European Commission Workshop „European Public Administrations and Open Source Sofware: The Power of Communities” Open Source World Conference January 12, 2012 in Granada, Spain

1. Open Source Project OpenJustitia
of the Federal Supreme Court of
Switzerland
European Commission Workshop
„European Public Administrations and Open Source Sofware:
The Power of Communities”
Open Source World Conference
January 12, 2012 in Granada, Spain

2. Short Bio of Matthias Stürmer
 Matthias Stürmer studied business administration and computer
science at University of Bern until 2005. The topic of his
licenciate was open source community building.
 In 2009 he finished his doctoral dissertation at the Chair of
Strategic Management and Innovation at ETH Zürich. His
research focused on open source communities and firm
involvement, the title of his PhD thesis was "How Firms Make
Friends: Communities in Private-Collective Innovation".
 He then worked for one year at the Swiss software company Liip
creating agile Internet solutions based on open source
Dr. Matthias Stürmer technologies.
Senior Advisor
 Since 2010 he is Senior Advisor at Ernst & Young specialised on
Ernst & Young open source, open government, and social media.
Belpstrasse 23
3001 Bern  Matthias Stürmer is member of the board of Swiss Open System
Switzerland User Group /ch/open, secretary of the Swiss Parliamentarian
Group for Digital Sustainability, leader of www.opensource.ch and
matthias.stuermer@ch.ey.com
co-founder of the open data initiative opendata.ch.
Work: +41 58 286 61 97
Mobile: +41 58 289 61 97  Since 2010 he is member of the city parliament of Bern.
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 2

3. Agenda
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the
Federal Supreme Court
of Switzerland
1. Introduction
2. Community structure and governance
3. Competitive dynamics and the role of politics
4. Open source related initiatives by Ernst & Young
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 3

4. The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland
 Highest court in Switzerland based in Lausanne and Lucerne
 Around 7500 judgements annually in German, French, and Italian
 Follows open standards (2001) and open source (2009) strategy:
Use, publish, and maintain open source software
 400 thin client users (judges, staff etc.) on Sun OpenSolaris
 Since 2002 StarOffice, since 2010 OpenOffice, everything on ODF
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 4

5. About OpenJustitia
 Internal court decision administration system for management
of all documents related to a court judgement
 165'000 court decisions since 1954, 332'000 stored documents,
55'000 documents semantically indexed (manually)
 OpenJustitia consists of several modules:
●
OpenJustitia Doc: management and search of legal documents
●
OpenJustitia Ldoc: local search of legal documents
●
OpenJustitia Norm: automatic and semi-automatic recognition of legal
norms within court judgements
●
OpenJustitia Anom: semi-automatic anonymisation of judgements
●
OpenJustitia Bib: search in legal literature
●
OpenJustitia Spider: integration of external legal data sources
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 5

6. Open source stack of OpenJustitia
 All source code in Java J2EE, running on Apache Tomcat
 Open source DMS Alfresco for document management
 Apache Lucene for indexing and search engine
 PostgreSQL for data storage (index, legal norms etc.)
 Java macros for OpenOffice integration on the client
 External interfaces for Java/JDBC (for metadata) and XML
(for import/export of judgements, legal norms,
thesaurus...)
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 6

7. Screenshot of OpenJustitia
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 7

8. History of OpenJustitia
1. No available Swiss court software met the Federal Court's
requirements for managing court decisions
2. Internal software development team programmed the
Federal Court's individual administration system
3. Federal Court decided to 'open source' its own software
following its open source intentions within the IT strategy
4. Minor technical and governance preparations were
necessary to initiate the open source project OpenJustitia
5. Political troubles (see later)
6. Release of the source code on September 1, 2011 below
GNU General Public License Version 3 (GPLv3)
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 8

9. Reasons to release as open source
Why did the Federal Court initiate OpenJustitia?
1. Benefitting the most of tax payer's money
●
Switzerland has dozens of national, cantonal, and regional
courts that all have similar technical needs for administrating
court judgements.
●
Federal open source strategy as well as the Federal E-
Government strategy both recommend collaborative software
development at institutional level in order to save costs.
2. Improve court management software
●
On the long term and through a healthy community OpenJustitia
will become more stable, secure and feature-rich.
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 9

10. Agenda
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the
Federal Supreme Court
of Switzerland
1. Introduction
2. Community structure and governance
3. Competitive dynamics and the role of politics
4. Open source related initiatives by Ernst & Young
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 10

