Swiss federal government organisations and agencies will soon be free to share the source code of their software solutions as open source. In addition, software developers working for the federal government should be able to be part of open source communities. The government wants to anchor this in federal law, according to new Guidelines on Open Source in the Federal Government.
The new rules will be part of an updated version of the ‘Bundesgesetz über die Digitale Verwaltung’ (Federal law on digital administration). This law will be circulated for comments soon, the government writes in the ‘Praxis-Leitfaden: ‘Open Source Software in der Bundesverwaltung’ (practical guidelines for open source in the federal government).
“Open source communities focus on the product and spend little time on marketing,” the guidelines warn. “This can create the false impression that there is no open source solution available.” The text refers to portals such as AlternativeTo, which list and compare similar solutions.
The text also details the ins and outs of open source licensing, describes open source business models, and gives examples of tools and solutions used to assess the quality of open source software.
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Swiss federal government organisations and agencies will soon be free to share the source code of their software solutions as open source. In addition, software developers working for the federal government should be able to be part of open source communities. The government wants to anchor this in federal law, according to new Guidelines on Open…