Why should governments use open source solutions?

Governments need to rethink how they harness technology to deliver citizen services. The IRS is still relying on decades-old databases and paper checks to deliver emergency financial assistance. Labs submitting coronavirus test results to public health offices are resorting to fax machines rather than paying for private software to share urgently needed data. Americans as a whole are spending $3.5 billion on private software each year just to figure out how much money they owe the government in taxes. It doesn’t have to be this way. Deploying technology solutions that use open source software is an important step to building better government services. Utilizing open source systems by default could also foster a stronger level of trust in public institutions.

Over the past six months, two New America programs, the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) and Public Interest Technology (PIT), researched a high-level framework for developing digital public goods using open source software (OSS). The report that emerged from this work, Building and Reusing Open Source Tools in Government, provides policymakers and technologists with principles and practices that will help them create and harness open source solutions more effectively. The DIGI and PIT programs hosted a special session of Transformation on July 14, to highlight the release of this work and underscore how open source tools can increase government efficiency, agility, and accountability.

Cecilia Muñoz, New America’s Vice President of Public Interest Technology and Local Initiatives and the former Chair of the White House Domestic Policy Council, kicked off the event with remarks framing the importance of making open source the default choice for government technology. Two panels of leading experts went into additional detail. A recording of the entire 90 minute event is available here.

The first panel, The State of Open Source and Government, covered key concepts around government use of open source solutions and examples of open source success stories. DIGI Director Tomicah Tillemann welcomed Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf, Beeck Center Fellow and former Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Code for America Engineering Director Laura Kogler, and MOSIP Legal Counsel Srijoni Sen. The speakers offered perspective and personal experience on building open source civic solutions. Key takeaways from the first panel include:

• Governments can be consumers and leaders in technology development. Open source tech offers public officials cost-effective ways to quickly deploy tools that have already been built by other people. These solutions not only give governments more options, but empower the public sector to guide technology development toward better social outcomes.
• Open source challenges the current culture around risk management. Government administrations struggle to implement open source solutions because of understaffing, skill gaps, and fear of transparency due to legal consequences. However, closed-source software can lead to vulnerabilities, vendor lock-in, and ineffective outcomes. Open source software isn’t risk-free, but the risks are generally easier to mitigate than the risks posed by proprietary software.
• The use of open source solutions by governments can drive spur new business models for the tech industry. The decentralized structure of open source development drives innovation but creates challenges around software maintenance, legal disputes, or managing budgets. This presents new business opportunities for organizations who can provide wrap-around services to governments as they pursue open source development.
• Standards are key to unlocking the potential of open source. Siloed data systems undermine the efficiencies created by digital transformation in government. Interoperability comes from abiding by data standards and building with open APIs, which enables open source tools to be taken from one jurisdiction and adopted in another. Drafting standards requires coordination, which provides a unique opportunity for funders to support standards working groups.

Our second panel, Using Open Source Software During a Global Crisis, discussed how governments have used or reused open source solutions during the pandemic to speed innovation, resilience, and responsiveness. New America’s Director of Strategy for the Public Interest Technology Program, Hana Schank, moderated a panel with DIGI and PIT fellow Mark Lerner, Assistant Secretary of California’s Government Operations Agency Angelica Quirarte, and Co-Founder and CEO of the U.S. Digital Response (USDR) Raylene Young to extract key insights from the panelists’ experience using technology to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Insights from this panel included:

• Governments have difficulty discovering relevant open source projects. Unlike commercial software, open source solutions are less actively marketed to governments. Resources like the Pandemic Response Repository aim to make open source projects easier to find, but discoverability still remains a challenge.
• Volunteer communities can improve IT project sustainability. Strong project documentation can enable volunteer organizations or individuals to move in and out of projects without jeopardizing progress. As long as private data is secured, open software enables volunteers to contribute from anywhere, regardless of changes to their personal or professional circumstances.
• Perceived risks in open source development have to be weighed against exorbitant failures in proprietary IT procurement. While governments must still prioritize data security, heightened risks of underperforming software and delayed service delivery during crises have encouraged governments to challenge their preconceived notions of open source technology.

Even the worst crises -- and the pandemic certainly qualifies -- can present important opportunities for change as governments explore and implement new solutions. Innovative jurisdictions in the U.S. and abroad are proving that it is possible to iterate quickly and build tech that works using open source tools. Increasing use of open source technology may not be the only path to better government services, but it is one of the best strategies available to policymakers looking to improve the efficiency, accountability, and responsiveness of their communities’ digital infrastructure.

Please join us for future online sessions on how to utilize open source solutions and develop digital public goods. Send us a tweet at @DIGI_NewAmerica, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe for news and events from our program. We look forward to sharing more about how open source and other technologies can revitalize institutions for modern challenges.