CommunesPlone: OSS development in public organizations

CommunesPlone is a project in which Zope and Plone are used as the base framework to provide support for eGovernment and digital citizenship.

"What would be the potential impact on the development of the Information Society if public organisations were to release software fully owned by them under an open source license?" 

The project CommunesPlone (www.CommunesPlone.org) was born in Belgium about two years ago, aiming to boost e-innovation and bring to public organizations the advantages of the open source cooperative model.

The approach is not merely intended to bring open source  into  the PA as a software choice, but to enhance the capability of the public authorities to supply adequate services to the people, including technological capabilities connected to computerization.

CommunesPlone is now gathering Belgian and French local governments (16 Belgian communes and 2 French mairies) in a strong free software community which develops over the Zope / Plone framework.

• base the production of software on the real needs on the users - given that developers are also citizens and consumers
  
• gain independence from the traditional computer suppliers and create a new network of experts that are real resources for the organization
• regard the process of making software as a collaborative effort and share experiences and code with other similar organization
• adopt of common strategies and standards to improve the reuse and keep control while being open to every contribution and, eventually, bring back the results to the originating FLOSS community

The choice to use Zope and Plone are a great sign of the maturity and reliability of this platforms and is giving concrete results.

Until now, CommunesPlone has generated concrete tools such as a module to order administrative documents on the Internet, a business directory and Communal websites. Other tools being developed include a certification module (through the eID card) and a documentary management tool.

It is a great challenge in this kind of projects is to "keep the fire alive", that is to mantain the positive impact of the bottom-up setting balanced with the top-down support from the local governments and the mutuality with other subjects involved.

This has been reached so far, thanks to eg the enthusiastic commitment of the first promoters from the towns of Sambreville and Seneffe, and to the support of the association ZEA-Partners that were able to play a role of constant support and let the network grow.

The wish is of course to keep up the good work and extend it if possible to other settings and countries as a model of innovation and integration between open technologies and society.

References

www.zeapartners.org/articles/communesplone2007

ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/5617/469

www.communesplone.org

www.publicsectoross.info