Europe Spotlight 2022 Exploring the State of European Open Source
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Europe Spotlight
2022 Exploring the State of European Open Source
Innovation, Opportunities, and Challenges
September 2022
By Colin Eberhardt, Graham Odds, Matthew Dunderdale, Scott Logic
Foreword by Gabriele Columbro, General Manager, Linux Foundation Europe
In partnership with:Contents
Foreword.................................................................................................... 3
Conclusion............................................................................................... 34
Executive summary................................................................................ 5
Demographics......................................................................................... 35
Introduction.............................................................................................. 7
Methodology........................................................................................... 36
The open source value proposition...................................................... 8
Endnotes.................................................................................................. 37
Open source consumption................................................................... 10
Acknowledgements............................................................................... 38
Organisational policy on open source consumption...........................................10
Open source consumption unlocks diverse value...............................................12
About the authors.................................................................................. 39
Overcoming inhibitors of open source consumption..........................................13 Disclaimer............................................................................................... 40
Open source contribution..................................................................... 16
The rising tide of contribution...................................................................................16
Contribution policies show significant sector variations.................................. 17
Contribution drivers......................................................................................................18
Overcoming contribution obstacles........................................................................ 20
Time spent on contribution........................................................................................21
Open source leadership........................................................................ 24
A view across Europe........................................................................... 27
Europe’s relationship with open source................................................................. 27
Variations between European countries................................................................ 28
Taking a sector perspective...................................................................................... 29Foreword
When I look back at my first steps in technology, fresh out day I work with each constituent, whether individuals or It provides fascinating insights to support the European
of university in Italy at the very end of the millennium, I corporate contributors or adopters, and—even more open source ecosystem, opportunities at the crossroads
can point to a distinct moment when I realised I was in importantly in a regulated industry—policymakers and of policy and technology, and offers a clear and current
love with open source: the day I became a committer regulators, to ensure they realise proportionally more lens on the state of open source software, hardware, and
for the Apache Software Foundation. There was some- value than the sweat equity they invest. standards in Europe. It identifies key challenges for open
thing so rewarding about getting that very sought-after source contribution, consumption, and governance within
In other words, I hypothesise that the ‘romantic,’ commer-
@apache.org email address, about being able to learn industry sectors, particularly the public sector, education,
cial, and social natures of open source can coexist. When
from so many of the smartest developers in the world, and financial services, as well as for individual countries.
open collaboration is done right—through foundations or
about feeling you are part of a movement that produces
otherwise—every constituent has value to gain, and that’s We had the honour to partner with several European
collective value.
the only way to ensure the sustainability of this awesome organisations to amplify the distribution of the survey. I
I decided to pursue a career in open source in the digital commons OSS communities maintain every day. want to personally thank the many friends and leaders
Netherlands, first as a consultant and then in commer- from organisations who helped us achieve a truly repre-
cial open source product companies. There, I experi- sentative dataset, reinforcing the principle that when we
enced being compensated for my open source work “I hypothesise that the ‘romantic,’ work together, we create better outcomes.
for the first time, something I feel fortunate about
and, regrettably something that the OSS ecosystem commercial, and social natures We hope this report will inspire future conversations
about the social value of open source in Europe, enable
still struggles with 15th years later. I also experienced of open source can coexist.”
challenges in balancing the community nature of open a better understanding of the unique nature of the
source and the commercial dynamics that, predictably, European open source ecosystem, and direct our collec-
such a valuable asset sets in motion. My first investment as General Manager for Linux tive energies toward increased collaboration to ensure
Foundation Europe, together with the fantastic Linux its long-term sustainability and an ever greater collective
After leaving Europe almost ten years ago, I landed in
Foundation Research team, was to validate these hypoth- value creation.
the heart of Silicon Valley, the home of most commercial
eses and learn more about the region’s challenges and
open source success stories in the last decade. It was here And I look forward to working with the European open
opportunities directly from the extended European open
that I found myself on the non-profit side, leading FINOS, source community, enterprises, and the public sector to
source ecosystem. After all, Europe is a hub of global
the Foundation bringing open source to one of the most help overcome the gaps this report identifies. Working
open source activity and leadership: besides boasting a
conservative industries in the world: financial services. together, we can unleash the true social innovation value
large open source grassroots community, Europe leads in
My main lesson in building a ‘vertical’ community as an open collaboration has the potential to enable on a
1
academic citations on open source and clearly recog-
impartial arbiter is always to strive to create the proper global scale.
nises its critical role in the economy and society.2
governance, culture, and, critically, sufficient funding for
the open collaborative process—and not ‘just the code’— This research report is the culmination of a Europe-wide Gabriele Columbro
to create a positive-sum game for all constituents. Every collaboration led by the exceptional team at Scott Logic. General Manager, Linux Foundation Europe
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 3OPEN SOURCE IS A MECHANISM Across Europe, OPEN SOURCE IS
FOR EUROPEAN INNOVATION personal contributions are THE APOLITICAL KEY
AND VALUE CREATION across MOTIVATED BY LEARNING to fostering a digital
industry sectors, with the creation of commons while enabling
AND FUN rather than by a
standards and interoperability being European nations to plot
desire to further career
their own courses in the
the most widely cited benefits. advancement. digital world.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE
CLEAR LEADERSHIP—via a
structured OSPO or dedicated During the last 12 months,
47% of survey respondents In addition to cost
employees contributing to open
said that THE VALUE THAT savings, INDEPENDENCE
source—PAYS DIVIDENDS,
THEY DERIVE FROM OPEN FROM CLOSED-SOURCE
with micro- and enterprise-
SOURCE IS CONTINUING SOLUTIONS drives open
scale organisations leading
TO GROW. source adoption.
