Photo: publiccode.eu
Open source tools in schools and municipalities will not only save society money and employ more people, they are also a significant step towards digital sovereignty. A new platform is ready to be developed and implemented.
A group of open source promoters have developed the concept behind a new school platform, OS2 Skole, which is completely free of dependence on Big Tech. This new open source-based platform will not only protect kids’ data, it will also promote digital sovereignty and enhance the freedom to develop didactic and pedagogical solutions based on European values.
Today, almost all Danish schools use tools from either Google or Microsoft in their teaching. Parents and the data authority have particularly protested against the use of Google but it has managed to settle the case by new promises that it will not abuse user data. The agreement between schools and Big Tech is purely based on trust, which to many people is not enough.
Therefore, in the beginning of January 2026, the new school platform was presented to the public. 23 out of 83 municipalities are already backing the project, which can completely disrupt the grip Big Tech has on Danish schools. It is based on principles that we don’t see coming out of either Google nor Microsoft, such as;
- Pedagogy and didactics first
- Focus on student learning, inclusion, motivation and mastery
- Digital literacy and criticism as an integrated practice
- Students’ mastery of a diverse digital future
- Protection of students and their data
- Data ethics, legality and children’s rights (privacy-by-default)
- Digital sovereignty for students and schools … freedom of action and control
- Transparency and insight into use … also with AI
- Equality and accessibility for all
“Teachers tend to love the Big Tech solutions despite the fact they they look like office solutions with an ‘education’ label on,” said Jens Kjellerup, one of the initiators behind the platform from the organisation OS2 – Public Digitalization Network in Denmark. “But you can’t call Google and say we need this and that,” he added.
The platform will chose between a range of open source options from suppliers, and it will recycle what schools in other countries like Sweden, Holland, Germany, France and Denmark are using successfully, they said.
The Price is Lower
According to the project group, Denmark pays 66.5 million kroner in annual licences to Google and Microsoft. That is 133 kroner per pupil. That price is much much lower than what Big Tech charges municipalities, but the schools’ cost are still on the rise. OS2 Skole will, according to the project group, cost 26 millioner kroner to develop and 21 million kroner to run every year—which is 42 kroner per pupil. When 32% of all Danish schools are using OS2 Skole it breaks even. The costs of OS2 Skole will not be the licenses paid to Big Tech but to money paid to people who will be hired to maintain and develop the system.
A couple of years ago, two Danish providers of open source, Magenta and Semaphor, also developed a concept for a school platform, OSCampus. However, the timing today, is somewhat better in the wake of the economic and security threats from the US.
The Slow Public Sector
The Danish public sector is not moving fast when it comes to adopting open source. In media speak they are but not so much regarding implementation.
The Danish Digitalisation Agency has made a report on open source and what is needed to obtain success with alternatives to Big Tech. The agency is not considering the obvious economic gains, it just concludes that there are a range of conditions needed to succeed such as new skills both for technical and organisational adjustments, and skills to implement and operate the new software must be in place. The report also underlined that every authority ‘must take greater responsibility for the IT solution used if they choose to use open source software rather than purchasing proprietary software from a supplier.’
According to Rasmus Frey from Århus Municipality and the OS2 community, open source technology is important in maintaining our democracy. It is free, open, transparent and built on values like our individual freedom to speak, to vote, to chose our own path, to travel freely across borders, to be autonomous individuals.
In our podcast, he explains why Denmark is lagging behind e.g. Germany in applying open source:
“I think because of lobbyists. We are a small nation, and if you compare us with others, we have started digitalisation at an earlier stage and are therefore more entangled in Big Tech. Further, the big companies often are invited to the table to advise us. I think that is why.”
According to Frey, we have to move fast to get out of the dependence on Big Tech.
“Big Tech’s services are often tied to a specific purpose – to generate money and power. And this does not necessarily fit with a European mindset and democratic values,” he said and underlined: “Denmark is a society build on trust. That trust would be undermined eventually, if we don’t move away from this dependence.”
Something is happening in the small state of Denmark though. The Danish Road Traffic Authority seems to be the pilot authority in the road away from Microsoft. The CEO Steffan Søsted got the first Microsoft-free computer and was surprised how fast it was to use. He told the Danish newspaper Ingeniøren that using the new digital sovereign computer “was almost an upgrade.”
Listen to episode 4: Open Source Can Disrupt Big Tech’s Grip on The Public Sector
Open Source Democracy is a project about why open source is important for democracy supported by Carlsberg Mindelegat. It aims to communicate the ethics and values of open source alternatives to big tech structured by three overarching topics, education, mobility, information. All articles and podcasts will be freely available at dataethics.eu/opensource
