History
2022
The Ministry of Digital Science has postponed the launch of the Russian analogue of GitHub indefinitely
In August 2022, it became known about the decision of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation to postpone the start of the experiment to create a state repository of open source software.
According to Vedomosti, the launch of the project was scheduled for May 1, 2022, but the corresponding government decree was never adopted due to difficulties with regulatory support. By August 9, 2022, the resolution is under discussion and the process has not yet been completed, the Ministry of Digital Science told the newspaper.
 | At the moment, the interdepartmental coordination of the draft government decree on the creation of a repository is being completed, - a representative of the department told the publication. When the experiment can be launched, the interlocutor refused to clarify. |  |
During the discussion, there were questions whether the repository will become an analogue of GitHub, where there will be fully open source code, or whether the license will still limit developers in the right to modify and sell programs, said Dmitry Parshin, director of the Artezio development center.
According to industry participants contacted by Vedomosti, serious interdepartmental approvals were required to launch the project, since permission to publish the results of government orders under a free license even on a Russian site with one platform operator should be discussed within the framework of current legislation and should not violate licenses and developer rights.
On August 10, 2022, the Ministry of Digital Science told TASS that it would soon submit to the government a draft resolution on an experiment to distribute software created for budget funds under an open license. The coordination of the financial and economic justification for the creation of a national open source repository with the Ministry of Finance of Russia is nearing completion, the Ministry of Digital Industry added.[1]
ANO "Open Code" is registered, its key task for 2022-2023 has been determined.
In April 2022, ANO "Open Code" was registered as a legal entity. The director of the organization was appointed Liubov Orlova. In 2014-2015 she headed the Russian Association of Free Software (RASPO).
Orlova said that the first composition of the founders includes large organizations, including Rostelecom"," T1 VK",,," Rosselkhozbank"ADF groups," Information Democracy Foundation etc.
The key tasks of ANO "Open Source" are related to the development of the Russian national repository of open source software, including: preparing proposals for repository requirements together with the community, raising awareness of free software and others.
According to Orlova, this is a strategic task for 2022-2023, its implementation will contribute to the country's digital sovereignty.
GitHub, against the background of Western sanctions against Russia, restricts access to Russian developers, although it promised not to do so, said the director of the Open Code ANO. A number of leading Russian companies are already suffering from this.
At the same time, the repository as just a repository is not interesting to the community, said Liubov Orlova, speaking at an industry conference on April 29. There should be an environment for developers, Open Source communities. In this regard, a lot of comprehensive work is planned - the refinement and development of projects of the national level on the basis of the ANO "Open Code" site, where various key industries will be present, including KII.
The activities of ANO "Open Code" include, among other things, the representation of the interests of developers in industry organizations and authorities. According to Orlova, industry organizations are already turning to the newly created organization for advice and help.
The organization will also develop cooperation with the international community Open Source. So, for a month there has already been communication about interaction with the Chinese community.
At the ANO "Open Code" expert councils will work in various areas: legal committee, technical, educational, organizational and financial and economic.
2021
Creation of ANO "Open Code": goals and expectations of participants
In December 2021, the director ICT Import Substitution Competence Center Ilya Massukh announced a decision to establish an autonomous non-profit organization (ANO) "Open Code." It is being created to coordinate the efforts of the participants on implementation, "Strategies for the development of open source software in the Russian Federation until 2024" which was presented in October. ANO registration is planned in the first quarter of 2022. Key domestic organizations and individuals from the region will become founders and participants. Open Source
In October 2021, the media, citing Massukh, featured information that a non-profit foundation or an organization for creating open source software may appear in Russia. Then it was previously called the Russian Open Source Foundation (see the block below). But now the final name of the organization, the composition of the founders, the structure have become known, the directions of activity have been described in detail.
Founders of ANO
The intention to participate in the ANO Open Code as founders was confirmed by Yandex, VTB, Gazprom Neft, Rostelecom, BASEALT, the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies, VK, Postgres Professional, Arenadata and the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT). The latter, as previously reported, is a joint project of USM Alisher Usmanov and his partners, Rostec Group and Elvis-Plus Group Alexander Galitsky.
Ilya Massukh explained to TAdviser that he himself acts in the project as a moderator of creation, ensuring the start of the process. At the same time, there is a possibility that the Competence Center for Import Substitution in the ICT field will enter as the founder of the ANO "Open Code."
What an organization is created for
The stated objectives of the ANO "Open Code" include the following:
- Create a technical ecosystem to support the development of open source software that enables international collaboration;
- Assistance in obtaining grants, scholarships and subsidies by developers of open source software and hardware with open architecture;
- Presentation and coordination of the actions of Russian developers of open source software and open architectures in dialogues with industry organizations, authorities, international and foreign public organizations, when developing standards of various levels;
- Marketing support, including events, placement of thematic materials in the media, development of information resources to achieve the goals of the strategy;
- Educational and educational activities, including activities to improve the culture of development and use of open source software and open architectures;
- Coordination and support of projects to ensure compatibility of domestic software with open source and hardware;
- Involvement of representatives of the expert environment, the scientific community, citizens and public associations in the discussion of topical topics within the industry.
