Open Source Observatory (OSOR)

Not fully transparent

16/02/2018

Poland’s Ministry of Justice is refusing to make public the computer algorithms that are used to randomly assign judges to cases. The ePaństwo Foundation, an NGO promoting open government, in December…

Essential enabler

16/02/2018

The Dutch city of Amsterdam is relying on open source software to build and deploy solutions that combine geographic maps and other data. These solutions make life easier for the city’s maintenance…

Blockchain as a service

15/02/2018

Malta’s Ministry of Finance, Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the UK South East Regional Organised Crime Unit have implemented open source cloud systems to share data and services securely…

Security & sovereignty

15/02/2018

France’s Cour des comptes (Court of Auditors) supports the central government’s use of free software, recognising it as a driver of government modernisation and improved efficiency. Most importantly,…

Seamless services

14/02/2018

The UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) has published cross-governmental API data and standards to help public services share and reuse technology, and to make better use of data. “API standards…

Government big data

12/02/2018

Romania’s Ministry of Communications and Information Society is launching two “big data” projects to make public services more efficient, improve tax collection and prevent fraud. The ministry wants…

Permanent fixture

08/02/2018

Following the success of its first open source bug bounty, the European Commission is preparing a second, larger project. As well as paying software hackers to uncover bugs, the EC is also considering…

Technological freedom

31/01/2018

Portugal has revised its National Digital Interoperability Regulation (RNID) “to align with European guidelines”, reports the country’s Agency for Administrative Modernisation (Agência para a…