Collaboration on public sector Open Source Software (OSS) projects is steadily increasing along with demands for sovereign and interoperable technology stacks. Still, the practice has yet to catch up compared to industry and the broader OSS ecosystem, whose ways of working need to be tailored to manage the many challenges and restraints falling on the public sector. Examples we've come across include the dependency on sourcing of technical expertise, rigorous public procurement frameworks, risk-aversive and self-centric culture, and limited forums for collaboration.

To help accelerate the public sector's use and development of OSS, we therefore investigated six successful cases of public sector OSS projects from different countries and levels of government. In this talk, we will provide insights on how development is commonly concentrated and performed with the use of national and local service providers. We will talk about different funding models, either involving one or a few central actors, or a wider set through different setups of crowd-funding. We will further elaborate on sustainability challenges related to the various ways of working, and potential approaches to addressing these proactively.

Attendees will walk away with concrete and live examples to reference, as well as insights on how their organizations can start to engage and collaborate on new and existing public sector OSS projects. The presentation will further help to provide framing and input to other presentations within the devroom and hallway talks, stimulating knowledge sharing and growing a community of practice.