Open Source in Administration: The Government Site Builder 11 Sets Standards

With the award ceremony at the Smart Country Convention (SCCON) on October 2, 2025, the open-source movement in public administration celebrated a visible success. At the first nationwide Open Source Competition for Authorities and Public Institutions, organized by the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) and partners like govdigital, SUSE, Capgemini, and ZenDiS, projects were honored that demonstrate: Open Source is no longer an experiment – it is a viable administrative infrastructure.

The focus was on the Government Site Builder 11 (GSB 11), a joint development by the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization (BMDS) and the Federal Information Technology Center (ITZBund). The project won two awards – the prize in the category Internal Administrative Applications and the Community Special Award.

The GSB 11 is based on TYPO3 and serves as the technical foundation for numerous federal and state websites. Its ability to convince both the jury and the community is no coincidence: The GSB 11 exemplifies a new understanding of digital administration – standardized, secure, open, and collaboratively developed.

In addition to the double victory of the GSB 11, three other initiatives were recognized:

• The Federal Ministry of Justice received the award in the category Specialized Procedures for “Access to Justice”, which provides digital judicial services – from lawsuits to legal aid.
• The Civitas Connect e.V. was honored in the category Transformation for the open data platform CIVITAS/CORE, which connects municipal data and promotes collaboration.
• A special award went to the State of Schleswig-Holstein, which is consistently transitioning its IT infrastructure to open-source software – demonstrating that digital sovereignty can be a lived administrative practice.

The jury was high-profile – with representatives from administration, science, and business, including Katja Wilken (Federal Office of Administration), Martin Schallbruch (govdigital eG), Peter H. Ganten (OSBA), and Prof. Dr. Dirk Riehle (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg).

The increasing structural anchoring of open source in administration is a development with significant implications. Projects like the Government Site Builder 11 or CIVITAS/CORE prove that open software can have not only technical but also organizational impacts – by promoting collaboration, reducing dependencies, and enabling innovation in the public sector.

The competition highlights what is already a reality in many administrations: Digital sovereignty begins where public code is understood as a shared resource – in the interest of all.

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