Schedule

Nowadays free software is spreading more and more to the enterprise level: open source is no more the “enemy”. Why? Because it works! And the private sector is quick to pick up what works…

But what about the Public Administration? The public sector has reasons, unknown to the private sector, for choosing the “open alternative” : not only ethical reasons, but also principle as transparency, competition, public money spending, etc. And free software can also help to speed up the transforming process from a passive PA, as user, to a “pro-active” digital PA. So PA should be ready to consider software not only as a tool, but as a valuable asset for the growth of the society.

At the same time, PA must comply with specific procurement rules. In this picture, what elements are or could be involved in such a procurement process that can lead to more conscious and open procurement? More importantly, to what extent is the public administration really paying attention to the tools already available to guide a more "open" procurement process that allows for the consideration of open source software? Listening to both public and private actors, we will try to study tools and best (or bad) practices in PA and FOSS procurement..

This first webinar has been facilitated by Laura Garbati, lawyer at the CSI Piemonte (Italy), with :

• Leonardo Favario - Italian government
• Italo Vignoli - The Document Foundation
• Benjamin Jean - inno³

This webinar took a look at legal, governance and practical issues surrounding improving the use and release of open source software by public administrations. Legal issues in this area are no longer focused on licensing or even compliance (still important issues) but how to set up legal structures and frameworks to reinforce cooperation and sustainability of public sector open source projects – or explore the option to not have any formal framework and focus on grass level interactions to strengthen the community from the bottom up.

This second webinar has been facilitated by Malcolm Bain, IT law expert at Across legal (Spain) with :

• Pr. Barbara Gagliardi - University of Turin : Cooperation between public entities as a tool for the performance of public service available also in the ITC sector, according to EU directives on public contracts.
• Marc Pérez-Batlle - Barcelona City Council : Agile strategies for implementing more and better open source in public administration. Challenges and some suggested good practices.
• Andrew Katz _ Moorcrofts LLP and Finn Lewis _ Agile Collective : Building municipal open source governance structure from bottom up.