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In an ongoing effort to improve service delivery, in December 2017, the Government of Canada committed, through the Enterprise Architecture Review Board (GC EARB) to use open source tools as a key component of its technology eco-system. Additionaly, members of the board committed to supporting the creation and adoption of open source practices throughout the government. This decision supports Canada's existing committments to improving government transparency, accountability, and access to government through its Open Government program. More information on Canada's approach to Open Government can be found on Open.Canada.ca.
The objective of this whitepaper is to outline the drivers, benefits, considerations, and governance taken into account when determining when and where to use open source tools. This whitepaper is being co-created by members of the Canadian open source community and is being lead by Canada's Treasury Board Secretariat.
This whitepaper captures the Government of Canada's (GC) approach to move towards a more open environment which includes changes in how we work, purchase, and provide information and services.
This direction is supported by the Prime Minister; in October, 2017, the President of the Treasury Board (TB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) concerning Digital Government with the United Kingdom. This MOU outlines the need to work together to provide public services in an open manner based on the Digital 5 Principles: User Needs, Open Standards, Open Source Software, Open Markets, Open Government and Assisted Digital.
This whitepaper has two objectives:
- To help inform a future GC policy that encompasses the use of open source tools.
- Determine a governance process for esnuring the effective and sustainable implemetnation of open source tools across the GC.
As mentioned above, this whitepaper is being co-developed by members of Canada's open source community in an effort to get the fullest picture of existing and future uses of open within the GC. While we have made a first attempt at gathering research, including best practices and jurisdictional case studies, there is always room to help improve. Please share your thoughts, case studies, questions, and concerns.
Contributions can be made through a pull request or by creating an issue.
We want to learn from Canadians, our partners, academics and technical experts to help us incorporate an open lens as we update GC policies, governance, funding and processes.
While the GC has been using open source tools for quite some time, within different pockets of the organization, this whitepaper, will help identify those existing efforts, and be more intentional in how they are governed. This is an important component of the GC's effort to create a more digital government. Inspired by the United Kingdom Government, the Government of Ontario and other jurisdictions, the GC has recently published Draft Digital Principles to guide digital development in the Government of Canada. These will shape how we approach managing our information, technology, and provision of services.
Three key principles that have guided this whitepaper are open culture, user needs, and interoperability. As you will learn, these concepts permeate all sections of this paper, therefore, we have expanded on this below.
Being aware of how we do our own business is key. Conversations about how to break down walls between departments with our partners, academia and the public continue to evolve. The use of open tools, practices, and involvement in open communities will help us to break down these walls and more directly connect people, ideas, tools, information, and services.
Examples of the GC’s continuous utilization of open source software (OSS) can be found in Environment Canada’s weather infrastructure, TBS’s Government of Canada 2.0 tools (i.e. GCpedia and GCconnex), the Open Data Platform, as well as in multiple departments openly contributing to the Web Experience Toolkit OSS project on GitHub (Source). Although prevalent, there has been little done to update GC policies, governance, funding and processes to ensure that open source tools are being used at the right place and at the right time. Moreover, a need exists to ensure that OSS is supported in a sustainable way and that there is appropriate policy and guidance for employees using these tools when needed.
This whitepaper aims to assess the GC’s current use of OSS tools, programs and activities. It also aims to identify current gaps to outline a path forward in creating a more complete open environment.
Gone are the days of designing a program, service, or tool without talking to a person who is going to be using it. Consultations, user experience testing, and public opinion research are all important aspects of how we do business. Once we incorporate the needs of our users, we can build services that help them with task they want to do more effectively and efficiently, and most importantly without having to understand government. This shift will require leaving behind many assumptions.
Individuals, businesses, the public, institutions and things all communicate via computer exchanges. These computer exchanges have become an essential conduit, and their overall heterogeneity is an even greater reason for interoperability, meaning the ability to make a variety of information systems communicate with one another. A lack of interoperability can lead, at best, to a breakdown in communication or operations and, at worst, to an outright loss of access to valuable information.
If you have any questions about this initiative, please contact Ashley Casovan, Lead of Open Source Architecture, ashley.casovan@tbs-sct.gc.ca.