Open Source publication of software developed by the State of Geneva, Switzerland

For a number of years, the Geneva Cantonal Administration has been using a range of open source software such as Linux, Drupal, MySql and Apache Tomcat. The State of Geneva, however, wishes to broaden its role to become a real player in the open source field, by giving free access to the source codes of the software it develops for its own needs.

The State of Geneva aims at promoting its capacity to innovate, principally targeting other public domains whilst also benefitting from developer communities wishing to contribute to the evolution of its software.

Furthermore, the publishing of software source codes used by the public administration allows total transparency to be achieved by completely unveiling the building process of coding. The developing community will be able to point out weaknesses, identifying errors that will then be corrected as a result.

This "unveiling" of software is not a marketing element - it is a cultural change amidst the Cantonal Administration. By proceeding in such a way, the State of Geneva accepts to be placed under scrutiny and may risk negative consequences on its image. In summary, the functionality and security of Geneva State’s software may only benefit from this change; with flaws being detected that may not have surfaced during testing carried out solely by the Cantonal Administration. This does not imply creating a new open source publishing model belonging to Geneva’s administration. but rather rely on the most commonly used Web service - GitHub. The State of Geneva advises its developers to publish their code under the Apache 2.0 licence. For the community, that licence guarantees the four liberties of free software: study of the code, usage, modification and distribution.

The State of Geneva devised a full-fledged open source strategy (in French) in order to implement the open source practices in its daily activities, both for acquiring third-party software and for publishing its own production.