Keynote: EMBAG - The New Swiss Open Source Law and Its Implementation - Prof. Matthias Stürmer (PhD), Head of the BFH Institute for Public Sector Transformation
Starting from January 2024, the "Federal Act on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks" (EMBAG) mandates the Swiss federal government to release its own software under an open source license. This new "Public Money, Public Code" law applies to all software developed by government programmers and external suppliers unless restricted by third-party rights or security concerns. Recent public tenders demonstrate the impact of this open source policy on national IT procurement. Additionally, new official guidelines on open source software release and community building suggest that the EMBAG law may lead to a paradigm shift in government software development and collaboration. Therefore, this presentation provides an overview of the new regulation and highlights evidence of its impact as well as early lessons learned.