Expectations from ANO founders and market participants
VTB considers the primary tasks of ANO Open Code to create an infrastructure for the Russian open source software repository and its operator, as well as identifying key open-source products that need to be focused on.
| | Note that for the emergence of a market for services to support these products, it is important both to build the payment process and the formation of demand from Russian consumers, - said TAdviser at VTB. | |
Arenadata primarily expects that ANO "Open Code" will become a platform for the exchange of experience: the territory in which the pioneers of the Open Source market share expertise with young teams.
| | The second important aspect, in my opinion, is participation in projects aimed at state regulation of open source software in Russia. And the third important area is the training programs for specialized specialists. The technologies we are dealing with are still relatively new, so now various formats of training are especially needed, including cooperation programs with universities, "says Sergey Zolotarev, general director and managing partner of Arenadata. | |
Dariy Khalitov, director of information systems development at Rostelecom, told TAdviser that the company has several main areas of participation for itself. One of them is participation in the development of steps and mechanisms for the implementation of programs to support Russian solutions in order to ensure the technological independence of the country. Another area is the ability to actively use and popularize the program code, in which domestic developers have a decent expertise and companies/teams.
| | In general, we plan to actively participate and support active code contributors in order to increase their impact on the strategic development of open source code, "said Dariy Khalitov. | |
| | We represent one of the largest and most effective Open Source communities in Russia. Of course, we care about everything about Open Source. Free software is not as simple as it seems, working with it has many nuances that are not obvious to the uninitiated. It is very good that those who are engaged in free software in Russia decided to unite. We have many common interests, and opportunities for unification are increasing. We have vast experience in this area, are ready to develop it and share it, "says Ivan Panchenko, Deputy General Director of Postgres Professional. | |
Alexey Smirnov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BASEALT, hopes that the NPO being formed will contribute to the implementation of the Open Source and OpenArchitecture Development Strategy.
| | The topic of free software is traditionally very close to us, we annually hold a "Conference of open source developers." There is a chance to implement interesting ideas, for example, publishing software developed under a state order under a free license, "Smirnov notes. | |
If the activities of ANO "Open Code" help to increase the value of Open Source in the eyes of a business that often considers it to be something free, it will be very good, says Alexander Belokrylov, CEO of BellSoft. It is also important to adjust the application of Open Source in government information systems and determine the requirements for such software.
| | As one of the world leaders in OpenJDK, which forms Java development standards, we know that technology security and regulation of open source software creation processes are the determining factor. We are engaged in the development of progressive technologies, but for them to be safe, a standard is needed. For example, that open technologies should have a number of specific qualities, including that there should be companies developing it in Russia, regularly updating, monitoring safety and eliminating malfunctions, says Alexander Belokrylov. | |
Expectations from the state
| | The state should create conditions for stable, independent development and the use of open source software within the country. To do this, it is necessary to create a repository, an environment for assembling and bulkhead software, provide a legal environment for application and stimulate the secured demand for Russian solutions included in the repository, Ilya Massukh believes. | |
And the role of business is to create software, implement it and support it internally, he added in a conversation with TAdviser.
By the way, the document "Strategy for the development of open source software in the Russian Federation until 2024" provides for the task of creating a domestic analogue of the GitHub repository. And in September 2021, the head of government Mikhail Mishustin proposed to create a Russian platform for the joint development of IT projects, similar to GitHub.
Astra Linux expects to structure the state's position in relation to open source software and options for its support, Roman Mylitsyn, head of advanced research at the Astra Linux GC, told TAdviser.
Postgres Professional CEO Oleg Bartunov hopes that the state will still remain in the role of the customer and will not be strongly involved in the regulation of Open Source. He sees the role of the state in supporting companies that support Open Source communities, for example, as in the United States through a tax deduction.
| | In addition, it is also necessary to reorganize IT education, to land it in modern reality. Every professor is simply obliged to have startups and companies, to be in the industry, students should be involved in real work with the professor. It is necessary to have something similar to Google Summer of Code so that students receive support for work in selected open source projects, "Oleg Bartunov wrote in an open post on his Facebook page. | |
It is quite possible that the state does not need this, but you can get by with the very Open Source organization announced by Ilya Massukh, the CEO of Postgres Professional believes.
Plans for NPOs for Open Source Software Development
In early October 2021, it became known about the creation in Russia of the Russian Open Source Foundation, designed for the development of software with open source code. According to the head of the competence center for import substitution in the field of information and communication technologies Ilya Massukh, we are talking about a non-profit organization (NPO), which at the first stage will include Sberbank, VTB, Mail.ru Group, Yandex, Postgres Pro, Arenadata, etc.
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According to RBC, the new NGO will coordinate the activities of developer communities, as well as educational and scientific organizations. In addition, the Russian Open Source Foundation will act as the operator of the domestic repository and intends to represent Russian developers in negotiations with international organizations.
By the beginning of October 2021, the state is actively consuming open source products in Russia, so there is a task to make them effective and safe, RBC reports the words of Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maxim Parshin.
A VTB spokesman confirmed to the publication that the group plans to become a member of the Russian Open Source Foundation. Sberbank only reported that the bank "took part in the discussion of the initiative."
The draft strategy for the development of open source software indicates that in recent years, the governments of the United States, the European Union and China, as well as the largest corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Huawei, have been actively supporting such products. Although most of the main funds of free software, such as the Apache Foundation, while in the United States, are independent of the American government, it actively interferes in the affairs of these communities, said Diana Potokina, head of software development at Linagora Groupe and CEO of Linagora Rus.[2]
Notes
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