Municipal collaboration on open source software - Why is it so hard?
summary
Municipal projects often ship code but not governance: the Opening platform is released under an APDL-like license yet accumulates crippling technical debt, the vendor runs a SaaS while ~180 municipalities remain customers and contributors cannot build the product; a 2019 report documents impossibility of reproducing builds and a 20‑year procurement deal creates early lock‑in. Successful patterns show municipal consortia and foundations — e.g. a Danish association with 70+ members, Prague/Paris efforts, and Sigmalan/Foundation for Public Code — plus repeatable funding, on‑ramps, vendor contracts and governance.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Municipal open source challenges
- 1:16Open ePlatform failure case study
- 6:52Open source adoption struggles
- 10:54Procurement and legal barriers
- 13:49Cultural and knowledge gaps
- 15:53Lack of coordination and policy
- 19:54Denmark’s collaboration models
- 22:06Open source foundations and communities
- 25:19Key lessons for collaboration
- 26:45Shared resources and investments
- 27:29Q&A
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