say the repository will make it much easier to share and reuse software, pool resources, and improve IT security.

Open source software is key for governments’ digital sovereignty, they add.

“Such a repository can significantly speed up the digitalisation of public services,” the OSBA and Vitako said in a statement last Thursday.

The two presented an outline for such a code repository. Advantages for public services include reducing IT vendor lock-in, increasing technological sovereignty, improving IT security, faster innovation, and greater flexibility. The outline was drafted in a series of meetings that involved open source advocy groups, IT service contractors, and think tanks.

A flourishing ecosystem

A central code repository will also help to make sure that software used by public services complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the group says, hinting that many software suppliers currently do not.

The two industry groups expect that such a repository will increase the use of open source solutions in Germany’s public services. It will enable a more European economic perspective, Vitako and the OSBA write. “There is a lively, medium-sized digital sector in Europe,” they write, “but there is a fundamental problem with digital sovereignty. The lack of digital innovation allows the dominance of and dependence on a few, especially American and Asian corporations, and their data-driven business models.”

This in turn has led to little pressure to innovate, and sub-optimal support for public service tasks, causing many e-government projects to fail over the past two decades, the groups write. “The open source software market is exactly the opposite: maximum openness and a lively exchange in worldwide communities create a flourishing ecosystem that has already become part of service-oriented business models outside of public services.”

Open source software provides the European digital economy the chance to act together and to create an European ecosystem, the report explains.  This, it adds, will lead to a vigorous competitive market, giving public services a great choice in products and services that achieve digital sovereignty.

The OSBA represents some 160 companies. Vitako represents some 53 IT service providers, datacentres and software companies in Germany.

More information:

OSBA/Vitako press release (in German)
OSBA/Vitako repository concept in German, PDF)