Jaque Barbero would like public authorities to create their own communities in order to share applications' development and maintenance costs. Such communities will increase interoperability, by making and using open source applications, argues Jaque Barbero. This type of software allows faster development and quicker diffusion, he adds. "(The alternative) takes years, by building new interfaces or standards" concludes Mr. Barbero.

The director was one of the speakers in a workshop on public administrations and open source communities that took place in Granada, Spain. The workshop was organised by the European Commission's ISA programme, and coincided with the Open Source World Conference.

Cenatic's director says that communities formed by public administrations differ from other groups involving open source developers. These communities evolve voluntarily, but public administrations can actively identify and contact similar organisations that could be interested, across regions and countries. "Public authorities should actually plan their community", he said, "and take into account a technical roadmap, financing, marketing and quality control".

The first step of public administrations taking up open source software is usually re-use, according to Jaque Barbero. Next comes sharing applications with other public administrations, and making it publicly available. In the final, third stage, of this evolution, public administrations collaborate on applications with the motto: "It's not my software. It's our software"

Further Information:

• Original news article - Joinup platform - European Commission
• Open Source World Conference website
• ISA Workshop on power of open source development communities  
• Cenatic website