This page contains information about events organised by OSOR on the use and development of open source software, open source policies in Europe, and sustainability of open source communities in the European public sector.
Each event description includes a summary and links to presentations and recordings when available.
If you are organising or know of any events that could be of interest to OSOR, please contact us at EU-OSOR@ec.europa.eu.
We also invite you to share success stories with us. Have you been involved in a public sector open source project or helped to develop/maintain an open source community in a public sector body? We want to hear from you!
Upcoming OSOR Events
There are currently no OSOR events scheduled. Stay tuned for new updates!
OSOR Events of 2025
Key takeaways: OSOR Webinar on the Interoperable Europe Act (IEA)
Key Takeaways: OSOR Workshop on Public Procurement of OSS
On 21 November 2023, OSOR held its 15th anniversary celebration.
At the conference, we had a blast honouring the people who’ve been driving open source in Europe's public services. The OSOR Awards ceremony was a highlight, giving a well-deserved shout-out to amazing open source solutions and initiatives that have truly made a mark.
Before the awards, participants had the chance to be part of a series of insightful discussions and proposals revolving around the pivotal role of open source in achieving the objectives outlined in the Interoperable Europe Act.
To find out more about the awards, click here.
Other Events
2026
The Open Source Observatory took part in FOSS Backstage 2026 to present its Multiple-Case Study on Open Source Adoption and Reuse in European Local Governments, published the previous year. During the session, the audience learned about three key collaboration archetypes highlighted in the report and learned how cities are overcoming challenges such as conservative procurement practices, limited technical capacity, and vendor lock-in through innovative governance models and cross-border partnerships. The presentation recording is available here.
Photo: Jan Michalko / FOSS Backstage
2025
The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) presented findings from an in-depth study of five mature cases where local governments have adopted, developed, and collaborated on open source software.
By 2030, the Interoperable Europe Act aims for all key public digital services in EU member states to be interoperable, enabling seamless cross-border information exchange. Open source software is a key tool and lever for achieving the ambitious yet critical goals. Significant investment, guidance, and collaboration will be needed to ensure the European public sector sphere can effectively adopt and sustain open source solutions.
The presentation attracted IT professionals, and open source experts, providing a platform for discussion on digital governance.
The event's presentation can be found here.
The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) presented its report on progress and trends in national open source policies and legal frameworks at the EGOV2025 conference in Krems, Austria. The presentation offered a qualitative analysis of open source policies across 15 European and non-European countries, focusing on the growing role of open source technologies in the public sector for digital sovereignty, data privacy, and control over digital infrastructures. The report highlighted how cities, regions, and municipalities are driving open source adoption, alongside the emergence of policy mechanisms such as Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs).
The presentation attracted IT professionals, and open source experts, providing a platform for discussion on digital governance.
The event's presentation can be found here.
The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) presented its report on progress and trends in national open source policies and legal frameworks at DORS/CLUC in Croatia. The presentation offered a qualitative analysis of open source policies across 15 European and non-European countries, focusing on the growing role of open source technologies in the public sector for digital sovereignty, data privacy, and control over digital infrastructures. The report highlighted how cities, regions, and municipalities are driving open source adoption, alongside the emergence of policy mechanisms such as Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs).
The presentation attracted IT professionals, and open source experts, providing a platform for discussion on digital governance.
The event's presentation can be found here.
The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) presented its report on progress and trends in national open source policies and legal frameworks at FOSS Backstage. The presentation offered a qualitative analysis of open source policies across 15 European and non-European countries, focusing on the growing role of open source technologies in the public sector for digital sovereignty, data privacy, and control over digital infrastructures. The report highlighted how cities, regions, and municipalities are driving open source adoption, alongside the emergence of policy mechanisms such as Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs).
The presentation attracted IT professionals, and open source experts, providing a platform for discussion on digital governance.
The event's presentation and recording can be found on the website of FOSS Backstage.
The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) showcased its latest initiative, the OSOR Handbook - a practical guide designed to support public administrations in adopting and effectively using open source software. Following the publication of the handbook's initial version in early 2024, a community consultation was launched to gather insights and feedback from the OSOR network. This process informed a revised edition of the handbook, highlighting the diverse needs of public administrations across Europe. These knowledge-sharing efforts are essential to foster collaboration among governments, as they help provide the necessary competences for government to collaborate.
The presentation attracted policy makers, IT professionals, and open source experts, providing a platform for discussion on digital governance.
The event's presentation can be found here.
