Public Money, Public Code pushes for governments to switch to open-source software (Sharable)

In an extensive interview with Shareable, I explained the goals of the FSFE’s “Public Money, Public Code” campaign: All publicly funded software should be released under Free Software licenses so governments and citizens can use, study, share and improve it. Addressing technical challenges like proprietary document formats and interoperability, I emphasized:

The more Free Software there is, the easier it gets to create and use it. It’s just a matter of starting that process.

The benefits are manifold: saving time, reducing costs, more collaboration, transparency, interoperability, innovation, and independence from software vendors. On the often-cited security concerns, I explained:

It’s actually better for security if software is transparent and the source code is published, because it’s easier for security experts to see what’s going wrong in the software. Malicious people will figure it out anyway, but more people can review the code. We’ve seen this with Linux. It is stable, secure and transparent, and we don’t see a disadvantage in the fact that it’s Open Source.

I highlighted Barcelona as a role model, spending 70% of its software budget on Open Source and understanding it’s not just about using Free Software, but procuring it in ways that allow regional and smaller vendors to participate.

The full interview with more details on transparency, collaboration and international examples is available on Shareable.