Leading European Open Source Non-Profit Organizations Announce OSPO Alliance To Promote Best Practices in Open Source Governance

Leading European Open Source Non-Profit Organizations Announce OSPO Alliance To Promote Best Practices in Open Source Governance

PARIS, June 23, 2021

Today at OW2con, a coalition of leading European open source non-profit organizations, including OW2, Eclipse Foundation, OpenForum Europe, and Foundation for Public Code, announced the OSPO Alliance with a mission to grow awareness for open source in Europe and globally and to promote the structured and professional management of open source by companies and administrations.

The OSPO Alliance aims to help companies and public institutions discover and understand open source, start benefiting from it across their activities and grow to host an Open Source Program Office (OSPO). It will be focused on the role of OSPOs as an aspect of organizational governance essential in non-technology sectors including education and public administration.

The OSPO Alliance is also announcing the establishment of the OSPO.Zone website hosted at https://ospo.zone. Based on the OW2 Good Governance Initiative, OSPO.Zone is a repository for a comprehensive set of resources for corporations, public institutions, and research and academic organizations. OSPO.Zone will enable the Alliance to connect with OSPOs across Europe and the world as well as with supportive community organizations. It will encourage best practices and foster contribution to the sustainability of the open source ecosystem.

To support its mission, OSPO Alliance is teaming up with a variety of strong partners:

“In an effort to encourage mainstream adoption of open source software, we have been building the Good Governance Initiative at OW2 for nearly two years and it has been well received across Europe. The obvious next step is to contribute it to the OSPO.Zone as we join forces with other European open source organizations to launch the OSPO Alliance” said Cedric Thomas, Founder and Executive Director, OW2.

"As open source becomes increasingly important to all aspects of the economy and society, OSPOs are becoming an essential feature of all organizations interested in innovation and collaboration" said Gaël Blondelle, VP of European Ecosystem Development, Eclipse Foundation AISBL. "The Eclipse Foundation is proud to join its partners in establishing the OSPO Alliance to create high quality resources for organizations who wish to learn how to use, contribute, and participate in open source projects and their communities."

“Bosch is pleased to support the creation of OSPO.Zone, a non-commercial alliance in the service of open source software in Europe and globally" said Lars Geyer-Blaumeiser, Responsible for strategic Open Source topics in the Bosch OSPO. "As a leading European industrial, Bosch recognizes the importance of open source in its transformation to an AIoT company and the role of a well-connected OSPO for sharing best governance practices to accelerate the transformation by enabling active participation in open source communities."

“The OW2 Good Governance initiative already provides us with an excellent framework to support our commitment to open source and develop the City of Paris’ OSPO,” said Nejia Lanouar, CIO of the City of Paris. “Today, we are pleased to support the launch of the OSPO Alliance and look forward to sharing our experience on a European scale through this new community.”

“As an association of large French companies and administrations, TOSIT appreciates any effort to professionalize open source management. As such we welcome the launch of the OSPO Alliance and the Europe-wide experience sharing platform it provides," said Simon Clavier, SNCF Open Source Strategist and TOSIT Board Member.

“Code and software are part of the cultural heritage of humanity. We are pleased to support the launch of the OSPO Alliance, a European initiative contributing to the promotion of best practices in the use and preservation of open source software,” said Roberto Di Cosmo, Director at Software Heritage.

"The OSPO Alliance is an important new initiative to raise awareness of open source in Europe," said Tom Ritter, Deputy Director of Fraunhofer FOKUS. "As one of the leading research organizations in Europe we have seen firsthand the increasing importance of contribution to and participation in open source communities in many sectors. I look forward to seeing the OSPO Alliance act as a catalyst for the creation of more OSPOs in industry, public institutions, and research organizations"

About the OSPO Alliance:

The OSPO Alliance was established by leading European open source non-profit organisations, including OW2, Eclipse Foundation, OpenForum Europe, and Foundation for Public Code, and experienced practitioners with the aim to grow awareness for open source in Europe and to globally promote structured, responsible and professional management of open source by companies and administrations. OSPO.Zone is the new website for delivering the resources and collaboration envisaged by the OSPO Alliance. Learn more at https://ospo.zone.

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