What we do
Open Digital works where open source commitment meets operational reality: the gap between policy and working systems.
Most advisory stops at the strategy document. The areas below describe where the practice adds distinctive value. Each engagement is shaped by the client's context.
Digital Commons Readiness
An honest assessment of what adopting open digital commons infrastructure requires - governance capacity, procurement capability, contributor obligations, integration complexity - followed by a sequenced plan for building what is missing.
Relevant for: national digital agencies, regional authorities considering open source procurement, and EU-funded programmes with open source delivery requirements.
Open Source Procurement Design
Procurement is where open source strategy most often fails in practice. We design approaches that separate software from services, keep the supplier market competitive, avoid accidental lock-in, and structure contracts that preserve the right to switch.
Relevant for: procurement teams in central and local government, and organisations building multi-vendor service models around open source platforms.
Contributor and Governance Frameworks
Internal frameworks for how an organisation engages with upstream communities: what it contributes, under what terms, how AI-assisted code is handled, and how it accounts for its obligations. Built for how software is made today.
Relevant for: corporate IT functions formalising open source engagement, public sector teams building contribution capability, and foundations updating contributor agreements.
Operating Model Design for Digital Services
Moving to infrastructure built on open digital commons changes more than procurement policy. We design operating models where the software is held in common, the value is in the service layer, and leverage comes from ecosystem participation rather than licence ownership.
Relevant for: CIOs and digital directors restructuring around open source platforms, and agencies building shared services across multiple public bodies.
Implementation Sequencing and Programme Support
Large adoption programmes stall not because the strategy is wrong but because the sequencing is. We work alongside programme teams to keep delivery technically sound, politically sustainable, and commercially defensible - identifying the dependencies that create risk and resolving the decisions that block progress.
Relevant for: programme directors and senior responsible owners, and organisations managing multi-stakeholder open source programmes.
Foundation and Not-for-Profit Development
Helping foundations and not-for-profits work like businesses without becoming them: organisational design, revenue and funding models, financial discipline, and the operating capability to receive funds, deliver programmes, and account for both. Stewardship is a job, and it needs an organisation built to do it.
Relevant for: open source foundations and associations, newly established steward organisations, and NFPs professionalising their operations.
Grant Strategy and Funding Navigation
The European funding landscape for digital commons and open source infrastructure is substantial and growing. We identify the right pathways, develop applications that reflect genuine project scope, and structure funded programmes so that what is delivered matches what was promised.
Relevant for: foundations and projects seeking sustained investment, public bodies funding digital commons adoption, and organisations contributing to European open source infrastructure.
Commercial terms
Advisory work is charged at a published day rate of £2,500 / €2,500. We publish it because we advise clients to demand transparency from their suppliers, and see no reason to be exempt. Engagements are scoped and agreed in advance; longer programmes are priced by agreement.