11. Website www.openjustitia.org
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 11

12. Open source community guidelines
 From the Federal Court, only 6 pages
 Common understanding on what is
OpenJustitia and who can how in
which body participate.
 Content of the community guidelines:
 Introduction (background, goals etc.)
 Principles of the OpenJustitia community
 Intended members of the community
 Bodies of the OpenJustitia community
 Rules and procedures
 Source:
http://www.openjustitia.org/DE/01_OpenJustitia_Regeln_V1.2_d.pdf
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 12

13. Community principles of OpenJustitia
Basic principles and values the Federal Court
intends to adhere to within the OpenJustitia
community and expects the same of any other
community member:
1. Equality: Every one (court, company etc.) is
treated the same
2. Transparency: Communication happens as
open as possible
3. Meritocracy: For the moment Federal Court
is in control. But if others contribute more,
then they may also gain influence on the
projects future development.
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 13

14. Intended members of the community
 Federal Court: initiator and thus main
knowledge carrier at the moment
 Courts: all Swiss courts, but also
foreign courts feasible
 Other public institutions: using all or
parts of OpenJustitia
 Open source providers: software firms
that offer services for OpenJustitia
 Other firms: companies that may
benefit of the software, e.g. legal firms
 Universities: law schools for indexing
and researching legal texts
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 14

15. Bodies of the OpenJustitia community
 Members: free membership for any
legal entity (public institution,
company, association etc.) that uses
OpenJustitia or provides services for it
 Coordination committee: executives of
entities that use OpenJustitia in
mission-critical environment; Federal
Court directs the committee and has
two seats of a maximum of 5 seats
 Technology committee: software
developers or architects with in-depth
knowledge of the source code; is
responsible for all technical aspects
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 15

16. Rules and procedures
 Annual assembly: OpenJustitia
community members meet at least
once a year to receive annual report
and to do elections.
 Exclusion: If a community member
doesn't follow the guidelines, the
coordination committee can exclude
the member.
 Introductory support: Federal
Court offers support of 5 days to
the 5 five first members
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 16

17. Community membership
 Formal participation through written
declaration of enrollment
 Member accepts following requirements:
1. Interest in healthy progress of OpenJustitia
2. Participation at the general assembly
3. Accepts governance guidelines
4. Written withdrawal at resignation
5. Exclusion through majority vote of the
coordination committee if governance
guidelines are breached
 Source:
http://www.openjustitia.org/DE/02_OpenJustitia_Beitrittserklaerung_V1.2_d.pdf
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 17

18. Agenda
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the
Federal Supreme Court
of Switzerland
1. Introduction
2. Community structure and governance
3. Competitive dynamics and the role of politics
4. Open source related initiatives by Ernst & Young
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 18

19. Reactions from the press
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 19

20. Accusations by the press
 „Dumping of prizes“
 „Cross-subsidization thus missuse of tax money“
 „Commercial services by public institution“
 „Oversized IT department of Federal Court“
 „Federal Court as public software provider“
 „Market-distorting practices of the Federal Court“
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 20

21. Political and media lobbying
What had happened?
 There are several proprietary Swiss court software vendors
 Some expected OpenJustitia positively, one opponed heavily
 This software vendor contacted a member of the parliament
 Member of the parliament planned intervention through
governance commission of the Federal Court
 Software vendor informed major newspapers
 Newspapers reported negatively about OpenJustitia
 Members of the Parliamentarian Group for Digital
Sustainability supported intentions of OpenJustitia
 Governance commission finally didn't stop the Federal Court
to release OpenJustitia
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 21

22. Answers by the Federal Court
 Equal rights: every company can offer commercial
services for OpenJustitia, the Federal Court only
supports in the beginning
 Legal situation: there is no law that forbids public
institutions to release open source software
 Commercial competition: Federal Court doesn't sell
the source code, but gives it out for free
 Liabilty: Federal Court is not liable for the GPLv3-
software, that is the job of private firms
 Source:
http://www.bger.ch/antworten_fragen_gpk_de.pdf
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 22

23. Core members of the
Parliamentarian Group for Digital Sustainability
Co-presidents
Edith Graf-Litscher Christian Wasserfallen
Member of the National Council Member of the National Council
Core team
Balthasar Glättli Kathy Riklin
Member of the National Council Member of the National Council
Thomas Weibel
Member of the National Council
Website of the parliamentarian group:
www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.ch
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 23