the way.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE
57% of respondents have While 63% of respondents agree CLEARER OS CONTRIBUTION
POLICIES THAT OPENLY that organisations should POLICIES WERE REPORTED BY
ENCOURAGE OPEN SOURCE consume OSS to improve security, RESPONDENTS WORKING FOR
(OS) CONSUMPTION. However, IMPROVED GOVERNANCE OF THE LARGEST ORGANISATIONS
the imbalance between OSS CONSUMPTION AND BEST (>10,000 employees), than
consumption and contribution PRACTICES IS NEEDED to safely those working for mid-sized
challenges OS sustainability. realise its value. organisations.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE
THERE IS A POLICY IMBALANCE, with 35% THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS FAILING
reporting a lack of a clear contribution policy TO FULLY CAPITALISE ON OPEN SIGNIFICANT REGIONAL
compared with 17% reporting a lack SOURCE. Contribution is DIFFERENCES EXIST in
of a clear consumption policy. encouraged for only 29% of public the perceived value of
sector respondents (versus the open source and
survey mean of 46%), and there is a permissive consumption
notable lack of a clear policy. and contribution policies.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE: EUROPE
Copyright © 2022 The Linux Foundation | September 2022
This report is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public LicenseExecutive summary
This report covers a wide range of themes, topics, and “Our goal with this report was to better understand the dynamics of open
concerns relating to open source within Europe. In
this section, we describe some of the most compelling source across regional lines, beginning in Europe. Recent studies from
conclusions from our findings. We hope that these
the Linux Foundation have found that the European community actively
conclusions, backed by the data from our research, will
provide individuals, organisations, and governments participates in the research process. Building on this engagement, we
with tangible advice that allows them to better unlock
undertook a survey and several interviews to explore the emerging themes.”
the growing value of open source software.
Our goal with this report was to better understand the
dynamics of open source across regional lines, beginning
in Europe. Recent studies from the Linux Foundation
survey and interviews almost unanimously echoed the and activity from consumption (incorporating open
have found that the European community actively partic-
message that open source is valuable to the current source code into a product) and contribution (helping
ipates in the research process. Building on this engage-
state and future of their sector. That said, while those maintain open source code, primarily by becoming part
ment, we undertook a survey and several interviews to
in information technology are riding the wave of open of the development team). However, when we analysed
explore the emerging themes.
source innovation and collaboration, other sectors are the details, a clear gap emerged.
lagging behind, with the education and public sectors
Open source is a mechanism for needing further investment. Regarding contribution, a significant proportion of
collaboratively creating value respondents indicated a lack of a clear policy at their
We noted an emerging theme that Europeans have a
and innovating across Europe. organisation or that they simply did not know what the
‘romantic’ relationship with open source, while those in
The term ‘open source’ was first coined in 1998 to policy was. In contrast, very few saw the same chal-
North America have a more commercial relationship. A
describe the following engineering approach that had lenges when it came to consuming open source. This gap
repositioning of open source to unlock more commer-
been quietly growing for the past decade: openly sharing widened further in some sectors (telecommunications,
cial value without losing the community-minded aspects
source code to allow a more open and collaborative public, and finance and insurance sectors).
would benefit the European economy.
approach to software development. What started as a
Open source is suffering from growing sustainability
cultural phenomenon among 90s bearded hackers has
challenges; in very simple terms, organisations tend to
transformed into something of inarguable commercial The imbalance between consumption
‘take’ more than they ‘give’. The damaging effects of this
value and an essential part of the software industry. and contribution challenges the are experienced most visibly through recent high-pro-
It has become a dominant force at the forefront of
sustainability of open source. file security incidents, where the root cause was a lack
innovation and the creation of shared value through Our research painted a very positive picture for open of open source maintenance. However, the less visible
industry collaboration. Those who responded to our source, with a perceived increase in the derived value effects are a growing unease within the community.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 5Clear leadership pays dividends, national and international government bodies across highlighted by geopolitical incidents, such as the
Europe. Furthermore, much of the code that the public continued curbing of tech sales to China by U.S. admin-
with micro- and enterprise-scale
sector produces is now shared in the open, which is istrations5 and the knock-on consequences surrounding
organisations leading the way.
primarily for reasons of transparency. gas supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The route to unlocking value from open source goes far There is a clear need to create and sustain the mecha-
beyond simply creating the right policies. For the leaders However, despite the consumption policies and
nisms that will enable Europe and European nations to
in open source, it has become deeply embedded in their increasing number of public sector-founded projects, we
plot their own courses in the digital world.
organisational culture. Achieving this requires clear and found this sector to be an outlier across many aspects of
visible leadership. our research. There is limited inner source activity, which
indicates a lack of collaboration between public sector
Our research showed that organisations with a struc- organisations, and a lack of a clear contribution policy,
tured approach to leadership via an OSPO, or simply “Open source exists and operates
which potentially suggests an overly narrow appreciation
visible leaders, have employees who are encouraged and of open source’s value and that it is simply a mechanism beyond politics, which inclusively
empowered to contribute to open source. Furthermore, for the transparency of work rather than for collabora-
the value that these organisations derive from open tion and collective value creation.
drives value for all.”
source is significantly greater.
