114 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
114 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2021-12-16">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Lack of public code cost the city of Stockholm €100 million</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Lack of public code cost the city of Stockholm €100 million</h1>
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<p>
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<i>Öppna skolplattformen</i> was developed out of the frustration of some parents
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in Stockholm when they noticed some irregularities and security issues in the
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proprietary school platform provided by the city. The original app cost the
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city one billion Swedish krona (around €100 million) and it turned out to be
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badly flawed.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/089c7baba968418669601f56d1f72d86.png" alt="PMPC"/>
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</figure>
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<p>
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Administrations are relying more and more on digital solutions to improve their
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workflows and to make daily processes easier. This was exactly the case of the
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city of Stockholm and its original <i>Skolplattformen</i>. This platform was meant to
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be used as a common digital platform for Stockholm's kindergartens and schools,
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by giving parents information about their children's school directly to their
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devices. However, the platform did not work as expected, and once some parents
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took a closer look at the software, they found numerous flaws in the app.
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</p>
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<p>
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This frustrating situation made them decide to reverse-engineer the platform's
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API to create a Free Software alternative - <a href="https://github.com/kolplattformen/skolplattformen">Öppna skolplattformen</a> -
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that offers a simpler, faster, and more secure experience. Despite these efforts,
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the city of Stockholm was neither happy nor willing to collaborate with the
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team of <i>Öppna skolplattformen</i>, and instead decided to start a legal investigation
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and fill out a police report against the developers of the app arguing misuse
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of personal data.
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>"If we could use openness as our competitive advantage and do much better collaboration with each other, we could start seeing a lot of potential for Europe to be more competitive in terms of global economy."
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<cite>Christian Landberg, co-founder and developer of Öppna skolplattformen </cite>
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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This is the story of a struggle of some parents trying to fix the problems
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that pricey proprietary software brought, and a skeptical administration that
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found itself trapped in a serious vendor lock-in. With Christian
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Landberg - co-founder and developer of <i>Öppna skolplattformen</i> - and Alexander
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Crawford - early supporter and strategic, policy and communication advisor of
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<i>Öppna skolplattformen</i> - we talked in depth about the Open School Platform.
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What drove them to release it under a Free Software license, its progress and
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current situation, and what lies ahead for this platform, but also for the use
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of public code in the public sector?
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</p>
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<video preload="none" controls="controls" width="100%">
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<source src="https://download.fsfe.org/videos/pmpc/OpenSchoolPlatform.mp4"
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type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"' />
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</video>
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<p>Video (in English)</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p><i>"Öppna skolplattformen</i> is becoming a snowball that has escalated and it's changing the conversation around civic tech and digitalisation of public sector."
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<cite>Alexander Crawford, early supporter and advisor of Öppna skolplattformen</cite>
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h2>Public Money? Public Code!</h2>
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<p>
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Over the last four years, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has been
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advocating for more software freedom in the public sector in the framework of
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the Public Money? Public Code! initiative. It requires that publicly financed
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software developed for the public sector should be made publicly available under
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Free Software licenses. The arguments for this demand are based on the benefits
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that Free Software can foster, such as saving long-term costs, promotion and
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support of the local economy, transparency, interoperability, and more.
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</p>
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<p>
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You can support this call by <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">joining our
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campaign</a>, <a href="/activities/publiccode/brochure">distributing our brochure</a>, and convincing <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC">your local administration</a> to use Free Software.
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</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="pmpc">Public Money? Public Code!</tag>
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<tag key="procurement">Public procurement</tag>
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<tag key="public-administration">Public administration</tag>
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<tag key="education">Education</tag>
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</tags>
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<discussion href="https://community.fsfe.org/t/787"/>
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<image url="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/089c7baba968418669601f56d1f72d86.png" alt="PMPC"/>
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</html>
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