New report of the French parliamentary mission led by MP Eric Bothorel on Open Data and Open Source Software has been published. It suggests creating an Open Source Program Office in the government and has been backed by several national FOSS players.
The report highlights the role of the government in supporting Open Data and Open Source activities for a more transparent, sovereign and equal digital policies in the country. Its authors interviewed and contacted dozens of organisations and individuals and many French Open Source associations, such as CNLL and April have backed the report and its suggestions.
The document consists of an analysis of the landscape, results of the public consultation conducted in October 2020, case studies and 37 recommendations. The recommendations focus on the role of the public administration in supporting Open Data and Open Source efforts, among which we can find calls to:
- Conduct an evaluation of the economic, social and scientific impact of opening and sharing data and source code,
- Issues related to sharing data and source code should be taken up by the highest level of the administration, including monitoring and implementing Open Data and Open Source policies,
- Nominate a Chief Data, Algorithms and Source Code Officer (fr: “un administrateur général de la donnée, des algorithmes et des codes sources”, AGDAC) overseeing the national strategy of opening data and source codes,
- Create an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) or a free software mission in the government (tech.gouv) in charge of helping the public administration in its efforts to open up and reuse public source code, identifying the challenges, creating links with existing open source communities and supporting French talent in the field,
- Introducing more ambitious trainings for public officials on digital issues.
The position of a deputy head of data AGDAC is proposed, as according to the report, there is a need for a better use of code developed within the administration. The Deputy Head would lead the Open Source Program Office to promote publication and reuse of source code through explaining merits of Open Source to public administration, as well as animating a community of developers in the public sector and implementing other OSS-related actions.
The need for support of Open Source Software in the public sector is strongly reflected in the conducted consultation, and as research based on the France case study has shown (Nagle, 2019) Open Source policies concerning public administration can have positive impact not only on the public sector, but on the private sector as well.
Another recommendation of the report is support for local talent in the software sector - the report calls for more incentives to work in the public sector on projects crucial from a national point of view. As the report states, it aims at supporting its talents “just like it does with its high-level athletes” and to attract them to public service thanks to Free Software.
A group of French Open Source players published an op-ed in Le Monde (FR) on 17 January in which they expressed their support for the report and creation of an Open Source Programme Office reporting to the Prime Minister. They also pointed to the crucial role of Open Source in strengthening digital sovereignty in Europe. The text is available in English on the website of one of its signatories, OW2.
Full report is available online here (in French).