Tag: FOSS

Open Source Policy Summit: Where FOSS and government meet: Sometimes it takes a war to make people pay attention

FOSDEM The Open Source Policy Summit is an annual event which attempts to explain the importance of software freedom to governments and policy makers.

The Policy Summit is an annual event organized by the Open Forum Europe, a Brussels nonprofit which describes itself as an “independent think tank which explains the merits of openness in computing to policy makers and communities across Europe.”

This is an important job, but you might be forgiven if you’ve not heard of it before because it has a rather different focus to commercial or community events. While businesses are concerned with things like cost-effectiveness and service-level agreements, the public sector needs to think more about issues such as digital sovereignty.

The governments of nation states need to consider different priorities. For example, if you choose some cloud application for communications or storage, you need to think about where the servers are on which those apps will actually run, and where your data will be stored. Much of the software industry is American, and many PaaS apps use AWS and other cloud providers which are also primarily based in the USA. Given that the largest war in Europe since 1945 is under way not far from the eastern borders of the EU, this is focusing legislators’ minds somewhat.

See https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/open_source_policy_summit/

#opensource #FOSS #government #Europe

Enterprise open-source is on the up and proprietary software on the way down – It is no longer about cost savings either

The use of proprietary software in enterprise organizations is expected to decline eight percentage points over the next two years, while the use of enterprise open-source software is expected to increase five percentage points.

So say 1,296 IT leaders around the world, according to Red Hat’s fourth annual “The State of Enterprise Open Source” report. Currently, report respondents say 45 per cent of their software is proprietary and they expect that figure to drop to 37 per cent in two years.

But if there’s anything in this report to warm the heart of Red Hat and like-minder sellers of enterprise open source it’s that price is no longer among the top reasons enterprise IT leaders cite for using enterprise open source; in fact, lower total cost of ownership now sits near the bottom of the list of perceived benefits, in ninth place.

See https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/02/red_hat_open_source/

#opensource #survey

Italian Courts Find Open Source Software Terms Enforceable

The issue was that the software was redistributed without including acknowledgment of the original work, including information about changes the defendants had made to the software, and with no mention of the software’s copyright holders.

“They also proceeded with the unlawful behavior [of] ignoring the formal termination notice,” the company added, “which is the first protection tool implemented to safeguard the developers who decide to share their code in a free form.”

From http://ifthisbetreason.com/2021/12/italian-courts-find-open-source-software-terms-enforceable/

In the spirit of open government, France dumps 9,067 repos online with public sector open-source code, to show off its FOSS credentials

The release happened as a result of a decree of Open Government from 30 October 2019 after the French government joined the Open Government Partnership in April 2014. After two years of work, the site hit version 1.0 on Wednesday.

This really allows further re-use of publicly funded code, and also serves as a boost for their own small businesses who want to make use of it for themselves or to serve their customers.

See https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/11/french_government_foss/

#opensource #opengovernment #france #publicsector

FOSS ASIA is an organization developing Open Source software applications and Open Hardware together with a global community from its base in Asia

“It is our goal to provide access to open technologies, science applications and knowledge that improve people’s lives. We want to enable people to adapt and change technology according to their own ideas and needs and validate science and knowledge through an Open Access approach. FOSSASIA was established 2009 by Hong Phuc Dang and Mario Behling. We organize and participate in conferences, meetups and code camps. The annual FOSSASIA Summit in Singapore is one of the top tech events in Asia. Other summits take place in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India. FOSSASIA also runs a number of coding programs such as Codeheat.”

Developing Free and Open Source Software and Hardware and cooperating with the most forward thinking Open Tech innovators and companies of the planet. Incubating Open Tech Projects and Accelerating FOSS/Open Source Companies to Develop a Sustainable FOSS Ecosystem.

See https://fossasia.org/

A Fresh Look at FOSS Policy Failure in the SA Government

A presentation by Dr Derek W. Keats on an ecosystem approach to FOSS policy failure in the South African government. Watch at https://youtu.be/1bUMnpAgwK0 or click below.

An ecosystem approach to FOSS policy failure in the South African government

Very Positive To See An Open Source Tender Advertised By SANParks

The organisation is also looking for an accredited service provider for the provision of open source e-business technologies on an on-demand basis for a period of three years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 21 Feb
Tender no: GNP- 039- 19
Information: Technical: Nedret Saidova, Tel: (012) 426 5283, E-mail: Nedret.Saidova@sanparks.org. General: Quinton Chetty, Tel: (012) 426 5247, E-mail: Quinton.Chetty@sanparks.org.
Closing date: 6 Mar 2020