City of Kingston
Report to Council
Report Number 17-130
To:
Mayor and Members of Council
From:
Desiree Kennedy, Chief Financial Officer and City Treasurer
Resource Staff:
David Johnston, Chief Information Officer
Scott Tulk, Technology Solutions Architect
Date of Meeting:
May 2, 2017
Subject:
Open Source Software - Code Release
Executive Summary:
Open Source is a well-established movement and software development model that promotes
the principles of openness and sharing of intellectual property (software code, designs etc.) so
that anyone can access, use and improve upon the intellectual property with as few restrictions
as possible. Open Source software is often developed in a collaborative manner which reduces
barriers to innovation and reduces costs.
City staff have developed a software program/utility that is of interest to Queen’s University and
would like to release this utility to Queen’s and the Open Source community. This will provide
benefit to Queen’s, while at the same time facilitating further enhancements which could be
mutually beneficial to both parties and the Open Source community at large.
While not a specific theme of the Open Government work plan, the release of the City’s software
to the Open Source community aligns well with Council’s Open Government priority and
specifically fostering and promoting innovation.
There are no costs or revenues associated with sharing this software as Open Source code.
Appropriate licensing terms, based on existing Open Source licensing models, will be subject to
review by and in a form satisfactory to the Director of Legal Services, and included in any
release of Open Source software.
The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval to release the City’s source code for a
software utility to Queen’s University and the Open Source community at large, and to delegate
authority to the Chief Information Officer to approve specific, approved, corporately-owned
software code to the Open Source community in the future.
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Recommendation:
1. That Council approve the release of the City-developed software utility to Queen’s
University and the Open Source community, and;
2. That the Chief Information Officer be delegated authority to review, approve and release
future software source code developed and owned by the City, to the Open Source
community under appropriate licensing terms, where there is likely to be benefit to the
corporation, partners and/or the community.
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Authorizing Signatures:
ORIGINAL SIGNED BY CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER AND CITY TREASURER
Desiree Kennedy, Chief Financial Officer and
City Treasurer
ORIGINAL SIGNED BY CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
Gerard Hunt, Chief Administrative Officer
Consultation with the following Commissioners:
Lanie Hurdle, Community Services
Denis Leger, Corporate & Emergency Services
Jim Keech, President and CEO, Utilities Kingston
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Not required
√
Not required
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Options/Discussion:
Today’s websites, social media sites and software used for business and personal use are
written by teams of individuals in a variety of programming languages. The process is not unlike
writing a novel, where an author and editor develop a compelling story, and a publisher creates
books for sale. Consumers buy books with the story on the pages but the author generally
maintains ownership of the story itself. The consumer owns the book (binding, paper, etc.) but
not the story.
Traditionally, software was treated the same way. Large companies design and write the
software, then sell the rights to use the end product. However, users are never allowed to see or
improve upon the end product because they don’t have access to the “story”, or “source code”,
just the end product. It is, in effect, a closed, proprietary system.
While such a closed system protects interests of the companies that produce software, it can
slow innovation and increase costs for everyone.
The Open Source movement was started decades ago to address the problems of the closed
commercial system of software development. Source code is published on the web and made
freely available for anyone to use and improve. This drives innovation and lowers costs. Open
Source software is at the heart of almost every aspect of the internet today.
Companies today typically adopt an Open Source development model for their products, but
depend on revenues from consumers for marketing, to ensure quality and provide technical
support. This is appropriate and more cost effective for organizations with large mission-critical
systems where performance and specialized support is important.
Like most organizations, the City writes small programs and utilities to address specific or
unique internal business requirements which may not be available commercially. In 2015 a
small utility program was written by City IT staff to visualize our IT landscape (networks, servers,
applications) and facilitate monitoring and planning of systems. This utility program is of interest
to Queen’s University.
The traditional model would require a formal agreement to sell or donate rights to use the
software and protect the City’s interests. However, the Open Source model is simply a more
efficient and effective way to proceed. There is no need for non-disclosure agreements,
complex/unique licensing terms, etc. The source code is simply published under an existing
Open Source licensing model and anyone that wants to use and improve the code would be
able to do so, at any time. Improvements made by other parties would be available to the City at
no cost.
This is a low-risk, mutually beneficial opportunity for the City and Queen’s University to gain
from shared interests, and potentially to the community at large.
In the future, internally-developed software source code would be published /released to the
Open Source community as a standard practice, subject only to issues such as security and
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protection of confidential information and/or intellectual property of third parties that we are
obligated to protect.
Existing Policy/By Law:
There are no policy/by-law provisions with this report.
Notice Provisions:
There are no notice provisions with this report.
Accessibility Considerations:
There are no accessibility considerations with this report.
Financial Considerations:
There are no financial considerations with this report.
Contacts:
David Johnston, Chief Information Officer, 613-546-4291, Extension 1333
Scott Tulk, Technology Solutions Architect, 613-546-4291, Extension 2397
Other City of Kingston Staff Consulted:
Alan Macleod, Senior Legal Counsel
Exhibits Attached:
Not Applicable
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