2024
The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) organised a collaborative workshop on “Creating a Handbook for Public Sector OSS Implementers”. The event aimed to gather input from stakeholders to develop practical guidance for public administrations adopting and managing open-source software. Participants discussed challenges, shared experiences, and contributed ideas to shape the content of the upcoming handbook.
The workshop attracted a diverse audience of IT managers, policy makers, and open-source experts, providing a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration.
The event’s presentation can be found here.
The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR) presented its report on progress and trends in national open source policies and legal frameworks at the LibreOffice and Open Source Conference 2024 in Luxembourg. The presentation offered a qualitative analysis of open source policies across 15 European and non-European countries, focusing on the growing role of open source technologies in the public sector for digital sovereignty, data privacy, and control over digital infrastructures. The report highlighted how cities, regions, and municipalities are driving open source adoption, alongside the emergence of policy mechanisms such as Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs).
The presentation attracted IT professionals, and open source experts, providing a platform for discussion on digital governance.
The event's presentation can be found here.
2023
Description: The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) organised its third and last webinar on "Mapping the Public Sector's needs". The event, which took place from 1 to 3pm CET stemmed from input gathered in an expert workshop that took place in July, shining a spotlight on lessons learned throughout years of implementing open source in the public sector by officials and developers from diverse parts of Europe and public service organisations.
This last webinar gathered a wide audience which had the chance to learn about the findings and practical experience of our three speakers
The event's presentation can be found here.
Description: The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) organised its second of three webinar on "Mapping the Public Sector's needs". The event, which took place from 1 to 3pm CET aimed to share the results of our second workshop which gathered public and private sector participants on understanding the needs of the public sector when using open source.
This second webinar reunited previous participants and new attendees. There they had the chance to learn and exchange about two presentations held by open source actors involved with the public sector at different levels.
The event's presentation can be found here.
Description: The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) organised its first of three webinar on "Policy & Strategy Aspects of OSS in Public Administration". The event, which took place from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM CET, aimed to share valuable insights gathered from dialogues with thirty local experts on various challenges and solutions encountered in the field of open source software adoption in public administration. The webinar attracted a diverse audience and provided a platform for knowledge exchange among professionals involved in IT policy and decision-making within the public sector.
The event's presentation can be found here.
Description: Ciarán O'Riordan presented OSOR's main projects for 2023, the wealth of resources that already exists on the OSOR website, some exerpts of the proposed Interoperable Europe Act and and overview of the utility and the progress being made by the EUPL.
The workshop was organised under the Chatham House Rule.
Description: The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) Team presented the Interoperable Europe Act (IEA) and its implications for the free and open source software ecosystem. The Act, which the European Commission adopted as a proposal for a regulation in November 2022, aims to reinforce the cross-border interoperability of the public sector in the EU. Practically, it aims to facilitate “the co-creation of an ecosystem of interoperability solutions across the EU”.
The event recordings have been published and you can find the OSOR presentation video in the session description.
Description: Ciarán O'Riordan from the OSOR team presented the observatory. He discussed the upcoming series of workshops and webinars as well as the planned handbook on the topic of the procedural and policy aspects of using free software in public administration.
As a part of the session, O'Riordan also presented overall goals and use cases of the Interoperable Europe Act along with the legislative context. This lead into a look at certain details of the text, namely, the clause on share and reuse (article 4), the definition of "open source licence" (article 8(2)(c)), and interaction with the EUPL.
The event recordings have been published and you can find the OSOR presentation video in the session description.
