A new report co-authored by researchers from the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), OSPO++ and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) highlights the benefits that open source can bring to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The report is based on the outcomes of the “OSPOs for Good: Building & Designing Cooperative Digital Infrastructure” conference co-organised by OpenForum Europe, RISE, OSPO++, JHU, the UN Office of Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology.
Both the conference and the report highlighted that well-resourced open source programme offices (OSPOs) can help organisations deploy open source solutions by providing support and guidance. In particular, OSPO success stories show that they have been instrumental in tapping the value of open source in the private sector, and could be of similar use to governments, not-for-profits and academia.
The report summarised three main challenges that were reiterated by the conference participants: knowledge gap, project sustainability and fragmentation. Firstly, a wider adoption of open source software in the public sector is hindered by experienced or perceived limitations and the lack of guidelines and support for administrators. Project sustainability refers to the difficulties facing maintainers who often lack the necessary financial or organisational support. Finally, fragmentation exists within the open source community and impedes the efficient sharing of solutions. For public sector bodies which are drafting or implementing an open source strategy, the setting up of an OSPO and improving communication between OSPOs are two effective tools for addressing these structural and cultural issues.
OSPOs provide an institutional support function and centre of competency that can promote open source best practices, grow an open culture, and serve as an interface for innovation and collaboration between internal and external resources. This is achieved both technically, through an open and interoperable infrastructure, and socially, through the open and culture-spanning communities that maintain the infrastructure through peer-production and collective action.