Episode 214: Dr. Laura Dornheim on Munich's open source journey

Guest Dr. Laura Dornheim Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes On
today’s episode of Sustain, Richard welcomes Dr. Laura Dornheim,
the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of the city of Munich, who
discusses her coding background, role as the CDO, and Munich’s
digital initiatives. The conversation dives into Munich’s past
experience with the Linux based LiMux project, and its strong
support for open source today. Dr. Dornheim’s balanced approach to
open source, collaborations with Berlin, and the city’s open source
code publication are highlighted. The discussion covers Germany’s
Sovereign Tech Fund, tech understanding, and the EU’s Cyber
Resilience Act. Dr. Dornheim shares her perspective on dealing with
challenges in her role, her optimism, and the importance of public
money and public code. Hit download now to hear more! [00:01:17]
Dr. Dornheim clarifies her coding experience and that she learned
to code at a young age but never worked as a developer. [00:02:40]
Dr. Dornheim explains her role as the CDO of Munich, being
responsible for all tech in the city, overseeing various digital
initiatives, and moving towards a smarter city. [00:03:55] She
discusses the city’s interactions with its citizens, such as
applying for passports or changing addresses through online
services, and she mentions their current project of creating a
digital twin of the city. [00:06:00] The discussion shifts to the
role of open source in the city of Munich, as Laura talks about
Munich’s ambitious open source project to replace Microsoft Office
with Linux (LiMux) and its subsequent return to Microsoft.
[00:08:54] We hear Dr. Dornheim’s approach to open source,
emphasizing a balanced perspective and bridging the gap between
open source supporters and opponents. She highlights successful
open source implementations in the city, such as open source tools
for online forms and appointment scheduling at the citizen’s
office, developed collaboratively with Berlin. [00:12:00] Richard
asks about the breakdown of services that could be seen as state or
federal level I the U.S. compared to Munich. Dr. Dornheim explains
that in Germany, services like applying for passports are managed a
local level, with 11,000 communities responsible for such
processes. [00:15:17] Richard asks how Munich ensures that the open
source software it uses can be contributed to by external
individuals or entities. Dr. Dornheim mentions launching an open
source sabbatical to pay individuals to work on open source
projects, promoting more external contributions. She also tells us
where Munich’s open source code is published, primarily on GitHub
and the Code platform launched by the public administration in
Germany. [00:17:42] Richard inquires about the potential for other
states to contribute to Munich’s open source projects, and Dr.
Dornheim explains that they have both fully open projects and
smaller ones that are published but may not receive external
contributions. [00:19:15] Dr Dornheim addresses a question Richard
brings up about Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund and the push for
self-sufficiency in tech. She views it as a marketing strategy for
open source, emphasizing the importance of reducing dependency on a
few big players. [00:21:10] Richard mentions the EU’s Cyber
Resilience Act and inquires about the concerns related to liability
in open source software, and Dr. Dornheim emphasizes that the
problem isn’t liability but the ability to address issues and
vulnerabilities. [00:22:46] What are some things that Dr. Dornheim
is struggling with? She shares some difficulties they face such as
dealing with 800 schools and day care places that run their own
services, and the challenge of transitioning local politicians away
from paper-based processes. [00:26:13] Dr. Dornheim mentions that
she came to open source through her engagement in politics around
digital and tech issues, emphasizing the importance of public money
and public code. [00:26:55] Find out where can you interact with
the City of Munich’s digital office. Quotes [00:06:57] “If you try
to brute force 40,000 people to an operating system that they’re
not used to not only make friends, let’s put in that way.”
[00:07:42] “Today, open source is more alive and more supported in
the city of Munich than ever. We have our own OSPO that we’re
building up and growing.” [00:16:00] “We are launching an open
source sabbatical where we really want to pay people wherever they
are currently employed.” [00:18:44] “The whole aim behind open
software is to make public administration more transparent and
interactive because I really think it’s important that we lower
this perceived barrier between the people and the state.” Spotlight
[00:28:02] Richard’s spotlight is Raphaël Nussbaumer, and eBird
reviewer in Switzerland. [00:28:42] Dr. Dornheim’s spotlight is
Miriam Seyffarth from the Open Source Business Alliance in Berlin.
Links SustainOSS (https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
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podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS
Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Open
Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Mastodon
(https://mastodon.social/@richlitt) Dr. Laura Dornheim LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/lsdornheim/?originalSubdomain=de)
München Digital (https://muenchen.digital/) City of Munich-GitHub
(https://github.com/it-at-m) LiMux
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux#:~:text=LiMux%20was%20a%20project%20launched,free%20software%20based%20on%20Linux.)
Sovereign Tech Fund (https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/) EU Cyber
Resilience Act
(https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/cyber-resilience-act)
Zoziologie-Raphaël Nussbaumer
(https://zoziologie.raphaelnussbaumer.com/) Miriam Seyffarth
LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-seyffarth-819691b1/?originalSubdomain=de)
Credits Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/)
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest:
Dr. Laura Dornheim.