With the public sector having so much to gain from open
Notably, organisations at the two extremes of the source—a theme that is firmly echoed by our survey
scale (10,000 employees) have an OSPO or Our survey responses reinforce the notion that open
respondents—much needs to be done to create a
visible leader. Mid-sized organisations tend to lack source is a powerful mechanism for innovation, collabo-
cultural shift. Policies that simply mandate consumption
both. There is clear potential for these organisations ration, collective value creation, and ultimately bringing
and that ‘code must be shared’ miss out on much of the
to follow in the footsteps of very small or very large the vision of the ‘digital commons’6 to life. There are
value that open source has to offer.
organisations, which creates an open source lead- strong beliefs that industry standards and interopera-
ership structure that empowers and supports their Open source is the apolitical key bility benefit the most from open source and that there
should be further investment in open source alterna-
employees. to fostering digital sovereignty.
tives to technology monopolies. Critically, open source
Digital sovereignty—nations’ ability to act inde-
exists and operates beyond politics, which inclusively
The public sector is failing to fully pendently in the digital world—is high on political
drives value for all; breeds digital products and services
capitalise on open source. agendas across Europe: from the European
that anyone can use; ensures space for constraint-free
Commission3 to national governments.4 North America
We observed variations when looking at our survey data innovation and collaboration; and creates rich environ-
drives and owns so much of our digital world in either
across industry sectors; however, differences in the ments for skills and capability development.
the form of the products, services, and infrastructure
public sector are some of the most noteworthy.
that we depend on or the maturity of the skills, capa-
Within the public sector, we are increasingly seeing bility, and experience necessary for digital creativity
open source consumption being formally prescribed by and innovation. The risks of such dependency are
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 6Introduction
Open source has become a dominant force within the software This study explores the ‘state of open source’ across Europe and builds
industry, and as software continues to wade into almost every industry a comprehensive picture by examining the current levels of activity
sector, open source software has followed. Open source is somewhat through consumption and contribution, inhibitors, motivators, and
amorphous and can be used to describe many different things: from opportunities. It was conducted by Scott Logic and Linux Foundation
code to community and from commercial value to a ‘common good’. Research via a combination of a survey (circulated in May 2022), which
yielded 1,198 usable responses, and interviews with 15 individuals
With digital technology, as in so many other domains, our cultural
(conducted between May–Jun 2022) from a range of industries and
values fundamentally shape our attitudes, perspectives, and
countries.
approaches. That’s why we wanted to look at Europe in isolation—to
identify whether there is a distinctly European perspective on open Our research spanned a wide variety of open source activities: from
source and the qualities that distinguish it. consumption (incorporating open source projects and libraries into
your own products and services) and contribution (submitting code
This study is more than academic for the following reasons:
back to open source projects, helping with documentation, and general
• For industries that are undergoing their own digital community engagement) to creation (taking code or intellectual prop-
transformations, gaining a better understanding of open source erty [IP] that was developed in-house and making it available as an
and the opportunities that it creates gives them a tangible open source project).
competitive advantage.
• For governments, there is a need to understand the growing
contribution that open source makes to their economy. This
allows them to shape policies and make strategic investments
that capitalise on this rapidly growing community.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 7The open source value proposition
At its most basic level, open source is about creating software and an increase in value, while Italy indicated that the sentiment had
“If open source
then giving away both the product and code for free. Understandably, remained the same. Since there is currently no broadly established
vanished, or the business value of giving away your source code is not immediately quantitative approach to measuring the value of open source, we are
apparent. unable to provide an objective insight into these geographic differ-
was unavailable,
ences in perceptions.
it would have Despite this, the software industry has generally embraced open
source, with multiple reports indicating that open source has become Our research further reinforced the long-term, future significance of
a big impact; 7
a dominant force. The recent Census II report from Linux Foundation open source software, with 91% of respondents indicating that open
Research estimated that open source software constitutes 70–90% of source is valuable to the future of their sector (FIGURE 3). Notably, 58%
it is critical.” of respondents work in sectors other than information technology,
any given modern software solution.
— LUKE PAGE, TECHNICAL which demonstrates that the value of open source is apparent to indi-
ARCHITECT, SAXO BANK Our research suggests that the value of open source to organisations viduals across a broad range of industry sectors.
is continuing to grow. Most respondents indicated that the value that
they perceive from open source has increased over the last 12 months “You cannot make any competitive
(FIGURE 1).
software platform today without making
It is worth noting that there is significant variance in this senti-
use of open source software.”
ment across different European nations (FIGURE 2). Respondents
in Germany and the Netherlands reported a greater perception of —MIRKO BOEHM, HEAD OF SOFTWARE, MBITION/MERCEDES-BENZ
F IGU R E 1
1% Decreased
Comparison of the perceived
Stayed the same Increased Don't know or not sure
change in the value that
organisations have derived from 31% 47% 21%
open source over the last year.
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight
Survey, Q16.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 8Netherlands 24% 61% 15%
FIGURE 2
The perceived change Spain 2% 30% 54% 14%
in the value that
organisations have Germany
1% 28% 53% 19%
derived from open
source over the last year
UK
across various countries. 34% 42% 25%
Source: World of Open Source
France
Europe Spotlight Survey, Q16, by 3% 38% 41% 18%
leading European Countries.
Italy 2% 41% 37% 21%
Other
1% 30% 46% 24%
Stayed the same Increased Don't know or not sure
Decreased
F IGU R E 3 Somewhat agree Strongly agree
The extent to which the 16% 74%
respondent perceives
open source to be 5% Neither agree nor disagree
valuable to their sector.
