Fabio Bonelli is a software engineer in Developers Italia, which is part of the Italian government's Department for Digital Transformation.
OSOR (Ciarán O'Riordan): How much open source software is currently used by the public administrations you work with?
Fabio Bonelli: That’s a good question and probably one of the main challenges we face: determining the exact amount of free and open source software currently used by public administrations in Italy is made harder by the sheer number of different organisations involved. Italy has more than 13,000 public sector entities, including central government agencies, local authorities, schools and public utilities.
With Developers Italia we promote the adoption of open-source software within all those entities through the Italian catalogue of software as a one-stop place where they can both publish their own software and declare in the catalogue what software they are already using. In a way, besides being a tool to discover software, it can also be seen as an inventory of all the open source software being used by different public administrations.
That being said, our picture of the adoption of FLOSS is incomplete but gets more and more precise as the catalogue grows. The general feeling is that a lot of administrations are using it and the ones with more technical expertise are the ones using it more prominently.
OSOR: How do you find and select software packages to consider using?
Fabio Bonelli: In Italy, public sector organisations have specific guidelines on how to select software solutions, thanks to Article 68 of the Codice Amministrazione Digitale (Digital Administration Code), and the Department for Digital Transformation is no exception.
Article 68 requires an analysis of the needs, taking into account factors such as functionality, security, interoperability, and cost-effectiveness, and gives precedence to FLOSS solutions that are available in the Developers Italia catalogue or in other FLOSS repositories.
The catalogue includes a vitality metric, based on a number of factors, including the frequency of code commits and the number of contributors to help choose the most active and maintained software projects.
Of course, not everything is in the catalogue, so when evaluating third-party software solutions outside of it, we research the history of the project, the number of people actively developing and contributing to the software, the size and activity level of the community surrounding the software, and the age and maturity of the solution.
It’s worth noting that it’s a continuous process, since the software may become deprecated or some elements that initially contributed to the decision may no longer be applicable, that’s why having a plan and a budget for maintenance is key but that's no different from proprietary software.
OSOR: Are there some jobs where using free / open source is extra important?
Fabio Bonelli: I personally don’t think there are.
Even if it's tempting to assume that critical applications are more important than others and therefore require the use of FLOSS, I feel there are many potential pitfalls and possibly the risk of losing track of the big picture.
Is a medical application more critical than a social network app? It certainly might have critical implications for patient safety and health, while a social network with pictures of your cat has just, well, pictures of cats. But what if the social network app has billions of users? What if those users shift the public discourse on that app?
Using FLOSS is an essential aspect of building transparent and high-quality systems, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. A truly transparent and democratic system will also involve open data, public APIs, and other mechanisms that allow for broader participation, collaboration, and feedback from stakeholders.
It's essential, but needs to be combined with other elements and practices, not necessarily only from an engineering perspective.
To draw a parallel: elections are a fundamental aspect of a democratic political system, but they are not the only aspect of democracy—and in fact, a democratic society must also have a free press, independent judiciary, and other checks and balances—but without elections, the other things cannot even begin to be considered.
I don’t think such a crucial aspect is the a place where you pick and choose.
OSOR: Did you hit any specific difficulties with procurement?
Fabio Bonelli: Before the implementation of Article 68 and 69 of the Codice Amministrazione Digitale, public administration in Italy very much faced difficulties when trying to reuse software: they were required to "sign a convention" between the public sector organisation that owned the software project and the one intending to reuse it. This process was often lengthy and bureaucratic, making reuse difficult for public sector organisations to reuse software.
However, with the implementation of Article 68 and 69, they are now required to publish their software solutions. This has streamlined the procurement process for FLOSS, reducing procedural difficulties and enabling greater collaboration and innovation across the public sector.
Not everything is perfect though, one of the main challenges that organisations still face is the procurement of cloud-based FLOSS solutions. This is particularly true when the main players in the cloud software market are located outside of Europe, making it more difficult to evaluate and select suitable providers: there are typically fewer cloud-based FLOSS providers available, and they are often smaller and less established than the larger, proprietary cloud providers. This can make local administrators nervous about working with a less well-known company and may make them more likely to choose a larger, more established provider.
In addition, the larger cloud providers often have more resources to devote to public relations and building relationships with public sector organisations, which can make it more difficult for smaller, FLOSS-based providers to gain traction in the market.
Regarding the need to keep up with frequent releases, I believe that this applies to proprietary software as well. When it doesn't, it might actually be a red flag indicating that the vendor is not maintaining it properly, rather than a positive sign.
Mr Bonelli, thanks for sharing this with us!
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