The Open Source Observatory brings news, studies and best practices on the use of free and open source software solutions in public services.

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Mapping the horizon

26/02/2018

Albania’s vibrant open source community is encouraging the administration of Tirana, the capital, to open up. Earlier this month, the city and members of Open Labs Hackerspace together announced the…

news

A perfect feedback loop

Open source case study

Berlin Technical University and Nextcloud: showing public services how to interact with open source projects QED. Public services commonly wonder how to interact with fluid communities of open source…

case studies
document

Open Source Deep Dive

event

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…

news

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…

news

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…

news

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,…

news

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…

news

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…

news

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…

news

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…

news

New Newsletter Issue Released

26/01/2018

Mobile Age Newsletter Issue No.6 is now available and readers can get informed on the co-creation workshops that Mobile Age partners realised in the field sites of the project. Senior citizens in…

ageing society, digital divide, social inclusion, age-friendly environments, older persons, independent living, mobility, safety, accessibility, health information, open data, open government, public services, apps, e-government, transparency,
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