2% Somewhat disagree
Source: World of Open Source
Europe Spotlight Survey, Q35. 3% Strongly disagree
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 9The term ‘open source’ is somewhat imprecise. Although it can be inter- The rest of this report examines in detail the open source maturity
preted in a narrow sense as merely indicating that some source code is of the respondents’ organisations and where and how they derive
being made available openly, it is more often interpreted as something its value. With the value of open source already well understood,
much broader. However, this broader interpretation lacks a formal defi- the report explores how we might accelerate the full realisation of
nition. To some, open source is a business model, whereas to others, it is that value. Finally, it highlights opportunities to grow and expand
fundamentally about free software. It can be interpreted as a description the value of open source to private and public sector organisations
of a set of assets, a mindset and way of working, or a community of people. across Europe.
“Open source software is useful for when you want to drive something that is bigger than your company.”
— ALOIS REITBAUER, CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AND HEAD OF OPEN SOURCE, DYNATRACE
Open source consumption
In this section, we focus on the consumption of open source within • Organisations feel that open source consumption would increase
organisations, which is the use or incorporation of open source code, if investment or efforts were focused on improving the formality
components, and tools in the creation and operation of an organisa- of support around open source.
tion’s digital products or services. We find the following:
• There is a need for further research to explore the open source
• Generally, organisational policy encourages open source producer side of the relationship to identify where efforts should
consumption. However, the bigger an organisation is, the more be focused to better support consumers’ needs.
likely it is to attach limiting conditions.
• Increasingly, open source consumption is formally prescribed in Organisational policy on open source consumption
the public sector across European nations.
One of the typical first steps for organisations to start realising the
• The biggest driver of open source consumption is the desire to full benefits of open source is to establish a policy on consumption. In
avoid vendor lock-in. our survey, 79% of respondents indicated that they have a policy that
• What organisations perceive as limiting their open source permits open source consumption to some degree (FIGURE 4). Only 1%
consumption is diverse, but there are noticeable differences in indicated that their organisation has a policy prohibiting open source
sentiment between information technology and non-information- consumption, but we could not discern any clear common factors
technology organisations, with the latter feeling more limited. within this small cohort. Clearly, the door is wide open to open source.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 10F IGU R E 4 Consumption is Delving deeper into these responses, we see a pattern that suggests
openly encouraged 57% that the bigger an organisation is, the more likely it is to attach limiting
The extent to
conditions to open source consumption (FIGURE 5). This mirrors a typical
which open source Consumption is permitted
22% pattern among all types of policies, where larger organisations are
consumption is under limited conditions
required to be more prescriptive to better guide larger numbers of indi-
permitted at the
viduals and more diverse cases.
respondents’ No clear policy 17%
organisations. Our survey responses show that organisations with no clear policy on
No consumption
Source: World of Open Source is permitted
1% open source consumption suffer from stagnation and uncertainty on
Europe Spotlight Survey, Q13. the topic. Of those organisations, 41% report that the value that they
derive from open source has stayed the same over the last year (versus
Don't know or not sure 3%
30% of organisations that do have some form of policy), and 29% say
they do not know how that value has changed (versus 18% of organisa-
tions that do have some form of policy).
F IGU R E 5
Comparison of the extent to which open source consumption is permitted at the respondents’ organisations by organisation size.
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight Survey, Q13 by Q9 (Company Size Classes—aggregated)
11-249 250-9,999
10,000 employees
Consumption is
openly encouraged
80% 64% 55% 42%
Consumption is permitted
under limited conditions 8% 11% 23% 39%
No clear policy 10% 20% 18% 14%
No consumption
is permitted
0% 1% 1% 1%
Don't know or not sure 1% 4% 3% 5%
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 11Within the public sector, we are increasingly seeing open source “Reduced costs have traditionally been a real
consumption being formally prescribed by national and international
government bodies across Europe. Here are a few high-profile exam- driver for adoption; now, independence [from
ples of the different forms that this is taking:
proprietary solutions] is a real driver for adoption.”
• European Commission — Its Open Source Software Strategy
—PETER ZAITSEV, CEO, PERCONA
2020–2023 ‘puts a special emphasis on the sharing and reuse
of software solutions, knowledge and expertise, as well as on
increasing the use of open source in information technologies and
other strategic areas’.8 Our research shows that the most significant reason for increasing
• United Kingdom — The public sector digital standards assurance an organisation’s open source consumption is to avoid vendor lock-in
“Europe benefits (78% of respondents agree) (FIGURE 6). Vendor lock-in refers to the
process’ Technology Code of Practice sets out that project plans
from significantly must show how the use of open source has been considered. 9 situation where you are essentially stuck using a particular product or
service, regardless of quality, because switching away is impractical.
more promotion • Germany — Germany has launched a Sovereign Tech Fund to Open source can be seen as a mitigation for this risk, as its openness
support the development, scaling, and maintenance of digital and inherently creates alternative provision routes and typically eases
from government foundational technologies. The goal of the fund is to sustainably migration if switching. At the very least, it removes the potential of
bodies to strengthen the open source ecosystem, with a focus on security, direct or indirect exit fees. However, open source rarely provides full
resilience, technology diversity, and the people behind the code.10 mitigation of all concerns that are typically associated with vendor
encourage open
• Italy — Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale (AgID), an Italian government lock-in. For example, should the maintainer of a project choose to
source adoption.” department, promotes and provides guidance on the use of open sunset the project or walk away from it (a recent survey of open source
source ahead of proprietary software within Italy/the public maintainers by Tidelift suggests that more than half of them have
— PETER ZAITSEV,
sector.11 considered quitting12), organisations will face the potentially significant
CEO, PERCONA
cost of taking on the maintenance of the project or migrating to an
alternative solution.
