From the Ancient Greek ἀγορά — the central public space of civic life, deliberation, and democratic governance.
Agora is an institutional reference framework for establishing, structuring, and operating an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) within public administrations, European institutions, research organisations, and mission-driven enterprises.
The Agora Framework provides a structured, auditable, and interoperable methodology for organisations seeking to formalise their engagement with open source software — from initial policy definition through to contribution governance, compliance management, and ecosystem participation.
It is designed in alignment with:
- The European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
- The EU Open Source Strategy 2020–2023 and its successor
- The REUSE Specification for licence compliance
- The OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230 standard for open source licence compliance programmes
- CHAOSS metrics for community health and sustainability
In the ancient Greek city-state, the Agora was the heart of public life: a space where citizens gathered to deliberate, trade, legislate, and innovate collectively. It was simultaneously a marketplace of ideas and a seat of governance.
An Open Source Program Office plays an analogous role within a modern organisation: it is the institutional forum through which open source strategy is debated, policies are enacted, contributions are coordinated, and the health of the commons is sustained.
The Agora Framework is applicable to:
| Sector | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Public Administration | Digital sovereignty, procurement policy, open standards compliance |
| European Institutions | Interoperability mandates, shared infrastructure, regulatory alignment |
| Research Organisations | Open Science, reproducibility, scholarly communication |
| Critical Infrastructure | Security governance, supply chain transparency, licence compliance |
| Mission-driven Enterprises | ESG alignment, community stewardship, ecosystem contribution |
agora-framework/
├── README.md # This document
├── CHANGELOG.md # Release history and versioning
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md # Community standards
├── CONTRIBUTING.md # Contribution guidelines
├── GOVERNANCE.md # Project governance model
├── publiccode.yml # Machine-readable public software metadata
├── LICENSE # European Union Public Licence 1.2
│
├── .github/
│ └── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md # Standard pull request template
│
├── docs/
│ ├── whitepaper/
│ │ ├── agora-whitepaper.md # White paper (Markdown)
│ │ ├── agora-whitepaper.docx # White paper (Word/OOXML)
│ │ └── agora-whitepaper.odt # White paper (ODF — LibreOffice)
│ │
│ └── templates/
│ ├── ospo-policy-template.md # OSPO Policy Template (Markdown)
│ ├── ospo-policy-template.docx # OSPO Policy Template (Word/OOXML)
│ └── ospo-policy-template.odt # OSPO Policy Template (ODF — LibreOffice)
- Read the White Paper to understand the strategic rationale for an OSPO.
- Adapt the OSPO Policy Template to your organisational context.
- Review the Governance Model to understand how the Agora Framework itself is governed.
- Fork this repository or use it as a template for your organisation's OSPO documentation.
- Review CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting improvements.
- All contributions must comply with the Code of Conduct.
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/IAAUTECO-inc/Agora-Framework.git
cd Agora-Framework
# The framework is documentation-first; no build step is required.
# Markdown sources may be compiled to PDF using pandoc:
pandoc docs/whitepaper/agora-whitepaper.md -o agora-whitepaper.pdfEstablishing the legal, strategic, and organisational authority of the OSPO within its host institution.
Designing the policy instruments that govern open source consumption, contribution, and publication.
Implementing processes for licence identification, compatibility assessment, and SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) management.
Structuring the rules, workflows, and accountabilities for upstream and downstream contribution.
Building the institutional relationships and participation models that sustain open source ecosystems.
Measuring the impact, health, and sustainability of the organisation's open source programme.
| Standard / Framework | Agora Coverage |
|---|---|
| EU Open Source Strategy | Strategic mandate, contribution policy |
| European Interoperability Framework | Interoperability layers, shared components |
| NIS2 Directive | Supply chain security, SBOM, vulnerability management |
| GDPR / Data Governance Act | Data handling in open source projects |
| OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230 | Licence compliance programme |
| REUSE Specification | Per-file copyright and licence metadata |
| publiccode.yml | Machine-readable software metadata for public administrations |
This project is licensed under the European Union Public Licence v1.2 (EUPL-1.2).
The EUPL-1.2 is compatible with the GPL family of licences and is specifically designed for European public software. It ensures that derivative works remain open and auditable.
See LICENSE for the full licence text.
The Agora Framework is developed and maintained by IAAUTECO Inc. in partnership with the open source community.
- Primary Maintainer: IAAUTECO Inc. | Sovereign Infrastructure
- Repository: https://github.com/IAAUTECO-inc/Agora-Framework
- Contact: contact@iaauteco.ovh
We welcome contributions from practitioners, policy experts, legal professionals, and community members. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening an issue or pull request.
The Agora Framework draws on the collective work of the global OSPO community, including contributions from the TODO Group, the Linux Foundation, the Eclipse Foundation, OSPO Alliance, and the European Commission's DIGIT directorate.
"The strength of open source is the community around it."
— Linus Torvalds