Community of Practice for Open Source Practitioners in the Irish Public Service
Open Ireland Network (OIN) is implementing a “Community of Practice” for open source (OS) practitioners in the Irish public service. This community aims to foster a collaborative environment where government professionals can share knowledge, tools, best practices, and innovation related to OS technologies. This community will also serve as a hub for learning, networking, and enabling the responsible adoption of OS solutions and practices to improve government services and operations. OIN and the Irish government have been collaborating from 2021 until today on raising OS awareness amongst public servants in Ireland, including through events.
At Open Ireland Network, we aim to acknowledge the great open source work already happening in Ireland and to bring individuals from industry, government, and academia together to amplify and grow that success. By working together, we can channel collaboration into real-world impact. It’s about better enabling shared efforts to build solutions that serve Ireland and strengthen the global open source community - Michael Meagher, Director and Organiser, and Clare Dillon, Co-founder and Organiser of OIN
What is the Open Ireland Network?
The Network is a volunteer-driven initiative, a community of individuals and organisations dedicated to advancing the open ecosystem in Ireland. This ecosystem spans OS software, InnerSource (a software development strategy that applies open source practices to proprietary code), open hardware, open data, open science, and open innovation.
A big highlight for the Network came in February 2025 when we hosted Ireland’s first national Open Source Innovation Summit. More than 250 innovation leaders and stakeholders from Ireland and abroad representing business, government, and academia took part, showcasing how open source strategies can unlock Ireland’s potential and keep us globally competitive. - Michael Meagher & Clare Dillon
The Network operates with the support of Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet, a Government-backed business-support network, connecting teams and individuals from small and large companies to subsidise and train them in the latest technologies that are driving business development.
OIN is not designed to be the place where software is developed, but we do aim to support and help initiate collaborative work between our members. We do this by identifying and addressing systemic blocking issues. Examples are the skills gap report we delivered for Skillsnet Ireland and the work we did to support and influence university open source policies and guidelines with the support of the National Open Research Forum - Michael Meagher & Clare Dillon
What are the goals of the OIN’s Community of Practice and how will they achieve them?
The Community of Practice for Open Source in Public Service focuses on these goals:
- Connect: Achieved by organising meetups and events for knowledge sharing, collaboration, and networking.
- Learn: Achieved by fostering forums to discuss best practices, emerging trends, and governance in open source.
- Create: Achieved by developing accessible resources, guidelines, and repositories to improve consistency and efficiency.
- Showcase: Achieved by promoting pilot projects demonstrating open source benefits to encourage adoption.
- Engage: Achieved by Collaborating with local and global open source communities to share ideas and address common challenges.
Ireland lacks a formal national open source policy, but the Irish government supports open source software. Barry Lowry, Irish government CIO, highlighted its potential to simplify travel, health, and education while promoting collaboration, security, and transparency, fostering innovation, talent to strengthen Ireland's digital reputation and co-create trust in public sector technologies. - Michael Meagher & Clare Dillon
To learn more about OIN’s efforts in exploring global trends in open source, assessing its impact within universities, highlighting its pivotal role in open research, fostering innovation and partnerships across industries like financial services, and hosting events on open source AI, click on the attached links and the Network’s YouTube channel.
A sincere thank you to Michael Meagher, Director and Organiser, and Clare Dillon, Co-founder and Organiser of OIN, for their invaluable contributions.
Sources:
https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/ireland-2024-country-report
https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/open-source-lets-irish-taxes
https://openirelandnetwork.com/
Logo picture taken by the Open Ireland Network website
Main text picture taken by Wikipedia
