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Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

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Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#81

Post by donkeyd »

bluehazed wrote: post #59
donkeyd wrote: post #53

I've personally seen the Dutch government spend millions implementing open source software. This was something that could've been fixed for a fraction using a closed source solution. After a couple of years, the project was canceled and the closed source solution was implemented anyway. I'm not saying that using OSS is a bad thing. I don't, however, think that 'OSS only' is the solution to the problem at hand.

All this means is that new implementations of software created by contractors will required to be licensed differently than before (with an OSS license), so that contracted work is able to be audited by the public.

To me, it seems like this is not just about software created by contractors: > develop, upgrade or implementation of information systems and e-services Implementation infers that also OOTB software should be open source. To me this could lead to forced use of inferior OSS, or to costly implementations of OSS where there are only few experts.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#82

Post by jcrei »

onestone wrote: post #21

I remember the CEO of Information Services JSC (the de-facto Bulgarian monopolist in governement software procurement), prof. Mihail Konstantinov, making the ridiculous claim on TV that "We can't release the source code of the elections counting software. Anyone who has the source can hack into the system, even children know that. If you don't understand that, you should tear your diploma". Glad to see that morons su…

Estonia has published it's e-voting solution on Github: https://github.com/vvk-ehk/evalimine

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#83

Post by kavalg »

onion2k wrote: post #76
SyneRyder wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it makes you feel better, the Australian government said the same thing: "Ronaldson refused to table any documents relating to the case, stating that publishing the source code could lead to the EasyCount software being hacked. "In relation to the source code for the Senate counting system, I am advised that publication of the software could leave the voting system open to hacking or manipulation," he said. "In ad…

These politicians are right - simply opening the existing source, with all it's flaws, bugs, and security holes, would be dangerous. It would be a huge help to any malicious party. I don't think they're suggesting open source is worse from a security point of view; they're saying that you can't open up an existing product without doing a lot of work first. Where they are wrong is in the assumption that keeping the so…

To some extent yes, but this is only good if you can make sure that not a single malicious adversary has access to the source code. My assumption would be that in the voting case, the ones in power do have access to the code, which is actually worse than open sourcing it. Offtopic: IMHO, the only way to fix the voting software issue is to deanonymize the voting process to some extent, which is a hard problem by itself too.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#84

Post by mamon »

tw04 wrote: post #71
sb8244 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their end code must now be open source. Taxpayers can review the code they produce and raise a stink.

So again I ask: how does that fix anything? The government still spent too much money. The site still sucks. People are already raising a stink they're spending too much money for subpar work, and nothing has changed. Having the code has exactly 0 effect on either of those two issues. Even if a concerned citizen FIXED the code, the odds of the politicians refusing to accept the fixes "for the security of their infras…

It would prevent vendor lock-in. Some time ago, before government officials become more aware of IT matters, it was common practice in government contracts in Poland that consulting company creating website or bespoke IT system would keep code copyrights for themselves and then charge huge amount of money for even simplest change requests. That ended once they start requiring that source code is delivered together with binaries. Open-sourcing apps is just one small step further in the same direction.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#85

Post by aorth »

breakingcups wrote: post #5

This is very interesting, I wish more countries followed suit. In my ideal fantasy world, at some point other countries might have a look at one of the open source projects of Bulgaria and collaborate when the goals align closely.

It would be cool to have a Bulgarian version of the US Government's 18F:

https://18f.gsa.gov/

They have public standards for government websites, server HTTPS configs, website user interfaces, etc. On GitHub!

https://github.com/18F

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#86

Post by guiomie »

jomamaxx wrote: post #62
bluetomcat wrote: post #8

You wouldn't know the background motivating this decision unless you have been a frustrated user of the nearly non-functional software of Bulgarian state institutions. Ludicrous amounts of money are paid by the government to a selected niche of companies for developing all kinds of useless websites which barely work under load and have abysmal implementations with blatant security holes. This law can act as a safegua…

You mean like the Obamacare website that cost nearly $2 Billion to develop? By none other than CGI, HQ'd down the street from me in Montreal? Governments and Big Corps have quite an ability to spend money :). Understand that it's a game of distribution of power - not outcomes, and you understand it a little bit better :). Exceptionalism and efficiency is for small companies and startups, for the most part.

Considering the US is a powerhouse of software engineering, and this was a state project, why did they pay CGI a Canadian company to do this?

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#87

Post by kowdermeister »

anaolykarpov wrote: post #75

If facebook, google, twitter and others are able to run their world scale software on OSS solutions without being hacked, I am sure that OSS can power some national scale software as well.

They ARE being hacked from time to time :) But they also know that and they run bug-bounty programs.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#88

Post by jomamaxx »

guiomie wrote: post #86
jomamaxx wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like the Obamacare website that cost nearly $2 Billion to develop? By none other than CGI, HQ'd down the street from me in Montreal? Governments and Big Corps have quite an ability to spend money :). Understand that it's a game of distribution of power - not outcomes, and you understand it a little bit better :). Exceptionalism and efficiency is for small companies and startups, for the most part.

Considering the US is a powerhouse of software engineering, and this was a state project, why did they pay CGI a Canadian company to do this?

Because at the national scale, there are only a few outfits that could feasibly make the bid.

IBM, Accenture, a couple of others.

CGI is maybe the biggest 'go to' shop for this stuff. They have zillions of developers ready to go, and a deeply entrenched lobbyist/salesforce.

It's not as though the US Gov could just go to some little startup. Even though the probably should have - big governments and companies don't understand innovation and how these things work.

They see it like building 12 football stadiums - how could a small team do it? They need massive industries, tons of experts, lawyers, business analysts! :)

These things are hard.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#89

Post by wigam »

bluetomcat wrote: post #8

You wouldn't know the background motivating this decision unless you have been a frustrated user of the nearly non-functional software of Bulgarian state institutions. Ludicrous amounts of money are paid by the government to a selected niche of companies for developing all kinds of useless websites which barely work under load and have abysmal implementations with blatant security holes. This law can act as a safegua…

I hope our country gets to your level. Our online tax system is an excel sheet and the site doesn't handle load well.
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