What are the key factors that have made Estonia successful in digitizing the public sector?
Pihelpuu: The history of Estonia is one of the main factors of the successful digitalization of the public sector. When the Soviet Union collapsed, we were able to start from scratch in terms of legislation, what is needed for the digital state to function, and also databases. We had to build everything from zero.
In addition, Estonia is quite a small country, the population is kind of tech savvy, and when we got our freedom back, everybody trusted the governmental institutions.
Building on this, personal identification was introduced using ID codes and digital identity and authentication option was created in cooperation between the state and the private sector. In the early beginnings, the private and public sector launched together this digital identity initiative and used them actively from the beginning on.
The Government, private companies and the banks were keen on people using the authentication and digital signature on a national level. And thanks to this, it was quickly adopted by the general population. The private sector has therefore been able to build on this foundation, which is essential for good public services.
Various confidence-building measures were then introduced, including the ability for citizens to see who has used their data and the secure sharing of data between public and private organizations. This enables the development of various services, both in the private and public sector.
Where do you see the advantages of open source software in the public sector?
Pihelpuu: Above all, it increases transparency and enables the integration of multiple partners by choosing the right methods and platforms and using framework agreements for the development of a system to avoid vendor lock-in. This always leaves the possibility to choose between different partners. Flexibility is also an advantage, especially for customized solutions. As Estonia is a small country, we would not have as much say in the architecture and solutions for large, licensed systems, as such systems are mainly developed for larger countries and clients.
An additional advantage is that when proprietary source code is not used, projects and systems do not come under the control of a single vendor. Instead, companies must constantly compete to offer the best price and the best solution. This ensures the best use of taxpayers' money in the long term.
What role do you think open source could play in 5 to 10 years' time?
Pihelpuu: If you look at the potential of open source in the future, I think in 5 to 10 years it will even increase, different opportunities will open up, especially with the emergence of AI. AI has mainly been trained on open source code and solutions and it can better support us in their development and implementation in the future. Therefore, I think it will enable different service providers, individuals and freelancers to do even more work on the open source platforms.
In addition, public and private sector organisations will increasingly use AI tools to research, find and implement the best solutions for their needs. As there is an abundance of information for pen source platforms because of the discussions in communities, chat rooms, blogs, posts and discussions. I think AI will have more input and data to suggest open source tools than closed licence products.
What do you envision for the future of open source implementation in administration? And how can the usage of open source in the public sector improve?
Pihelpuu: I think one crucial thing is that open source thrives when there is a community around. So, when government institutions, especially the larger ones, are using open source for a platform, I recommend that they also think about how they are going to build the community around their specific type of platform.
The reason is that you don't want to get into the same kind of vendor lock that you do with proprietary licensed services with open source. And if there are more partners and a larger community that can access your services, your code, your solution, then you have more partners with whom to develop your requirements and solutions.
Finally, when setting up new systems, long-term maintenance, updates and upgrades should also always be considered.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Riho Pihelpuu for the interview at our Anwendertag 2024.
