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I think all publicly funded software should be open source. The public paid for it, they should have a right to look under the hood, like they can with almost e

I think all publicly funded software should be open source. The public paid for it, they should have a right to look under the hood, like they can with almost every other piece of government. I’m also a realist, and have you met the EU? We’ve been working on architectural standards for organizational data for almost 20 years, and it’s nowhere near finished. :p If we can’t figure out a standard for how to define a department or employee object in a data model, then how on earth will we ever maintain a universal Linux distribution? I think your strategy for implementation is flawed though. You really don’t want to tear the house down and build a new one when people are living in it. I realize I’m a bit of a conservative in that sense, but people’s lives depend on our critical systems. As far as Microsoft goes, they are a company. I think they are a great business partner in an ocean of bad ones. It goes against my personal political beliefs to use proprietary software, but the public sector isn’t primary a tech sector and we don’t operate on personal ideology. We use the best and most efficient tools, at the cheapest cost, to support our primary function.

oever 8y ago
The European Directive 2003/98/EC on re-use of public sector information allows any EU citizen to request data (source code is data) from any institution that is funded for at least 50% by government. The data should be given in a form that allows reuse. For source code that means a FOSS license. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32003L0098 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32... Each of these directives is implemented as a law in member states. The Dutch version is here: http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0036795/ http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0036795/
- adrianN 8y ago
  Has anybody successfully used this to request any piece of government software under a FLOSS license?
  - oever 8y ago
    I've been trying for half a year to get the source code for a very simple app from the Dutch parliament. They've not complied yet and put me in touch with their lawyer who also keeps delaying. Normally, there should be a response within four weeks. I've no idea how to escalate it.
    - adrianN 8y ago
      You're fighting the good fight. I'm impressed.
    - sidstling 8y ago
      You can escalate it by contacting the political leadership of the department directly. If they failed to adhere to the law you should do so, but I’d urge you not to request access in the future unless it’s really important. Because making a request of access is one of the most expensive things you can do. We get a few requests each year, every department does, and every time we have to dig through a number of different systems and thousands of documents to prepare stuff that’s relevant. Then we have to read through every single document to make sure there isn’t any sensitive information and manually redact it if there is, while filing a report on why we redacted to internal review. We do this, while expected to perform our normal functions by the way. I don’t know about the Dutch, but we take every request very serious, but for me personally it’s a little disheartening to know that we could hire 10-15 extra teachers/nurses/care takers if we didn’t have to deal with requests of access done solely by private citizens who feel like they “fight the good fight”. I mean, who are you fighting? Your own society? The press is usually ahead of you too, but they actually have the resources to process the information they request.
adrianN 8y ago
I think the problem with EU standardization is that any viable standard has to be a superset of all member's wishes. Nobody wants to change anything about the way they work right now, so whatever the EU mandates must be 100% compatible with all the quirks of even the smallest municipality. So instead of a simplification that smoothes out the differences you get lovecraftian abominations that nobody can implement without draining their sanity.

oever 8y ago

The European Directive 2003/98/EC on re-use of public sector information allows any EU citizen to request data (source code is data) from any institution that is funded for at least 50% by government. The data should be given in a form that allows reuse. For source code that means a FOSS license. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32003L0098 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32... Each of these directives is implemented as a law in member states. The Dutch version is here: http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0036795/ http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0036795/

adrianN 8y ago
Has anybody successfully used this to request any piece of government software under a FLOSS license?
- oever 8y ago
  I've been trying for half a year to get the source code for a very simple app from the Dutch parliament. They've not complied yet and put me in touch with their lawyer who also keeps delaying. Normally, there should be a response within four weeks. I've no idea how to escalate it.
  - adrianN 8y ago
    You're fighting the good fight. I'm impressed.
  - sidstling 8y ago
    You can escalate it by contacting the political leadership of the department directly. If they failed to adhere to the law you should do so, but I’d urge you not to request access in the future unless it’s really important. Because making a request of access is one of the most expensive things you can do. We get a few requests each year, every department does, and every time we have to dig through a number of different systems and thousands of documents to prepare stuff that’s relevant. Then we have to read through every single document to make sure there isn’t any sensitive information and manually redact it if there is, while filing a report on why we redacted to internal review. We do this, while expected to perform our normal functions by the way. I don’t know about the Dutch, but we take every request very serious, but for me personally it’s a little disheartening to know that we could hire 10-15 extra teachers/nurses/care takers if we didn’t have to deal with requests of access done solely by private citizens who feel like they “fight the good fight”. I mean, who are you fighting? Your own society? The press is usually ahead of you too, but they actually have the resources to process the information they request.

adrianN 8y ago

I think the problem with EU standardization is that any viable standard has to be a superset of all member's wishes. Nobody wants to change anything about the way they work right now, so whatever the EU mandates must be 100% compatible with all the quirks of even the smallest municipality. So instead of a simplification that smoothes out the differences you get lovecraftian abominations that nobody can implement without draining their sanity.