Document details

Public Money? Public Code! A Basic Guide to Open Source for Governments and Civil Society

Potsdam: Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2022), 25 pp.
"The FNF Global Innovation Hub published in 2022 this guide using easily understandable language and examples of daily scenario that civil servants and the public encounter to help readers to painlessly grasp technical terms such as open source, FLOSS software, and open standard. Also, the Guide explains why Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is the key to improve transparency, accountability, accessibility, and effectiveness of public digital service. It enables readers to establish Public Money? Public Code! as the mindset of perceiving public digital service: If a public digital service is built by using tax payers’ money, it should be supervised and examined by them as all public infrastructure. Finally, the Guide also provides practical policy recommendations on enhancing the use of FLOSS in governments." (Publisher description)
1 Executive summary, 2
2 Public digital infrastructure, 3
3 The basics of FLOSS, 6
4 Government procurement 8
5 Public money? Public code! Why software and systems that governments adopt should be open-sourced? 10
6 How the public sector should approach it and open standards, 13
7 Clarification: is free and open-source software safe? 17
8 Further reading, 19
9 Policy recommendations, 20
10 Conclusion, 22