Open source software has conquered a large part of the technical infrastructure and is taking an increasingly important place in all information systems up to the terminals.
According to a recent study, commissioned by the European Commission, companies in the EU invested about €1 billion in open source software in 2018, with an estimated impact on the European economy of between €65 and €95 billion.
The French market was, in 2019, the largest in volume compared (5.2 billion euros) to other European countries.
On October 21, 2021, the European Commission approved a new strategy for open source software 2020-2023. It " sets out a vision for fostering and leveraging the transformative, innovative and collaborative power of open source, its principles and development practices."
In December 2021, the Commission adopted new rules on open source software: to publish the source code of proprietary software, the Commission services will benefit from a much faster and less cumbersome procedure.
The impact of open source software on the European economy is estimated at between 65 and 95 billion euros.
The European Commission published on September 6, 2021 a study on the impact of Open Source Software (OSS) and Open Source Hardware (OSH) on the European economy, conducted by Fraunhofer ISI and OpenForum Europe.
The report provides a comprehensive picture of the current commercial uses of free software (or open source software), its costs and benefits, as well as the global policy efforts to utilize and amplify the benefits of using free software.
According to the report, " European open source developers (independent developers, academics, civil servants and private sector employees) contribute significantly to the global open source ecosystem.
In the EU, employees of small and very small companies are most likely to contribute to the production of FOSS code (unlike in the US, where contributions come mainly from large companies)
Companies located in the EU invested some €1 billion in open source software in 2018.
The study concludes that the open source pool contributes significantly to the EU's GDP, and that a 10% increase in contributions would generate between 0.4% and 0.6% additional GDP for the EU each year.
A 10% increase would result in the creation of more than 600 additional technology start-ups per year in the EU.
Econometric time series analysis of EU member state GDP data indicates that in 2018, across all member states, the economic impact of open source software was between 65 and 95 billion euros. The number of individual contributors was at least 260,000, or 8% of the nearly 3.1 million EU employees working in the computer programming sector in 2018.
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Contrasting national dynamics
A study conducted in 2019 by Teknowlogy for the National Council of Open Source Software (CNLL), Syntec Numérique and Systematic, had undertaken to assess the orders of magnitude of revenues generated by Open Source and the trends in the main national markets in Europe.
The French market was, in 2019, the largest in volume compared (5.2 billion euros) to other European countries. " It owes this broad incursion into open source to a strong culture of specific development and integration of heterogeneous systems, as well as the historical investment of administrations in this area," comment its authors.
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In , given the dominance of a player like SAP, the market remains smaller with €5.1 billion (+8.2%) expected in 2020, but should become more dynamic in the future.
Germany
In , the open source market is expected to grow, with the transfer of legacy systems to open source. The community is driven by the strong commitment of cloud providers, private companies, IT services companies and startups. A lack of regulation and public procurement policy and a strong corporate lobby are slowing the development of the open source market.
Germany
At , the British Open Source market is growing steadily. Its main driver remains cost reduction. All sectors are involved but contributions remain marginal. Public policies favor open source. The authors mention a deficit of experts who really understand the mechanisms of open source.
United Kingdom
In , the open source market is growing at more than 15% per year. Although the public sector is the main user and contributor of Open Source, there is no policy governing the market. In the absence of major pure players, the Open Source market has difficulty meeting all the needs of companies.
Spain
In addition to 70% of companies would use Open Source, the contributions are still low, except in the public sector. All new projects in the public sector are released under an open source license. The country lacks experts, but the popularity of Open Source is high in universities.
Italy,
A wide variety of motivations for participating in open source software
For this report, over 900 companies and developers responded to a survey. Nearly 25% of respondents were software development companies and 10% were individual developers. Start-ups were heavily represented.
Respondents' motivations for participating in OSS were, in order of priority: Personal interests of individual participants were also important.
- find technical solutions,
- avoid dependence on suppliers,
- advance the state of development of the technology,
- develop high quality source code,
- knowledge seeking and knowledge creation.
Access to new markets and customers through open source contributions was not a significant incentive.
However, the study's authors observe, " cost reduction was an important motivation, reducing internal maintenance efforts, accessing royalty-free source code and improving returns on R&D investment."
Among other above-average motivations, respondents using open source software and contributing source code to open source projects identified support for open standards and interoperability as generating the highest benefits, with benefits being indirect and resulting from network externalities rather than direct revenue.
- the creation of networks,
- development of non-differentiating features (e.g., commonly used libraries)
- and reputation enhancement.
Respondents also attributed above-average importance to: access to source code, reduced expenses, avoidance of vendor dependency, access to an active community for knowledge exchange, the positive effect of their participation on innovation, and improved security and quality.
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Implementing effective public policies on open source software remains a challenge
The section of the report devoted to public and private sector government policies on open source software reveals significant differences in scope and focus.
The report identifies four main motivations, with variation over time in emphasis: It distinguishes two main waves of government support for open source software, the first beginning in the early 2000s and the second in the mid-2010s.
- cost savings;
- transition costs and network effects ;
- underproduction of public goods;
- market competition and technological neutrality.
These policies " aim either to improve open source skills and optimize outcomes within the public sector, or to favor open source software over proprietary software in public procurement. These policies have different scopes, implementation mechanisms and normative characters, ranging from binding laws to simple standards."