Open source consumption unlocks diverse value
The high-level rationale for consuming open source is often simplisti- The sentiment that organisations should increase their consumption of
cally boiled down to it being free, thereby lowering costs. Approximately open source to improve security—agreed with to some extent by 63%
a full 64% of respondents agree that this is a driver for increasing of respondents (the lowest level of agreement in our survey) —warrants
consumption in their organisation (FIGURE 6). Interestingly, this number a note of caution. Open source software has many security challenges,
rises to 73% among respondents whose organisations are not currently particularly surrounding supply chain vulnerabilities and transitive depen-
maintaining an open source project, which suggests that the strength dencies. A recent global survey13 highlighted that only 18% of organisations
of this driver is influenced by an organisation’s open source maturity. have strong controls to address the security of their transitive dependen-
However, there are also other deeper, broader ways that open source cies on open source software, and this increased to just 24% for direct
drives more and different value. dependencies. There is a distinct need for organisations to improve the
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 12Avoid vendor lock-in 4% 78%
F IGU R E 6
Improve productivity 7% 65%
Levels of agreement
with stated reasons why Lower cost of ownership 9% 64%
organisations should
increase the consumption Be a more attractive
7% 63%
of open source. place to work
Source: World of Open Source
Europe Spotlight Survey, Q17. Improve security 8% 63%
Somewhat agree Strongly agree
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree
However, our research shows noticeable differences in sentiment
“Psychological barriers to wider adoption remain, principally the
between information technology and non-information-technology
notion that open source software may be less professionally organisations. The latter show a more general feeling of limitation,
with a particularly pronounced sense that a lack of supporting training
developed than proprietary efforts, or that it may lack support.” and guidance limits their organisation’s consumption of open source
—BASTIEN GUERRY, FREE SOFTWARE UNIT (AKA OSPO) LEAD, (FIGURE 7).
ETALAB/DINUM, FRENCH GOVERNMENT
This sense of limitation that is imposed by a lack of supporting training
and guidance is even stronger in those organisations that do not have
a clear policy on open source consumption (74% of those respon-
maturity of their approach to governing and supporting open source soft- dents agree or strongly agree versus 39% of all organisations). A lack of
ware consumption to safely and securely realise its value. understanding of the non-technical value proposition also becomes a
clear limiting factor in these organisations (65% agree or strongly agree
Overcoming inhibitors of open source consumption versus 38% of all organisations).
The picture of what gets in the way of organisations unlocking the By contrast, organisations where policy permits open source consumption
diverse value of open source consumption is, unsurprisingly, a complex but only under limited conditions appear to view licensing or IP concerns
one. Different organisations in different circumstances and at different as their biggest inhibitor (67% agree or strongly agree versus 37% of all
stages of open source maturity face different limiting factors. organisations). These organisations also flag external regulations or other
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 13“Particularly medium-to-large sized organisations (in Germany, often family-owned) lack an understanding
of their dependency on software in general, let alone an understanding of OS versus proprietary.”
—PETER GANTEN, CEO, UNIVENTION & CHAIRMAN, OPEN SOURCE BUSINESS ALLIANCE
“Need to build bridges from both sides of the OS relationship to better connect them:
OSPOs from the consumer side; foundations and alliances from the creator side.”
—FREDERIK BLACHETTA, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, DATAPORT
F IGU R E 7
Levels of agreement that factors are limiting the consumption of open source at the respondent’s organisation,
comparing information technology employers with non-information technology employers.
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight Survey, Q18 by Q8 (Information Technology IT vendor versus non-Information Technology vendor).
Information Technology NOT Information Technology
A lack of policy or supporting 25% 28% 49%
training and guidance
51%
A lack of understanding of the 48% 27% 31% 46%
non-technical value proposition
Licencing or intellectual
property (IP) concerns 48% 28% 35% 44%
External regulations or
other formal restrictions
52% 18% 39% 33%
Strongly Somewhat Strongly agree Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly agree
disagree disagree disagree disagree agree
Somewhat agree
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 14formal restrictions as a significantly greater limiter than other segments “Open source needs to be ready for enterprise
(43% agree or strongly agree versus 27% of all organisations).
customers…open source maintainers are
Not unsurprisingly, the sentiment regarding where investment or effort
should be focused to increase open source consumption largely reflects the sometimes asking to be protected, or expecting
limiting sentiment (FIGURE 8). However, the broad pattern is that improving
to be chosen first by, for example, government
the formality of structure and support around open source is key.
Organisations with no clear policy on open source consumption showed a entities…but they need to improve the quality
particularly strong desire for investment or effort across the board.
of the offer in the round versus proprietary
Our interviews highlighted an area for consideration that was not
options, not just the quality of the product.”
tackled in the survey, namely where open source producers should
focus their efforts to better support consumers’ needs. We recommend —STEFANO PAMPALONI
that further research should be conducted to explore this particular
aspect and the general open source producer/consumer relationship.
