United Nations Headquarters, New York
The Movement for Open Source Government is Organized at the UN HQ.
Top performing cities are participating.New York City hosts it.It's time for New York City government to join it.
A Global Movement
Global cities are putting open source at the center of their technology strategy.
From national code catalogues to city OSPOs, the world's best performing governments are building on software they own and share. Learn the vocabulary, the history, and see the map.
Explore the movement →Governments with Open Source Program Offices
Open Source Applications in Public Government Catalogs
The UN Principles
The UN is helping cities adopt open source. Their principles help.
The UN Open Source Principles articulate a global consensus on how institutions should adopt and interact with open source — and a growing directory of organizations has formally endorsed them.
Read the eight principles →Software Principles
Community Principles
Open Source for NYC
New York rents its software. It should own it and improve it.
The city is putting billion-dollar IT contracts in place to keep renting proprietary systems — with nothing owned at the end. Here is what switching would save, unlock, and signal.
See six reasons →Estimated Annual Rent
Case Studies
Well-run cities are transitioning to open source. It's working.
Barcelona signed first. Munich made the landmark migration. Paris scaled one office into national policy. Their playbooks are public — and New York can follow them.
Barcelona
The First City to Sign
Munich
A Landmark Migration and Lasting Institution
Paris
From One Office to National Policy
New York City
Next
Take Action
We respectfully call on the Office of Technology & Innovation to:
- Endorse the UN Open Source Principles, publicly and by name.
- Establish an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) to facilitate adoption across city government — coordinating what the city uses, what it publishes, how it contributes back, and how it stays secure doing so.
- Evaluate an open source alternative in every city technology contract, so no proprietary license is signed or renewed without first asking whether an open solution would serve New Yorkers better.