This is the second of a series of five studies exploring the sustainability of open source software communities in the public sector.
INTRODUCTION
Lutece is a free and open source portal engine that allows users to quickly create a dynamic website or web application. Part operating system and part content management system (CMS), the source code helps users to easily create and maintain custom websites and applications, which can then be further enhanced with additional functional modules (plug-ins) to add supplementary features adapted to the needs of the users.
Lutece was launched in 2001 as an initiative of the City of Paris with the aim of supplying each Parisian district with a tailored CMS too to manage their own websites. As a project launched by the public sector, the software is maintained and developed within the municipal government of Paris. Over time, the use of Lutece has increased. It is now used by national organisations and for the provision of multiple digital services in the city. The two decade-long success of Lutece can be partly attributed to the stability of the JAVA-based structure that the software was built on, thus ensuring its sustainability of the years.
To learn more about the sustainability of Lutece, OSOR spoke to the Head of Software Engineering and Development for the City of Paris, Pierre Levy, who has overseen Lutece’s development since its inception, as well as Lutece’s Technical Project Manager, Philippe Bareille.
COMMUNITY AT A GLANCE
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Name |
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Brief description |
Open source portal engine designed by the City of Paris that allows users to quickly create a dynamic website or web application |
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Starting date of the project |
2001 |
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User community |
The main user is the City of Paris, with dozens of websites built on Lutece. The software has also been adopted in the cities of Lyon, Marseille and Mont-de-Marsan as well as in over 50 medium and large French organisations. |
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Developer community |
300 contributors in Paris since the inception 100 active contributors currently |
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Software output |
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Licensing |
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Funding |
Municipal budget from the City of Paris |
PROJECT OUTPUT
In the early 2000’s, the City of Paris wanted to leverage Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide its citizens with a set of website and online applications supporting public services. In 2001, a portal engine that allows users to quickly create a dynamic website or web application was developed and thus, Lutece was born. Lutece was built using JAVA and relies on various databases in MySQL, MaraDB, and PostgreSQL. The core CMS of Lutece helps public administrations to easily set up a website with a built-in search engine, workflows and dynamic content. It can then be complemented with any of the numerous ready-to-use plug-ins in order to deliver more complex services to meet users’ needs. In 2002, Lutece expanded its functionalities on newly launched websites for all the Parisian districts. These new websites allowed the districts to share information with local residents through a user-friendly interface that didn’t require administrators to have strong technical skills. Over time, the focus of Lutece has shifted from content management to the development of applications and digital services fostering interactions with citizens. Today, the City of Paris and its districts have deployed dozens of websites and applications using Lutece to provide digital public services, such as;
- Democratic Participation: Lutece has enabled the launch of a participatory budgeting platform to allocate 5% of the City of Paris’ budget. It also released a dedicated plug-in for public consultations.
- Information and communication: As a CMS, Lutece allows municipalities to publish information for citizens on topics of interest, such as urban planning, voting or distance learning.
- Reporting urban issues: Lutece makes it easier for citizens to report issues in their neighbourhoods, such as an abnormal street disturbance, or requests for disposal of bulky items.
- Appointments and applications: Multiple websites have been launched, powered by Lutece, to digitalize appointment scheduling and application submissions, such as registering for day-care or to book an appointment to get a parking vignette.
Despite the successful adoption of Lutece in Paris, it has been used only in a few other cities across France, including Lyon, Marseille and Mont-de-Marsan. Pierre explained that the slow dissemination of Lutece stems from the difficulty of adapting it to existing IT infrastructures, which are often built on different programming languages that makes them reluctant to engage such work of combining many technologies. Additionally, software dissemination in other cities is not the core focus of the Lutece team; any growth that has occurred in the Lutece user base over the last two decades has been fully organic.
Since its inception, Lutece has been a project of the City of Paris. The funding stems exclusively from the city budget, however, Pierre and Philippe expressed their wish to attract external sources of funding in the future. Over the years, there have been approximately 300 contributors to Lutece, including the team working for the City of Paris but also private contractors from several IT companies. The City of Lyon is a notable contributor, having developed an additional plug-in that will be reused in Paris.
TIMELINE
The continued usage and development of Lutece in French administrations and organisations since its inception in 2001 are testament to the success of this public sector open source project. Over the years, the software has been developed to include additional plugins and functionalities to respond to any need that public administrations might have. According to Pierre and Philippe, Lutece has been sustainable for many years now and this sustainability can be attributed to three key elements:
- Technological Maturity: The stable JAVA-based structure on which Lutece is developed has proven to be long-lasting and reliable. The sustainability of open source software in public administrations is dependent on mature and long-lasting technologies that do not require extensive revision and reworking of the source code when new technological trends emerge.
- Community Governance: With regards to the governance, two key aspects are highlighted as being crucial for sustainability. First, the size of the team needs to remain stable in order to ensure the sustainability of a community. For Lutece, most contributors are paid, either in the role of public servants or as private contractors. Second, motivated and inspiring leaders with a strong belief in the purpose of the project are essential. Technical management should not be handled by privately-contracted systems integrators, who may have a narrow, short-term vision of the project’s development. While Lutece’s inception stems from a political initiative, the team in charge of its technical development has remained a constant since its inception.
- External Contributions: The final element that has helped Lutece remain sustainable is the contribution and help that the community receives. Lutece is being assisted by the Bloomberg Philanthropies in order to promote their software and communicate more effectively. They are also members of the OW2 consortium, the Adullact association, and the April association.
LESSONS LEARNED
Aside from the aforementioned importance of technological maturity and stable community governance, Pierre and Philippe had additional insights to share regarding the lessons they have learned in relation to the development and implementation of open source software in the public sector.
The first insight is directly linked to the importance of community governance and relates to the need to build an inspired and motivated community. The community of developers who contributed to Lutece throughout the years are mainly paid contractors from private IT companies. It has proven difficult to inspire these contractors to work towards long-term goals, even if the core team from the municipality has been motivated since the beginning. Attracting new developers to join the Lutece community has also been difficult. Pierre and Philippe identified two key elements negatively impacting Lutece’s attractiveness: (1) the JAVA framework is not as appealing to the younger generation of developers as trendy technologies learnt in schools and (2) they believe that the public sector is less attractive to developers (part of it because less paid and technology is chosen for sustainability reasons rather than its wow-effect) than the private sector where the goal is mainly focused on making profit.
Secondly, Pierre highlights the need for the software to be built on a long lasting and adaptable technology. Indeed, the JAVA-based structure that allowed Lutece to remain sustainable for almost 20 years has also proven to be a challenge for the developers. As new plug-ins and websites were developed, it became necessary to follow leading technologies and adapt to market evolutions while simultaneously ensuring compatibility with the existing JAVA framework.
Finally, Pierre and Philippe stressed the importance for developers interested in open source to look for existing project they can contribute to before launching a new one. As many new projects are launched and end up failing, it would be more beneficial to have a smaller number of projects, but more people involved in each of them. Their advice to developers looking to launch a new software is to look for existing communities with similar objectives and contribute to the code. In line with this idea, Pierre and Philippe call on political officials to look more favourably on open source solutions by giving municipalities the necessary capabilities and funding to develop and implement reusable solutions themselves. Public administrations should have dedicated development teams and a good budget to foster the reuse of technological tools. Political change is essential to foster the use of open source software in public administrations.
POLICY CONTEXT
For information regarding the policy context of the use of open source software in the public sector in France, please consult the respective Country Intelligence Report and its corresponding factsheet. You will find a detailed overview of the political actors, strategic players, political and legislative initiatives, and general public sector open source software initiatives in France.