F IGU R E 8
Legal, compliance or security support 15% 51%
Levels of agreement
that focused
Improved policy or supporting
investment or effort training and guidance 14% 51%
spent on a given
An Open Source Program Office (OSPO), or clear
area would increase and visible leader for open source strategy 18% 45%
consumption of
open source at Automated tooling to support policy 16% 44%
the respondent’s
organisation. A lack of understanding of the
non-technical value proposition 17% 40%
Source: World of Open
Source Europe Spotlight Strongly Somewhat Somewhat agree Strongly agree
Survey, Q19. disagree disagree
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 15Open source contribution
In this section, we focus on contributions made to open source proj- • The return on investment for open source contribution is widely
ects by individuals, with a particular focus on those made on behalf understood; however, this is not being met with sufficient
of organisations. For clarity, we consider ‘contribution’ to include any allocated time for open source contribution activities.
form of effort made in support of an open source project—for example,
• Learning and development is the strongest motivator for the
providing design assets or answering questions in addition to writing
significant number of respondents spending personal time
code. Here we find the following:
contributing to open source projects.
• A significant number of organisations indicated that their open
source contribution is increasing. The rising tide of contribution
• There is an imbalance between contribution and consumption The survey data clearly shows that the perceived contribution is rising
policies, with 35% reporting a lack of a clear contribution policy, for a significant number of organisations, with 29% of respondents
compared to 17% reporting a lack of a clear consumption policy. indicating that the time and effort that their organisations allocated
to open source contribution over the last year had increased. This is a
• Contribution policies are highly dependent on organisation size,
stark contrast to the 4% who believed that this amount had decreased
with micro-organisations having the most permissive policies,
(FIGURE 9). Understandably, several respondents (30%) are unsure, as
while mid-size organisations have policies that lack clarity.
evaluating the net contributions from a large organisation is a chal-
• Contribution policies vary considerably across industry sectors, lenge. There are projects looking to better quantify this, such as the
with the extent to which contribution is encouraged varying Open Source Contribution Index.14
wildly. The public sector is a significant outlier, where contribution
The perceived growth in open source contribution is reflected in contri-
is not encouraged, and there is also a notable lack of a clear
bution policies, where 46% of respondents are aware that it is their
policy.
organisation's policy to ‘openly encourage’ contribution, while only
• There is a widespread understanding that open source a small number of organisations actively prohibit contributions (3%)
contribution improves the quality of projects that organisations (FIGURE 10). However, many respondents (43%) indicated that there was
depend upon, and a growing consideration that long-term a lack of a clear policy or that they simply did not know what their policy
investment is vital to the future of both open source and an was. In contrast, only 20% responded that there was a lack of policy or
organisation’s own products. uncertainty regarding consumption of open source.
• There is a broad range of factors that potentially limit open There is clearly much more work required to address the imbalance
source contribution, and there is a lack of consensus regarding between consumption and contribution policies.
the most pressing.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 16F IGU R E 9
Perceived changes in contribution effort over the last year at the respondent’s organisation.
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight Survey, Q24.
“Everything that
is central to you 4% 37% 29% 30%
making business Decreased Stayed the same Increased Don't know or not sure
should be under
your control…If you
are not actively Contribution policies show “Lack of clarity around aspects of open source,
contributing to significant sector variations
in particular the impacts of different forms
The management of policies differs considerably based on the organ-
these projects, or of licensing, or the implications of making
isation size. Small organisations tend to have lightweight and nimble
interacting with the policies, whereas policies in larger organisations tend to be more
contributions back into the open, has limited the
heavyweight and structured, which reflects the need to communicate
communities, you and coordinate a more sizable workforce more effectively. ability to take full advantage of open source.”
lack this control. Analysing open source contribution policies across organisations of —CORNELIUS SCHUMACHER, OPEN SOURCE STEWARD, DB SYSTEL GMBH
This is a problem various sizes has revealed some interesting patterns. Within micro-or-
ganisations (10,000 employees) indicated that the contribution poli-
in their contribution policies. For the public sector, this is in stark contrast
cies were clearer than those in the mid-sized organisations.
to the growing number of government policies that mandate that public
Without clear policies, it is highly unlikely that employees will contribute sector organisations open source their own work. A lack of a contribution
to open source. There is evidently an opportunity for mid-sized organ- policy potentially suggests an overly narrow appreciation of open source’s
isations to improve the clarity of these policies or simply to communi- value—that it is simply a mechanism for transparency on work rather
cate them more effectively. than a mechanism for collaboration and collective value creation.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 17“If you want to own your future, you need to own your engineering.” Contribution drivers
We explored the motivations that drive organisations to contribute
—PHILIPPE ENSARGUET, ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES
to open source projects. The most frequently cited motivation was
to improve the overall quality of the open source software that the
respondent’s organisation depends upon, with 85% agreeing or
strongly agreeing that this is a motivating factor (FIGURE 13). This is a
clear acknowledgement that organisations wish to directly invest in
Contribution is
F IGU R E 10
openly encouraged
46% the projects that they depend upon as opposed to resolving issues in
Presence and private (e.g. via a private fork). Our interviews elaborated on this theme
to reveal a more long-term mindset, with organisations wishing to
permissiveness of a Contribute if it is required by
the open source licence
8% contribute to guide or simply ‘have a say’ in the long-term roadmap of
contribution policy
projects that they depend on. Several interviewees not only saw this as
at the respondent’s
No clear policy 35% a ‘nice to have’ but also considered it to be vital to the long-term success
organisation.
of their own organisation.