2022 and before
Description: On 23 May, the OSOR community joined the webinar on public procurement of open source software. During the event, an overview of the soon-to-be-published updated Guidelines on Public Procurement of Open Source Software was provided, followed by presentations by Johan Linåker, senior researcher at the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), Rasmus Frey, Head of Secretariat at OS2 (Denmark), and Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz, a legal expert and one of the authors of the original Guidelines on Public Procurement of Open Source Software. See the recording of the event and supporting presentation here. |
On 30 November, the OSOR community participated in the webinar on enabling the sharing and reuse with open source. During the event, Kristo Vaher, Chief of Technology for the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, and Matthieu Faure, open source project manager at Adullact (French organisation of local governments), discussed how open source solutions have been shared and reused by public administrations at the national and local levels. See the recording of the event and supporting presentation here. |
On 5 August, the OSOR community joined the webinar on building cross-administration collaboration on open source software (OSS) projects. During the event, Jacco Brouwer, community manager at the Association of Dutch Municiplaities, and Rasmus Frey, Head of Secretariat at OS2, a Public Digitalisation Network uniting public members and affiliated private companies, shared their experiences in fostering collaboration on open source between local public administrations in the Netherlands and in Denmark. See the recording of the event and supporting presentation here. |
On 29 June, the OSOR community got together to discuss how public administrations can adapt to open source software (OSS) development culture. Organised as part of OSOR’s webinar series on public administrations’ journey towards the adoption of OSS, the webinar was an opportunity to hear from two speakers, Stig B. Dørmænen, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency and Philippe Bareille, open source officer at the City of Paris and project manager of Lutece. See the recording of the event and supporting presentation here. |
OW2 is an independent and global open source software community and a non-profit organisation, open to companies, public institutions, academics, and individuals. The organisation aims to promote the development of open source software and to foster a vibrant community and business ecosystem in Europe and worldwide. OW2con is the annual event of the OW2 community, now in its 10th year, bringing together technology experts, software architects, IT developers, project managers and decision-makers from all around the world. On 23 June, the OSOR team presented the "Guidelines for Sustainable Open Source Communities in the Public Sector", a practical tool that can be used by public sector officials interested in establishing or joining open source communities, or by members of such communities. See OSOR's presentation here. |
Between 21-22 June, the 18th edition of the Open and User Innovation (OUI) Conference was held. Organized by the Open & User Innovation Society since 2002, the OUI Conference brings together about 300 researchers from around the world to exchange recent research in open innovation, user innovation, open source/open hardware, collaborative innovation, citizen/free innovation, open innovation policies, and related topics. On 22 June, the OSOR team presented an academic paper on the Guidelines for Sustainable Open Source Communities in the Public Sector. See the Book of Abstracts from the OUI Conference here. |
Public administrations are not alone in their efforts to build sustainable and thriving OSS communities within the public sector. They can find support in already existing OSS communities by relying on their knowledge and experience for guidance. However, the process might be confusing and the first steps of establishing a successful collaboration may seem unclear. At this webinar, participants had the chance to hear from two guest speakers, namely the Co-founder of CivicTech România and Citizen Next, Cristina Moga, and the co-founder of the Decidim project, Arnau Monterde. They shared their own experiences on the practical steps to build up a community, the common roadblocks that can hinder the success of the project and ways to avoid them. Additionally, the webinar shed some light on how to best foster the collaboration between public administration and OSS communities thus creating a local environment that nurtures OSS adoption and development within the public sector. See the summary of the webinar here. |
This interactive session was an opportunity to exchange views on what community sustainability means. We discussed good practices and gathered participants’ needs when it comes to OSS community health and sustainability. We also had the chance to gather useful tips on community sustainability and discuss the experience of participants with colleagues from the public sector and open source enthusiasts. These serveed as input in updating OSOR’s Guidelines for creating sustainable open source communities. Koos Steenbergen, Open Source Project Manager (Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations of the Netherlands) and Johan Linåker, researcher (Lund University), shared with us their insights on the sustainability of public sector OSS communities and the good practices to overcome the challenges that may get in the way of the adoption of OSS by public administrations. See the summary of the webinar here. |
DigitALL was a three-day conference organised by the European Commission to mark the closing of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital and the Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens (ISA²) programmes. Against the backdrop of EU public administrations increasingly looking to base their services on open source software, the OSOR team presented how OSOR supports the adoption of open source software within public administrations. The presentation focussed on EU programmes and actions promoting the uptake and development of open source, and how public administrations can make the most of the resources available on OSOR. The OSOR team also presented the OSOR Knowledge Centre and its latest resources. See the summary of the topic of open source at DigitALL here. |
The Latvian Open Technologies Association (LATA) hosted their 14th Annual Conference titled “How to Stay Open in the New Era”. The event featured a broad variety of speakers presenting diverse topics from the open technologies’ world and the presentation of the annual LATA awards. See the recording of OSOR's presentation here. |
EOLE is an international event which aims at encouraging the mutualization and dissemination of legal knowledge related to open licences, as well as the developement and promotion of good practices.. The event is organized as a conference cycle and is coordinated every year with a focus on a different subject matter. This session was focussed on open source governance within public administrations and featured a variety of speakers. The OSOR Team presented its work on the Country Intelligence Reports, with a particular focus on the findings in relation to the governance of open source software across Europe. See the recording of OSOR's presentation here. |