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On August 8, a new batch of 60 free and open source projects was selected for the NGI Zero Commons Fund.
We want to thank these project teams for working on the digital commons and contributing to open, secure and trustworthy digital infrastructure for all.
This brings the total of grantees within the programme to 494 projects. There are still two more calls currently under evaluation for the program.
Meet the projects! https://nlnet.nl/news/2026/20260808-60-new-projects.html
Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
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- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
Last month, the European Commission published its communication on the push towards a data-driven economy. In the report we read that this year big data technology and services are expected to grow worldwide at a compound annual growth rate of 40% to reach USD 16.9 billion, with enormous potential in various fields. One of the eight action points identified in the communication to seize these opportunities and compete globally in the data economy is the deployment of open data: the EU must extensively share, use and develop its public data resources and research data infrastructures.
- Details
- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
Last month, the British intelligence agency GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) published its first public project under the Apache 2 open source license.
Read more: UK spies publish NoSQL database system as open source
- Details
- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
Companies House, the UK registry of companies, has deployed the open source database system MongoDB to rebuild its core services. Instead of revamping the existing (web) services based on Oracle, the agency decided to lay a completely new foundation for its digital services. The very same REST API that will be used by the Companies House to build their new web interface will also be made available to the public. That allows others to develop their own applications or to integrate these services into their own software and infrastructure.
Read more: UK Companies House rebuilds core services on MongoDB
- Details
- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
The Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) has deployed the open source software package ownCloud to provide cloud storage and file sharing services to 10,000 students and employees, making this one of the largest deployment of ownCloud worldwide. Each of the students and employees has 20 or 100 Gbyte, respectively, at his or her disposal. As the ownCloud software will be integrated into the existing IT processes of different areas of research, teaching and administration, the number of users will increase to more than 30,000.
Read more: TU Berlin deploys ownCloud for cloud storage and file sharing
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
British open source code from FixMyStreet provides basis for Swedish national service
In Sweden, the public open source movement is working its way from the bottom up. Kivos and Open Jämtland are two regional organisations coordinating interoperability and open standards issues for their respective municipalities. Both promote the use of open source software and open standards by public agencies as well as software vendors, and enable and deploy open source based solutions for local government. In these endeavours they are supported by SALAR, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, which represents all 290 Swedish municipalities and all other regional governments.
Another supporter is Vinnova, the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems, which invested 380,000 euro to develop of a platform for public e-services. This will host about ten e-government services which will be delivered through the cloud, offering services that can be used by all municipalities.
One of these municipal services is 'Fixa min gata', the Swedish equivalent of Britain's FixMyStreet. The first pilot was recently launched. Eventually it will be available to all Swedish municipalities as a single, national service.
Read more: Swedish public open source movement working from the bottom up