OSOR has published an update to the Austria Country Intelligence report, highlighting recent trends and developments in the use of open source software (OSS) in the country. You can find the report here and the factsheet here.

The updated report outlines the evolution of OSS adoption in the Austrian public sector since 2020. One of the key developments in the past year was the establishment of a working group within the Chief Digital Officer Task Force in 2022. This group provides support and recommendations on the use of OSS in the federal public administration. The Austrian government has been actively promoting OSS through the Digital Austria Act (2023), which encourages its adoption, and has recently published Guidelines on the Use of OSS to further support its implementation in public administrations.

Austria benefits from a strong network of OSS stakeholders, with OSSBIG leading several projects in collaboration with the federal government. Its involvement with public administration has been instrumental in advancing OSS in the country. Additionally, local administrations, such as the City of Vienna, continue to embrace OSS and have even created an open source repository to share their work. Open source also plays a crucial role in regional and international cooperation, with initiatives such as the Open Source Innovation Hubs and a newly launched collaboration on OpenDesk, led by Germany’s ZenDiS agency.

Overall, Austria is making significant progress in its use of OSS, demonstrating an increasingly mature and strategic approach to developing and participating in open source projects at the federal, local, and international levels.