Transforming Government IT: A Conversation with Prof. Matthias Stürmer on Switzerland’s New Open Source Law

Introduction

We are excited to announce that Prof. Matthias Stürmer, Head of the BFH Institute for Public Sector Transformation, will deliver a keynote speech at the Linux Foundation Europe Member Summit on September 19th, 2024, in Vienna. Matthias’s extensive background in open source, digital sustainability, and public sector transformation will offer valuable insights into the impact of open source policies on government IT infrastructure and procurement.

His keynote, "EMBAG - the new Swiss Open Source Law and its Implementation," will dive into this transformative "Public Money, Public Code" initiative in Switzerland and its potential to set new standards for open source adoption across Europe’s public sector.

Here are some key highlights from our conversation with Matthias:

1. Overview of the EMBAG Law

• Matthias, your keynote focuses on the new Swiss "Public Money, Public Code" law (EMBAG). Could you provide an overview of this law and what makes it significant for government software development in Switzerland?

This new "open sourcing" law forces the federal government to release all software it owns under open source licenses, unless prevented by third-party copyrights or security concerns. Article 9 of the new EMBAG law covers program code developed internally by government employees as well as individual software programmed by external IT providers. And the law also allows government agencies to build-up open source communities and therefore to invest resources for services regarding integration, training and support for other public authorities. So the EMBAG increases the need for open source know-how in the Swiss government, which I think is a good thing.

• Does this law represent a shift in how governments approach open source software, and why do you believe it's important for other European nations to consider similar approaches?

To really succeed in digital transformation of the governments, we need intelligent, reliable, secure and user-friendly IT systems. This is quite expensive, so therefore sharing and reusing software code under open source licenses and collaborating within open source communities helps to lower IT spendings. In theory, this is nothing new and is being practiced by many countries. However, in Switzerland there were only a few government agencies such as Swisstopo or MeteoSchweiz which applied open source principles for their software development. Now with the EMBAG law article 9 all the Swiss federal government has to open up their technological mindset which could lead to interesting new open source communities in the near future. I believe that the public sector, the private IT companies as well as the citizens will understand the benefits of open source software once they see how collaboration really works.

2. Impact on IT Procurement and Government Collaboration

• One of the key points in your talk is how EMBAG affects national IT procurement. Can you share some early lessons learned or evidence of how this law is impacting government software development and collaboration?

Indeed we have first evidence that recent IT Call for Tenders already include this new requirement for releasing the resulting programs as open source software. Procurement offices now require the vendors to understand open source principles and practices, thus increasing the need for competent software providers. I’ll show examples where e.g. the new open source licensing compliance standard ISO/IEC 5230 is mentioned, thus control of the software supply chain becomes increasingly important.

• What role do open source communities play in supporting this shift, and how can they engage more effectively with public sector initiatives like EMBAG?

On the one hand it is important that open source communities and providers understand the requirements and restrictions of the government regarding security, governance, compliance etc. Therefore, it is necessary that the industry now responds to the procurement and offers attractive commercial open source solutions. On the other hand, informal collaboration with governments also involves people who traditionally are not well acquainted with programmer-like cultures. Thus it is important that experienced open source actors educate and integrate the newcomers in a welcoming way - which I think is most often the case since in general open source communities are very open for new people.

3. Potential for Broader European Adoption

• With EMBAG representing a significant change in Switzerland’s approach to open source, do you think this model could be adopted more broadly across Europe?

The idea of “Public Money, Public Code” is not new. The campaign was started by the Free Software Foundation Europa (FSFE) around 2019. Also other countries such as Italy have laws that require the government to release its code as open source software. However, not all the countries really fully comply with the law, in the end policy implementation is crucial. In this regard, Switzerland has not yet proven to really drive the paradigm change - let’s see and hope and support them!

• What opportunities or challenges do you foresee in implementing similar regulations in other European countries?

The biggest challenge I see is the cost involved to start an open source project. Open sourcing a complex piece of software and building up an active community is quite an investment. You have to make sure the code doesn’t contain any security-related issues such as passwords or API tokens, thus a code review might make sense. Then all the open source components involved have to comply with the final open source license you choose, therefore copyright and license compliance checks are necessary. And finally you have to decide how and where exactly the code is published, how it is announced and how you want to structure your community, thus a minimal effort of community governance is required. Therefore, if someone has little or no experience with open source projects, it seems like more effort than return to start a new community. That’s why we need to support with information, services, and tools.

4. Looking Forward: EMBAG’s Long-term Impact

• Looking ahead, what do you think will be the long-term impact of EMBAG on both the public and private sectors in Switzerland?

I frankly believe collaboration through open source communities is a win-win-win situation on the long run: The government lowers its IT spendings by reducing the vendor lock-in and gains more digital sovereignty when multiple vendors provide services for open source technologies. The IT companies can offer services for the software they developed for other customers from the public and private sector. And the citizens and the national economy benefit by less taxpayers money being spent on proprietary software and increased competition and more innovation within the IT sector.