Association: Administration must convert its IT completely to open source

The Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) is calling on a future German government to set "concrete and ambitious goals for the widespread use" of free software in public authorities and to implement them in view of the federal elections scheduled in a year's time.

In a paper published on Wednesday, the OSBA proposes 38 measures, including the "complete conversion of public administration IT" to open source "until the current framework agreements with large proprietary providers" such as Microsoft expire. This would allow the public sector to gain "digital sovereignty, options for action and leeway" while at the same time reducing existing dependencies and the associated pain points.

The state should shape

"The successful digitalization of public administration can only succeed if the state is able to exercise control over and shape its digital infrastructures and can also switch between providers," emphasizes the OSBA. Open source software meets these requirements and is therefore "the decisive digitalization driver" for the economy as well.

According to the paper, the future German government should commit to promoting open and transparent standards and interfaces and, together with the IT Planning Council, make them binding. Manufacturers of existing special programs should be obliged to use open standards. The ongoing modernization of registers should be used to "anchor open source in the administration".

Turning the screw on procurement and public procurement law

From 2025, the federal government should invest at least 20 percent of its expenditure on software and cloud services in open source software, and from 2035 only open source should be permitted. In line with the principle of "public money, public code", the government should ensure that the resulting software is published under an open source license, particularly in the case of adaptations and new developments.

The OSBA also wants procurement and public procurement law to be geared towards free software. The government should also set up at least one open source cloud, which could be based on the Sovereign Cloud Stack, for example. Binding minimum requirements for the use of cloud services that focus on safeguarding digital sovereignty are also necessary.

(anw)