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What do you think: should all government software be open source? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by fajre@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I’ve been thinking about transparency and security in the public sector. Do you think all government software and platforms should be open source?

Some countries have already made progress in this area:

Estonia: digital government services with open and auditable APIs.
United Kingdom: several open source government projects and systems published on GitHub.
France and Canada: policies encouraging the use of free and open source software in public agencies.

Possible benefits:

Full transparency: anyone can audit the code, ensuring there is no corruption, hidden flaws, or unauthorized data collection.
Enhanced security: public reviews help identify vulnerabilities quickly.
Cost reduction: less dependency on private vendors and lower spending on proprietary licenses.
Flexibility and innovation: public agencies can adapt systems to their needs without relying on external solutions.

Possible challenges:

Maintenance and updating of complex systems.
Protecting sensitive data without compromising citizen privacy.
Political or bureaucratic resistance to opening the code.

Do you think this could be viable in the governments of your countries? How could we start making this a reality globally?

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[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

With COTS products like Microsoft Office, it’s different because the government is just a customer, not the owner of the development.

That's the point I'm trying to make though. I'm a contractor, and that's super common in government because they don't pay their own a whole lot. The government is my company's customer. Why can't we be the owner of the development and that would justify it being closed source? If we can, the same could apply to anyone else and the whole conversation is moot because of a contractor loophole (which you'd have to be careful in closing to avoid closing yourself off to COTS products)