Source: World of Open Contributions are
Source Europe Spotlight not permitted 3% Open source contribution is not merely limited to sharing source code;
Survey, Q20.
the term ‘contribution’ can be more broadly used to describe any
Don't know or not sure 8% activity that benefits an open source project as a whole. We explored
the nature of these open source contributions by asking about the
11-249 250-9,999
Micro: 10,000 employeesF IGU R E 1 2
Variations in contribution policy based on the organisational sector.
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight Survey, Q20 by Q8 (for leading industries).
Contribute if it is Contributions
Contribution is required by the open are not Don't know
openly encouraged source licence No clear policy permitted or not sure
Information Technology 61% 6% 25% 2% 6%
Professional, Scientific, 58% 8% 24% 0% 12%
and Technical Services
Telecommunications 48% 22% 13% 7% 11%
Public Sector 29% 3% 58% 3% 6%
Education 28% 0% 67% 0% 5%
Finance and Insurance 25% 4% 53% 6% 13%
Improve the overall quality of the open
source software that they are currently using
3% 85%
F IGU R E 13
Motivations for open Fulfil its moral obligation 5% 74%
source contribution
at the respondent’s
Be a more attractive place to work 6% 72%
organisation.
Source: World of Open Source
Europe Spotlight Survey, Q26. Improve security 5% 70%
Somewhat agree Strongly agree
Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 19“There is a cultural expectation within the UK public sector that you should be entirely focused on
direct delivery of projects in front of you, so no time or space is afforded for contribution to create or
support indirect value. Contribution at best (and very infrequently) occurs within organisational silos.”
—JOSSE TEDONE, CONSULTING TECHNICAL ARCHITECT, CENTRAL DIGITAL & DATA OFFICE
various activities that employees had undertaken. The most commonly The sector-specific challenges within the financial services sector
reported open source activity was reporting issues, as indicated by 63% that likely limit contribution activity were explored in a 2021 Linux
of respondents (FIGURE 14). A significant number (48%) had taken a step Foundation Research15 report, which found that a ‘fear of leaking IP’ was
further and contributed code. the limiting factor, with the results becoming even more acute for the
largest organisations (>30,000 employees).16
Similar patterns of contribution were seen across the various industry
sectors. However, there was a noticeable lack of activity from those
working in the finance and insurance sector, with 49% indicating that Overcoming contribution obstacles
they had not made any open source contributions (compared to a mean Exploring limiting factors more broadly indicates a clear lack of return
of 28%). This lack of open source contribution from the finance and on investment was a significant concern for almost twice as many
insurance sector is further reflected by the lack of ‘creation’, i.e. open people as compared to those that did not think it inhibits contributions.
sourcing and maintaining their own codebases. Within this sector, 42% Beyond return on investment, there was a lack of consensus about
of respondents were unaware of their organisation open sourcing any whether other factors are a concern (FIGURE 15).
of their proprietary code compared to an average of 29%.
F IGU R E 14
Opened an issue on an open source project 63%
Contribution activities
undertaken by the respondent Contributed code to an open source project 48%
on behalf of their organisation.
Helped with open source documentation 38%
Source: World of Open Source Europe
Spotlight Survey, Q25.
Answered queries relating to an open source
project on StackOverflow, Reddit or other
35%
Contributed designs, graphics
or other non-code assets
18%
None of the above 28%
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 20Delving further into the data, we found some patterns within specific Time spent on contribution
sectors, including education, finance, and insurance, which indicates
We explored how much time people spend working on a range of
that a lack of policy or training materials was a shared concern.
activities that are either open source or a pathway into open source
Turning our attention to how organisations can increase their open (FIGURE 17). 54% of survey respondents indicated that they spend
source contribution (FIGURE 16), the most significant investment that time contributing to projects that are managed by other teams within
an organisation can make was clear—allocate employee time for open their organisation. This practice is often termed ‘inner source’ and is
source contributions. The previous question indicated that the ‘return considered a pathway into open source collaboration, as it involves
on investment’ needs to be made more clear to organisations. However, addressing similar concerns and adopting similar ways of working
this clarity regarding the return on investment does not translate into a (e.g. return on investment, solving collaboration challenges). A smaller
sufficient allocation of time. number of respondents (38%) spend time at work contributing to
projects that their organisation has open sourced, and a similar number
(42%) contribute to third-party open source projects. In each case, the
“Public Departments developing software are required contribution frequency is relatively modest, which is to be expected,
as organisations need to balance time spent on contributing to open
to make code open source; however, this sharing can be source versus internal activities (building their own products).
unstructured, and not always readily taken advantage of.” Looking at variations across sectors, the public sector is a notable
—BASTIEN GUERRY, FREE SOFTWARE UNIT (AKA OSPO) LEAD, outlier, specifically with respect to inner source activity, with only 37%
ETALAB/DINUM, FRENCH GOVERNMENT of people spending any time contributing to projects that are managed
A clear lack of return on investment 25% 49%
F IGU R E 15
Levels of agreement that
A fear of leaking intellectual property (IP) 34% 43%
factors are limiting the
willingness to contribute
to open source at the A lack of policy or training materials 31% 41%
respondent’s organisation.
Source: World of Open Source Legal or licensing concerns 34% 40%
Europe Spotlight Survey, Q27.
