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Flavia Marzano FOSSC Oman 18th – 19th February 2015

The role and opportunities of FOSS Free Open Source Sofware

in Public Administrations

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The role of PAs Public Administrations (PAs) buying software have to ensure the respect of many different constraints at least from the legal, technical and economical points of view. Nevertheless PAs can not forget that they are spending public money for public interest, so they also have to ensure the respect of some “common” rules.

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Technology development The development of technologies can be seen at least from 3 different points of view: •  technical: computer technologies (hw & sw) are

more and more evolved and responding to customer requirements and needs

•  easiness of use: evolution of technologies has brought simplification of interfaces and of man-machine interaction tools

•  economical: strong enhancement of the price/performance ratio

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Risks 1

Technologies are evolving very fast and not always democratically; the risk is that too few suppliers control the market making technologies an instrument of power rather than a tool for progress. Many population groups are weaker for social, physical, age, gender, income or culture reasons. For these groups access to technologies is not insured simply by technical evolution.

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Risks 2

The role of politics is essential to lower the digital divide and to fill the gap between technologies and citizens giving people the full capacity to control and use new tools and avoiding the risk of new monopolies. …driving technologies

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Opportunities 1

PAs can turn risks into opportunities, granting citizens and enterprises the reduction of discriminating conditions and making them participate to economical, technological and social evolution processes.

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Opportunities 2

In this phase PAs and in particular the local PAs have big duties and big opportunities to act in this direction. Bridging the digital divide!

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To Do List for PAs 1

PAs in buying software must assure: •  Pluralism, competition and security •  Integration with the software already in use •  “Continuity” of data (possibility of reading data

also in the future) •  Interoperability and cooperation •  Availability of source code at least for inspection

and traceability (even in case of proprietary code)

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To Do List for PAs 2

PAs in buying software must: •  Be proprietary of the “structure of data” •  Get better price/performance solutions •  Get a good price/performance maintenance •  Verify the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) •  Buy software based on Open Standard •  Be sure to be able to change software supplier

(no lock-in) •  Be sure that the software acquired will not have

any “backdoors” http://www.qualogy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/to-do-list-photo.jpg

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In giving information, PAs must grant to citizens •  Transparency •  Privacy •  Accessibility (both in the

sense of availability of documents and in the sense of accessibility for disables) •  Possibility to read public documents without

having to buy any software (or license) •  Possibility to export data and documents in open

formats •  Open Government Data

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How? Most of the previous requirements can be easily obtained by adopting: •  Open Standards (OS) •  Open Source Software (OSS) solutions … but, in some case, it is essential that adoption of OS and OSS solutions be made compulsory by law in order to grant that the following requirements be totally satisfied…

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Requirements •  Efficient and easy

interoperability •  Extended reusability

of software and solutions •  Permanent access to data and information

(Open Government Data) •  Independence from suppliers •  Verifiability of content and procedures

… political choices… http://bazaarvoiceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/openness.jpg

Openness

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And citizens? Acquisition of FOSS by PAs may help in: •  reducing the digital divide •  increasing internal ICT

competences and forming communities among PAs,

•  f a v o r i n g s u s t a i n a b l e economic and social d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e territory

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All these goals may be better achieved with a good management of the

transition …

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Ponte_del_diavolo_lug_2011.jpg/220px-Ponte_del_diavolo_lug_2011.jpg

proprietary

free software

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People do know their real power? J

https://xena05.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/la-gente-non-conosce-il-suo-vero-potere_thumb.jpg?w=294&h=252

$ Free Open Sw

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Technologies Policies

Softw

are

Kno

wle

dge

Technologies

Efficiency

Rights

Freedom

Horizons

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Going on… compulsory rules? •  PAs when buying software developed on

their own specifications have to acquire the source code and be proprietary of it;

•  PAs owning software developed on their own specifications, have to give it for free with the source code and documentation to any other PA that can adapt it to its own needs;

Open by default !

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A competence center? •  Elaborating strategies for the diffusion of

FOSS in the territories •  Coordinat ing a working team with

Universities, Associations and Enterprises interested in the diffusion of FOSS platforms

•  Promoting information and training activities for territorial PAs and SMEs

•  Promoting experience exchange and reuse of projects and solutions with other Local PAs

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Flavia Marzano FOSSC Oman 18th – 19th February 2015 http://www.leftyparent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/one-size-fits-all.jpg

..may be not, but...

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Why should we share? “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” (George Bernard Shaw)

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Reac%on to Progress, Technologies and Innova%on – Rule 1 “Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works…

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Reac%on to Progress, Technologies and Innova%on– Rule 2 Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it…

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Reac%on to Progress, Technologies and Innova%on– Rule 3 Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” (Douglas Adams)

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But… … after it has been in circulation for at least ten years it can be considered quite normal.

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And you… How long have you been pushing for Open Source?

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What do we still need to do?

Networking among: Enterprises, Public Administrations, Associations, Communities,…

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http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THBw91IDBxI/TwUIsICsF1I/AAAAAAAAAlM/UwUxAqyjz9U/s320/GlassHalfFull-s.jpg

It is not a matter of going fast… It is important to keep going (Confucius) Constant dropping wears the stone (In latin: gutta cavat lapidem)

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Just for fun …don’t miss it J How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb? •  1 to post a thread in a mailing list telling the

bulb has burnt •  1 to suggest to try to turn the lamp on through

command lines •  1 to complain that the user broke the thread •  1 to ask what new bulb will he install •  …

http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/users-lightbulb.html

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This presentation, in its original parts, is covered by the Creative Commons licence: Attribution, Share Alike

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/it/deed.it

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@flavia_marzano http://www.millenium.org/images/contenu/actus/Annonces/annonce-merci.jpg

flavia(dot)marzano (@) gmail(dot)com

it.linkedin.com/in/flaviamarzano/

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