We use solutions based on open source technologies to help you make your city or region resilient and sustainable. Open source means that (1) the source codes of our software, the Open Data Platform by DKSR, (2) the codes of the developed applications and (3) the codes for our connectors for data integration are publicly accessible.
Proprietary software, on the other hand, is software that you have to buy. In addition, their source codes are neither published nor can users adapt them. You can find our codes on GitHub and OpenCodeDE.
Advantages of the Open Data Platform by DKSR include:
- More than 70 municipalities use our urban data platform and continuously develop it further
- Existing applications can be expanded with additional functions in different data formats
- Published applications and solutions can be adopted and adapted by other municipalities
- Opportunities for collaborative work
Why we believe in the open-source approach:
- Many are working on a wide range of solutions, and everyone can benefit from them – that is our goal.
- Open-source communities enable technology-independent solutions to be available to everyone.
- Code that is publicly funded should benefit the common good – a guiding principle by which we work.
Can anyone develop open source technology further?
And is open-source cost-free?
Further development
Open-source does not mean that anyone can easily develop and adapt the technologies on the platform. This is because:
- the increasing complexity of software and source code can be associated with high resource costs.
- Implementation requires technological knowledge, time and patience.
But:
- If you have all of this, it is possible to develop the technology independently, unlike commercial or licensed software.
- AND: When implementing it, you can rely on a large network of solution providers and service providers.
- In addition, we offer training and thus enable municipal representatives to further develop the platform themselves – for example, to integrate data.
Entirely free of charge?
A clear maybe! There are no license fees for downloading and using our open-source software. However, costs are incurred during implementation and operation, specifically for:
Professional support and maintenance services,
ensuring operational reliability and reducing the risk of downtime.Customized solutions that
require the software to be adapted to individual business processes, integrated with existing systems, and integrated with new data and data models.Application training and onboarding costs,
so that everyone on the team can use the software efficiently.Cloud hosting,
which ensures professional infrastructure management.The costs associated with open source software are investments that create flexibility, security, innovation and strategic value for your city or region, and can far exceed the initial investment.
It has been shown that only a few municipalities employ a team of software experts to operate a data platform securely in-house. Therefore, we offer a managed service for all municipalities that do not have this, which enables secure and robust operation of open-source technologies.
Lea Hemetsberger
lea.hemetsberger@dksr.city
+49 151 720 95 738
