After LiMux shutdown: Munich launches first open source sabbatical
Munich has launched a new model to promote free software. The city is the first to support the developer of the Integreat platform for migrants.
SPD city councillor Lars Mentrup (right) with Sven Seeberg, who will continue to develop the Integreat app.
(Image: SPD/Volt (Anton Fitz))
The City of Munich has reported further progress in its plan to strengthen free software. The "sabbatical program" has now been filled for the first time. The new model is intended to enable professionally qualified developers to advance their own open source projects and work closely with the city administration. Sven Seeberg will receive this scholarship in the first half of 2025. Over the next few months, the programmer intends to further develop the Integreat app within this framework. This is a platform for refugees and migrants in Germany.
The Augsburg-based association TĂĽr an TĂĽr is behind Integreat. The team wants to use the solution to promote "communication and understanding across language barriers". Planned new functions focus on multilingualism based on artificial intelligence (AI), a new focus on a broader migrant target group and improving the trustworthiness of digital information. The complete program and source code of the app is freely available and is provided under an open source license (MIT). Over the past eight years, TĂĽr an TĂĽr has successfully implemented Integreat together with over 100 cities and districts.
Seeberg now wants to use the financial support from Munich to develop a chat service that supports immigrant users with questions. In general, developers are released from other obligations as part of the sabbatical. This allows them to work specifically on open source projects that benefit the city and the general public. There is no obligation to follow instructions. For the time being, 200,000 euros are available for the entire scholarship program. As a rule, two relevant short-term positions can be filled each year.
Public Money, Public Code initiative takes effect
With the sabbatical, "we are sending out a strong signal", says Lars Mentrup, IT spokesperson for the SPD/Volt parliamentary group on Munich City Council, who is delighted with the first appointment. "Munich not only wants to use open source, but also actively contribute to the community." This strengthens digital sovereignty and ultimately benefits everyone, emphasized the Social Democrat, adding: "If software is developed with taxpayers' money, it should also benefit the general public." Munich had generally resolved to make a greater contribution to the further development of free software.
Following the highly controversial end of the Linux-based desktop project LiMux, which was brought about by the CSU and SPD, the current green-red coalition launched a 5-point plan for open source in 2020. After delays and complaints about resistance in the IT department, it set up a lead "Open Source Program Office" (OSPO) under a new head at the beginning of 2024, with which the scholarship holders are also to cooperate closely. The OSPO is generally tasked with screening projects with free software that could be of interest to Munich, maintaining contact with the community, advising the administration on software procurement and clarifying legal issues. Self-developed software is to be made publicly accessible.
In the Bavarian capital, the Green-Red government also wants to bring the principle of "public money, public code" to life. The corresponding campaign states that programs financed with taxpayers' money must be free and reusable for the administration. The creators of Integreat subscribe to this approach. According to Mentrup, the sabbatical thus contributes to the goal of this initiative, which aims to reduce dependencies on large software manufacturers such as Microsoft, SAP & Co.
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