Global tracker for government open source debuts at UN summit

New observatory maps public sector open source activity

From 22 to 26 June, the UN Open Source Week convened at the UN Headquarters in New York. At the gathering, three organisations—Software Heritage, UNESCO and the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET)—unveiled the Public Code Observatory, a fresh initiative accompanied by its opening research findings. The platform aims to provide a comprehensive snapshot of how public institutions globally engage with open source software.

Omar Mohsine, Open Source Coordinator at UN ODET, traces the project's roots: "The genesis of this project came back when we started the [UN] Open Source Week 2023". During that event, government representatives discussed their open source experiences, yet observers noted a critical absence—no systematic global picture existed of how the public sector was building, buying and deploying open source code. "There's a lot of software being produced by governments that is open source of high quality [and] high value - the problem is that it's unknown", Mohsine adds. The Observatory was designed to address this gap by establishing a living, evidence-based resource.

Amandeep Singh Gill, Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies at UN ODET, underscores the platform's significance: "We can now see, rather than assume, how governments build and contribute to open source. The Public Code Observatory gives us an important evidence base to better understand where public institutions are participating, where collaboration is emerging, and where there are still gaps. By making this activity more visible, we can help governments learn from one another, strengthen digital capacity and work together".

First research findings reveal uneven global distribution

Alongside its launch, the Observatory released The State of Public Code, its inaugural research output, which functions as a continuously updated living document shaped by input from government officials, civil servants and other stakeholders.

The report examined roughly 288,400 distinct public repositories across all 193 UN member states, identified through government domain names. Analysis drew on data from Software Heritage's comprehensive open source code Archive, designated a Digital Public Good. This Archive holds over 29 billion source files and approximately 438 million projects, furnishing a robust foundation for studying public sector contributions to open source initiatives.

Participation patterns and collaboration gaps

Early findings indicate that contributor numbers concentrate heavily in the Americas, with Europe representing the second-largest contributor base. Simultaneously, governments in nations beyond these regions—including Australia, Türkiye, Japan and Singapore—are increasingly producing open source software.

Yet despite this worldwide spread of contributors, genuine cross-border collaboration remains limited. Zeynep Varoglu, Senior Programme Specialist at the Universal Access to Information Section of the Communication and Information Sector at UNESCO, observes: "It's our objective to have collaboration between governments and between different stakeholders … What this report showed is that, in fact, collaboration between governments is a challenge".

Where governments do collaborate internationally, patterns emerge: the bulk of joint projects link the United Kingdom with the United States, Australia with the United States, and Brazil with the United States. These patterns underscore how open source initiatives can facilitate cross-border teamwork without requiring formal bilateral treaties.

Mohsine highlights a striking correlation from the data: contributor participation aligns more closely with the UN E-Government Development Index than with GDP per capita. The report emphasises this represents correlation rather than causation, yet it hints that economic resources may not be the decisive factor in joining the worldwide public technology ecosystem.

Building momentum for future collaboration

Moving forward, the Observatory intends to solicit deeper feedback and perspectives from governments and other parties involved in public sector software decisions. Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, Director for the Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation (CI/DPT) and Secretary of the Information for All Programme (IFAP) at UNESCO, outlines the path ahead: "Our first expectation is to get feedback … the second part is once the Observatory is more consolidated, how we can keep producing further knowledge products under the umbrella of the Observatory that makes sense to the public sector".

The Observatory will prioritise knowledge exchange by promoting how "experiences can be shared within a country between stakeholder groups or their institutions, governments, civil society or between countries in the same stakeholder groups … This is an area where we have had a lot of success", according to Varoglu.

As the initiative matures, its architects envision it functioning as both a catalyst for strengthening international collaboration and a definitive source of data on how the public sector engages with open source. As governments continue submitting their open source information and lessons learned, the Observatory aims to promote information exchange, international partnerships, openness and a more integrated worldwide public code community.