Technology constraints and challenges 35% 34%
Strongly Somewhat Somewhat agree Strongly agree
disagree disagree
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 21F IGU R E 16
Levels of agreement Allocating employee time for open source contributions 5% 73%
that focused
on investment
Funding open source projects 10% 62%
or effort spent
on a given area
Organisation-wide education on the value proposition 12% 61%
would increase
the contribution
to open source at Providing clearer policies to employees 13% 54%
the respondent’s
organisation. Open sourcing its own products or internal tools 15% 55%
Source: World of Open
Source Europe Spotlight
Survey, Q28. Involvement in industry or government policy making 17% 44%
Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly agree
disagree disagree agree
by other teams within their organisation (compared to an industry-wide
average of 54%).
At the employee level, the desire to work in open source has been
widely reported, and our survey reinforced this message. We found that
65% of respondents were actively involved in open source outside of
work. We explored their motives for spending ‘personal time’ contrib-
uting to open source (FIGURE 18) and found that learning and personal
development was a leading motivator, followed by the joy of working
with peers in the community. Notably ‘improving my career opportuni-
ties’ was the weakest motivator—the respondents were learning for fun
rather than career motivation.
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 22F IGU R E 17
Yes, as a full time assignment
How much time respondents spend at work on open source related activities.
Yes, a few days a week
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight Survey, Q30-32.
Yes, a few hours a week
No Yes, a few hours a month
Do you spend any time at work
contributing to projects that are
managed by other teams within your 46% 33% 15% 4% 3%
organisation (i.e. inner source projects)?
Do you spend any time at work
contributing to externally distributed
open source projects that your employer 57% 20% 9% 6% 4%
founded, adopted or sponsors?
Do you spend any time at work
contributing to third-party open source
projects (i.e. those where your employer
67% 29% 9% 4% 1%
has no commercial relationship)?
Learning and
F IGU R E 18 personal development
1% 4% 16% 35% 43% 2%
Motivations for
contributing to I enjoy working with my
2% 10% 22% 36% 28% 2%
peers and the community
open source in
the respondent’s
A technology need wasn't
personal time. being met elsewhere 2% 9% 28% 30% 27% 4%
Source: World of Open
Source Europe Spotlight
Survey, Q34.
Responsibility towards 3% 6% 27% 35% 27% 3%
open source
Improving my
career opportunities 6% 18% 26% 26% 22% 2%
Not at Not very influential Somewhat influential Very influential Extremely influential Don’t know
all influential or not sure
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 23Open source leadership
Many factors that were highlighted across both our open consumption “A central role of the OSPO is to relate the value to the
and contribution lines of research point to a general need for clear,
strong leadership. The necessary drive and support to truly realise the
business as a whole—not just in a way the CTO can
potential value that an organisation can gain from open source often understand—but the CFO and the rest of the C-suite
warrants dedicated focus and expertise. This can manifest in different
forms: from a formal OSPO to simply having a single clear and visible too.” — ALOIS REITBAUER, HEAD OF OPEN SOURCE, DYNATRAC
leader for an open source strategy.
Our survey suggests that micro- (10,000 employees) organisations are significantly more likely to have Unsurprisingly, in micro-organisations, this more commonly mani-
clear leadership on open source matters, as 38% and 47% of respon- fested as a single leader, whereas enterprise organisations showed a
dents in those respective segments indicated identifiable open source mixture of one or both of an OSPO and a clear leader. Additionally, we
leadership compared to 24% in other organisation sizes (FIGURE 19). saw differences between sectors, with 39% of information technology
F IGU R E 19
The presence of an OSPO and/or a clear and visible leader for an open source strategy
at the respondent’s organisation relative to the organisational size.
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight Survey, Q12 by Q9 (Company size classes—aggregated).
11-249 250-9,999 >10,000 employeesorganisations indicating identifiable open source leadership versus 21%
“There is a general lack of consumption maturity in Italy. Specifically, of non-information-technology organisations.
dev/code level understanding of consumption is decent, but higher
A full 45% of our respondents indicated their agreement with the senti-
level management of consumption—that is, aspects typically covered ment that their organisation would increase open source consump-
tion if it focused investment or effort on an OSPO or a clear and visible
by OSPO ideas and methodologies—is not…This might be because leader for open source strategy.
code and runtime are the common language and regulation at the The potential impact of identifiable open source leadership is visible
dev/code level, where language and regulation are not common at the in our data, although whether this leadership is causal or simply
correlated with these findings is unknown.
higher level, meaning expertise does not flow as readily.”
• Improved clarity on open source policy and intent (FIGURE 20):
—STEFANO PAMPALONI Only 6% indicated that their organisation did not have a clear policy
on open source consumption (versus 22% of organisations without
identifiable open source leadership), and 74% indicated that the
policy openly encouraged open source consumption (versus 49% of
organisations without identifiable open source leadership).
An Open Source Program NEITHER An Open Source
Office OR a clear and visible Program Office NOR a clear
F IGU R E 2 0 leader on open source strategy and visible leader on open
source strategy
Presence and permissiveness
of a consumption policy at Consumption is
openly encouraged 74% 49%
the respondent’s organisation
relative to the presence or Consumption is permitted
absence of an OSPO and/or under limited conditions 19% 23%
a clear and visible leader for
an open source strategy. No clear policy 6% 22%
Source: World of Open Source Europe Spotlight
No consumption
Survey, Q13 by Q12 (for OSPO strategy versus
is permitted
.4% 1%
no strategy).
Don't know or not sure 1% 5%
WORLD OF OPEN SOURCE EUROPE SPOTLIGHT 2022 25You can also read