"Some governments impose or influence industrial policy to generate innovation through OSS, while others work with universities to foster OSS education and development, or work directly to support the creation or support of OSS communities. Governments may also directly fund or certify open source projects to achieve their policy goals." "Public sector open source policies have often been unsuccessful, even in the case of government procurement."
The majority of the EU member states and other European countries surveyed have formal open source policies at the national level: in most cases they include a public procurement policy for open source software.
According to the report's authors, " public sector open source policies have often been unsuccessful, even in the case of public procurement."
"The only truly convincing implementations have occurred in cases where open source has become a central part of a digital shift and has consequently become embedded in the digital culture of the administration concerned. Laws requiring the development and reuse of open source software in the public sector have generally not been successful, often due to the lack of concrete implementation guidelines." "Current events," the study's authors conclude, " offer a window of opportunity for EU leadership and commitment to produce disproportionate results. Open source foundations and standards developers have relocated to the EU in the wake of recent trade disputes. The tradition of neutrality represented by non-governmental entities headquartered in the EU thus provides an attractive solution to a problem that is likely to persist regardless of policy developments in other parts of the world."
In particular, the report recommends that the European Union:
- to conduct an industrial policy dedicated to open source and to include it in its main policy frameworks, such as the Green Pact for Europe and the European Industrial Strategy, as well as in policies related to SMEs,
- to set up a European network of administrative units dedicated to accelerating the use of free software and open technologies (OSPOs or "Free Software Missions"),
- provide substantial funding for support mechanisms, as well as for open source projects, for example through the Horizon Europe R&D program,
- improve the inclusion of open source software in public procurement,
- and more globally to promote digital autonomy and technological sovereignty through Open Source.
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The European Commission's new strategy for open source software 2020-2023
On October 21, the European Commission approved the new open source software strategy 2020-2023
This is an important step towards achieving the objectives of the Commission's overall digital strategy and contributing to the Digital Europe agenda.
The internal strategy, under the theme ''Think Open'', defines a vision to encourage and leverage the transformative, innovative and collaborative power of open source, its principles and development practices. It encourages the sharing and reuse of software solutions, knowledge and expertise to deliver better European services that benefit society and reduce costs for society. The Commission is committed to increasing its use of open source software not only in practical areas such as IT, but also in areas where it can be strategic.
The main objectives of the new strategy are to enable the Commission to : The implementation of the strategy will be guided by 6 principles: think open, transform, share, contribute, secure, retain control.
- Progressing towards Europe's digital autonomy, a clean and independent digital approach;
- Implementing the European Commission's Digital Agenda;
- Encourage the sharing and reuse of software and applications, as well as data, information and knowledge;
- Contribute to the knowledge society by sharing the Commission's source code;
- Building a world-class public service;
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Commission opens up its software for the benefit of businesses, innovators and areas of public interest
The Commission adopted new rules on open source software in December 2021, which will open up access to its software solutions where there are potential benefits for citizens, businesses and public services.
It explicitly builds on the findings of the study it commissioned to assess the impact of open source software on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy.
The Commission services will benefit from a much faster and less cumbersome procedure for publishing the source code of software they own.
To illustrate the benefits of open source, the Commission mentions two examples: All of the Commission's open source software available in one place
- eSignature, a set of open standards, tools and services that enable public administrations and businesses to accelerate the creation and verification of legally valid electronic signatures in all EU Member States.
- LEOS (Legislation Editing Open Software), used throughout the Commission for drafting legal texts. Originally written for the Commission, LEOS is now being developed in close collaboration with Germany, Spain and Greece.
The Commission will make its software available as open source in a single repository to facilitate access and reuse. Prior to its release, each piece of software will be reviewed to eliminate, where appropriate, security or privacy risks, data protection issues and infringements of third party intellectual property rights.
This decision will facilitate and improve the efficiency of many processes:
- the distribution of software under an open source license will no longer require a Commission decision;
- To the extent possible, the Commission services will progressively review all software developed before the adoption of these new rules and identify those that have the potential to generate value outside the Commission;
- The Commission now allows its software developers to contribute to open source projects by proposing improvements developed in the course of their own work.
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"Open source, a hidden asset for Europe in the race for digital leadership
APELL, the European Professional Association for Open Source Software, sees in the Commission's study "a solid foundation to build on"."The need for digital autonomy as well as the many positive externalities of open source contributions to the economy therefore justify a step forward in terms of political commitment.
The key question for APELL, which brings together the main business associations representing the open source sector, "is therefore to identify the public policies, at the EU and national levels, that will enable the European open source software sector to develop further.
To this end, it formulates a series of proposals. For APELL, "in all areas of digital technology, whether it is the Cloud, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity or the Internet of Things, open source software is at the heart of innovation and Europe must seize this opportunity to take the lead.
- Establish specific open source strategies at the EU level and in each Member State focused on stimulating economic growth, innovation and digital sovereignty.
- Prioritize open source in public and private sector software purchases so that insurmountable vendor dependency becomes impossible.
- Promote investment in open source software, for example with support for SMEs in the pre-competitive phases of developing new technologies, and a generalization of tax incentives for open source contributions.
- Increase public funding for specific and strategic open source projects, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, through existing programs and new initiatives.
- Putting open source at the heart of digital skills development and computer science education strategies across Europe.
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