The free state of Thuringia in Germany presented the result of its collaboration with the team behind OpenTalk, an open source video conferencing tool. During the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage conference, OpenTalk CEO Peer Heinlein and Christian Stötzer (Head of Department at the Thuringian Ministry of Finance) gave a joint presentation on the subject. Peer Heinlein discussed in detail the approach to the solution development and the measures that facilitated the public-private collaboration to facilitate the adoption of this solution. 

The free state of Thuringia has already shown its support for open source projects. One example is by the creation of its open source award in 2019, winners of which include edu sharing, in.RET and IG Papiergraben. Another example is the state’s parliament’s adoption of a rule on public procurement, also in 2019, which defined open source as “software solutions whose source code is publicly accessible and whose licences do not restrict their use, distribution, and modification.”  In the Thuringian Public Procurement Act (Thüringer Vergabegesetz), a preference has been given to open source software when technically possible and economical. 

OpenTalk recently shared its code under the EUPL on the German public administration open source repository OpenCoDE.de. This follows a total redesign of the solution to meet required confidentiality and security requirements. The presentation of OpenTalk CEO shows more of the functionalities developed specifically for the use of the solution by public administration (legal compliance, scalability…).