Open source and the sluggish UK public sector • The Register

More from the article. What is crucial here, for me, as an ODF advocate, and as a realist, is policies mandating open standards (and those that can actually be implemented by a range of vendors). Thus, Silber:

Open source and the sluggish UK public sector • The Register: "At a recent Cabinet Office forum for system integrators, there were some striking examples of open source being used in the public sector, according to Silber. Bristol City Council, for example, has achieved 50 per cent cost savings by using open source, and the National Digital Resource Bank reported an IT spend reduction of 98 per cent.

The Cabinet Office is in the middle of an informal consultation on open standards in IT. Asked what she’d like to see come out of the process, Silber has no hesitation, especially in the light of Bristol City Council having to re-install Windows because of compatibility issues.

“Some really strong statements of support for requirements to support open standards should be included,” she says. “Compliance really ought to be mandated. The government seems to have a good understanding of open source software’s potential. It is time we saw this turn into action.”"

Open source and the sluggish UK public sector • The Register

Open source and the sluggish UK public sector • The Register

Jane Silber of Canonical makes the key point, one that is true in many, many places around the world:

But it doesn’t seem to work that way. Jane Silber, chief executive of Ubuntu’s commercial champion Canonical, has a feeling that open source is used as a negotiating tool but that its benefits are not always taken into account.

“I’d like to think open source has a value other than as a negotiating tool,” she says. “There has been some good progress in getting it considered. The government is doing some things with procurement laws to encourage system integrators to include open source in proposals.

“But it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. The system integrators can’t offer it if the public sector isn’t asking for it, and the public sector can’t buy it if it isn’t on the tender.”

Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » What do you think about Norway’s new open data license?

Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » What do you think about Norway’s new open data license?

I follow the Open Knowledge Foundation and its blogs... and also keenly interested in the categories related to open access, knowledge, source and the tools by which these can be made meaningfully open: accessible and usable by all.

It's not meaningful to claim that information must be free. It is meaningful to say that to be free you must have information.

SmartGov Live 2011 - Open Government

SmartGov Live 2011 - Open Government

JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY｜Japan／Earthquake Donation

JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY｜Japan／Earthquake　Donation

I, along with many of the OpenOffice.org and ODF communities have friends in Japan. News of their well-being is trickling in. But thousands lost their lives, and many, many more lost their homes, possessions, their ways of life. The 9.0 earthquake and the continuing nuclear catastrophe has global dimensions, and Japan should be lauded for accepting international support.

Please help. Everything is needed. The best and easiest way for those of us remote to help those on the ground is via the Red Cross, and I've put a link for donations at the top here.

Donate, please.