24. Members of the Parliamentarian Group for
Digital Sustainability – total 15% of parliament
Alec von Graffenried
Barbara Schmid-Federer
Brigitte Häberli-Koller
Carlo Sommaruga
Cédric Wermuth
Claude Janiak
Evi Allemann
Felix Gutzwiller
Francine John-Calame
Franziska Teuscher
Geri Müller
Hans Altherr
Hugues Hiltpold
Ignazio Cassis
Jacqueline Badran
Kathrin Bertschy
Liliane Maury Pasquier
Louis Schelbert
Luc Recordon
Lukas Reimann
Maja Ingold
Maria Roth-Bernasconi
Marianne Streiff-Feller
Matthias Aebischer
Peter Malama
Philipp Hadorn
Raphaël Comte
Sylvia Flückiger-Bäni
Thomas Aeschi
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland Yvonne Gilli 24

25. Outlook OpenJustitia
 Growing member base: today seven firms and public
institutions have become OpenJustitia members
 First member meeting in 2012: initiation of technical and
leading boards, decision on how to progress
 Technical improvements: integrate OpenJustitia in public
website, optimization of automatic recognition, enhance
documentation, integration of business process software
for court decisions, possibly Italian and English translation
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 25

26. Vision for promoting open source
 Incentive system for government agencies to release
proprietary software below open source licenses:
Liberos, the currency for Digital Sustainability
 Non-monetary award for public institutions; quantification for
sharing digital assets, some sort of 'openness Karma'
 Could also be used to honor open government data releases
Source: http://www.freefoto.com/preview/901-23-8908/Coins
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 26

27. Agenda
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the
Federal Supreme Court
of Switzerland
1. Introduction
2. Community structure and governance
3. Competitive dynamics and the role of politics
4. Open source related initiatives by Ernst & Young
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 27

28. Ernst & Young open source brochure
 Open source has one major weakness: marketing and PR
 Top management vendor-neutral brochure from Ernst & Young:
Why and how professionals use open source software
 Content:
●
Benefits, risks and good practices
●
Professional application of
open source software
●
Legal aspects of open source
●
Background information on
open source software
 Download as PDF on
Ernst & Young website
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 28

29. Project to improve OOXML support
in LibreOffice/OpenOffice
Public institutions
 City of Freiburg i.B.
 City of München
 City of Jena
 Swiss Federal Court
 Federal Strategy Unit for IT (ISB)
 Another Swiss federal agency
 Canton of Vaud
Project organization
 Coordination through new Open Source Work packages within the specification
Business Alliance (OSBA) Working Group 1. Formatting of frames and images in .docx
„Office Interoperability“ 2. Formatting of tables in .docx
 Public tender available on OSBA website 3. Formatting of lists in .docx
 Open for offers by open source firms until 4. Formatting of comments in .docx and .xlsx
January 31, 2012 5. Embedding of fonts in OOXML and ODF
 Additional public institutions welcome!
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 29

30. Open source strategy development
 Reasons for an open source
strategy: to benefit of the
potential of open source software
and to manage the involved risks
 Open source strategy spider: 8
typical elements of an open
source strategy (next to
descriptive sections of the
strategy)
 Important: implementation of
the open source strategy through
defined actions
 Open source strategy workshops
moderated by Ernst & Young
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 30

31. Open source compliance scan
 In-depth analysis of proprietary
software code in order to check
compliance with open source
licenses
 Black Duck Knowledge Base
contains versioned source code of
>560'000 open source projects
linked to >2000 software licenses
 Pilot project with Black Duck in
February 2012 at a client
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 31

32. Swiss open source study 2012
 Analysis of diffusion of open source: Who
uses which open source technologies, why,
with which benefit, why not etc.?
 Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open
and SwissICT
 Start in March 2012, publication of results
in October 2012
 Additionally reports, case studies, best
practices etc. to make use of open source
software more known.
 Call for Participation:
http://www.swissict.ch/fileadmin/sekretariat/Info/2012_OSS_Studie_Call_for_Participation.pdf
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 32

33. Swiss IT procurement conference
 Conference on public IT procurement
in Fall 2012 in Bern
 Organized by
●
Swiss Federal Government
●
Cantonal IT Leaders
●
SwissICT
●
Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open
 Target Audience
●
IT procurement professionals
●
IT vendors
●
Lawyers and consultants in procurement
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 33

34. Thank you for your attention!
 Questions, comments, wishes?
 Contact us anytime:
Dr. Matthias Stürmer
Senior Advisor Ernst & Young
matthias.stuermer@ch.ey.com
Work: +41 58 286 61 97
Mobile: +41 58 289 61 97
Open Source Project OpenJustitia of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 34