Government promotes open source for public sector

The government has published a new policy aimed at promoting the use of open source software in the public sector. It is also aimed at promoting open standards and encouraging the re-use of IT solutions. Measures include an education programme, guidance on procurement from the Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council and …

[Anonymous Coward]

Open Standards

I think that much more significant than the embracing of open source (which is a good thing), is the stipulation that open STANDARDS should be used. It is the use of proprietary (ie - mostly MS) "standards" that causes problems for the adoption of opens source software. Once the standards are in place, open source will naturally find its place in government.

[David Pollard]

Oh noes

The recession must be really bad for the gubmint to have come out with this. But maybe there will (eventually) be a silver lining to the cloud? AC, above, is quite right about the need for open standards.

Meanwhile, it does look as though OS has been making some headway in the education sector, despite the munificence of the commercial market leader.

See, e.g: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/softwareexamples.xml

[A J Stiles]

Open Standards - II

AC 12:53 is right that Open Standards are what's really important, but Open Source *only* implements open standards (of course), and also guarantees that you're never going to get shafted by a greedy vendor.

[RW]

Another meaningless NuLabour initiative

This would be good news except for the source: NuLabour has lied, conned, distorted, spun, and obfuscated so many times that, until substantive results ensue, this has to be taken as another of their headline-driven initiatives with no substance.

[James Woods]

what government

yo register, what government, you can't be talking about the US government since nothing we do over here is cost-effective or meant to be compatible with everything else. We're the country of bridges to no-where and vip countrywide loans for all politicians.

[Anonymous Coward]

Open Standards pt 3.

Open standards should be where the EU (and others) tries to tackle the Microsoft monopoly. It's my data and I should have a right to know how it's being stored. Once that's in place software makers can start competing on features, cost, & benefits, like other non-monopolistic markets.