Open source - accelerating e-government:

the Bulgarian electronic governance act

Bozhidar Bozhanov
Adviser to the political cabinet of the deputy prime minister for coalition policy and
public administration and minister of interior
 About me
Senior software engineer and architect
http://techblog.bozho.net
Adviser to the deputy primer minister of Bulgaria about e-
government, open data & technology
Realistic idealist
 Open Source for the Government??

You cant make the ladies behind the desks use LibreOffice and
Linux!!
 Its not about Linux...
You can, but thats a different story...
 Custom software
The government is constantly procuring both specific and generic
software
The government ignores the rule
o if the problem is widespread - use open source software
o if the problem is rare - use an existing commercial solution
o if the problem is unique - order a new piece of software
The government doesnt have the personnel to adapt and implement even
ready-to-use open source projects.
 Status quo
Vendor lock-in
Abandonware
Low-quality software
Bugs and security holes
o egov.bg
o (forest) logging registry (?the_wife_of_my_cousin=1)
o ...who knows what else?
Most of that software is owned by the government
o ...and sits on CDs in basements
Even projects using WordPress, Drupal, Joomla are de-facto closed source
Questionable, opaque spending
 Types of government software
Websites of ministries/agencies/municipalities/programmes
Registries
General clerk software
Specific information systems
Accountancy software
egov - middleware, registries, portal, e-services
 Electronic governance
whats the relation between government software and electronic
governance?
The problems of electronic governance
o Lacl of coordination
o Lack of quality
o Lack of vision
 A solution?

(almost) all new projects must be open-sourced

The electronic governance act

We proposed article 58a, which mandates:

All new custom-built software to be open source

Developed in a public repository from day 1
 Why?
Reusability
Higher quality
Easier extension and support
o from a government system integrator
o from other companies
o from NGOs and even citizens
Transparency
o What did the government spend the money on
o but...nobody will be watching those projects! - there are people that
will be watching them, dont worry :)
 Experience around the world
UK- http://github.com/alphagov (330 projects)
US - http://www.govcode.org/ (2000 projects); Federal source code policy
Estonia - e-voting, egov, X-Road
o All our key projects become open source, including the systems for health care, police, business portals and document
exchange Siim Sikkut, ICT Policy Adviser
Switzerland
The European Commission
European Parliament called for the systematic replacement of proprietary
software by auditable and verifiable open-source software in all the EU
institutions, and for the introduction of a mandatory open-source-selection
criterion in all future ICT procurement procedures
 Procedure
Every company, implementing software ordered by the government uses a
public repo
o must use it actively (and not just synchronize an internal repo with it)
o git or mercurial
Public documentation
Stable master
The licence used must be approved by FSF or OSI
o EUPL by default. Allowed: GPLv3, AGPL, Apache, MIT, etc.
 Why would that work?
no difference for the company writing the software - even now the product
is owned by the government in most cases
no difference for the government - 10 lines more in the technical
specification.
o and we prepared a template for that
total cost of ownership is the same in the worst case
new business models
Are you listening to yourself, the government cant open their
systems?!
 Security
Only the source is publicly available; not the server passwords
A small portion of the government software is highly critical; a small
portion even have a publically-facing interface.
o The law doesnt apply to systems regarding national security and
classified information
WordPress is more secure than any website that any company will build.
Open-source software is more secure
o ...except for openssl, bash and small, unpopular projects :)
 No silver bullet...
not applicable to existing closed-sourced software
good code != good software
not every project can be monitored carefully by society
wont solve the problems of e-governance, coordination, corruption
can see opposition in the face of malicious companies
 Typical questions
Proprietary components?
o Allowed
Entire proprietary systems or proprietary base?
o Allowed, but must prove TCO will be lower
Does it mean the database cant be Oracle / MS SQL Server?
o No.
Will we switch to Linux and LibreOffice
o No a lot of migration required desktop software, ActiveDirectory,
trainings
o But we will switch to ODF
 So far...
The amendments to to the electronic governance acts passed and are in
force!
We have set up an agency to oversee the process
We have prepared templates and answers to regular questions
http://github.com/governmentbg
o Soon an on-premise system, mirrored to GitHub
EU programs explicitly require open source
 Potential issues
Administration not knowing they should do it
o We already have tenders that do not conform with the law
o We have prepared templates and answers to regular questions
No responsible body for enforcement
o We have set up an agency to oversee the process, not yet operational
Companies may develop privately and push at the end
o http://github.com/governmentbg , soon an on-premise system,
mirrored to GitHub
It can be ignored
o No open source no funding works (EU programs explicitly
require open source)
 Advice
Put it in the law
Be explicit that it applies to all projects (websites, registers, information
systems)
o It does not apply to us phenomenon
Find or create a responsible body
Also put it as a prerequisite for funding
Talk
Answer questions
 Will it work?
Too early to say
Depends on willingness to enforce
I will share our experience within a year
Open and transparent projects should bring better
quality and lower TCO
 Questions?

(image taken from http://exequiel09.github.io/symposium-presentation/)