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The governments of the world are among the key players in the building momentum of open source software. As an increasing number of governments understand the compelling benefits of open source software, they become driving forces in removing impediments to its deployment.
Additionally, governments around the world are adopting open source software so they can speed up technological advancement and the economic benefits it brings. There is significant activity in the public policy arena. Governments are getting more and more active in proposing open source software-based solutions because they believe it is a way for them to become competitive in this marketplace worldwide; encourage an indigenous software industry; fulfill a commitment to the 'informatization' of society; reduce the cost of IT purchases.
Here are examples of decisions by governments to use, prefer or invest in open source software:
Many countries are unhappy with the United States' lead in the software industry. Governments view open source software as the way to compete in the software industry and also to insure that their needs are met by software companies. For this reason, governments are making decisions about whether to require the consideration of open source software and reward a preference to it.
In several countries, government procurement laws are based increasingly on economic development decisions. Countries favor open source software because they believe they can create jobs by developing native open source companies which will lead to cheaper costs and provide a competitive response to companies that promote proprietary software codes.
In other countries, governments want open source software to make technology more accessible to their citizens. Some countries provide software directly to its citizens by developing their own open source software distributions. Both China and Brazil have created their own versions of Linux to distribute for negligible prices to their populations. The Indian government recently announced it would set up and open source software center to develop free software for its people and cut personal computer prices. In the Moroccan government, several agencies use open source software and have developed their own open source software applications.
Many governments also choose open source software because they believe that it is more inexpensive than proprietary software. In May, Spain's regional government of Valencia announced that it will move to open source software because of its democratic duty as a public administration to save money on software. In August, the French region of Auvergne announced its plans to distribute 64,000 CD packs with open source software to secondary school students as the school year begins in September.
Over 160 national, state/provincial, and local government entities use open source software and many more governments are considering the use of open source software. 1 Governments around the world have now introduced open source policies by executive order, legislative action or by mandates from government chief information officers.
* The US Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget have passed advisory rules for open source software use and consideration of total cost of ownership in agencies' software purchases, but these rules are technology and vendor neutral (Center for Strategic and International Studies' document entitled "Government Open Source Policies" published December 13, 2004);
* Venezuela's Minister of Planning and Development, Dr. Felipe Perez-Marti, announced a new policy on 1/19/05 that all software developed for the government must be licensed under the General Public License. Open source where possible, proprietary software only when necessary (Linux Today, Slashdot, etc.); Includes 3 phases of migration beginning with central, then regional and finally municipal govts (The Register 1/7/05).
* Spain created the National Centre for Open Source Software in March 2005 to coordinate open source software developments across administrative layers and across the country. (May 26, 2005 European Union Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens Open Source Observatory)
* Also, Spain's regional government of Valencia recently announced that it will move to open source software because of its democratic duty as a public administration to save $ on software (May 2005 European Union Open Source Observatory and article from Open Source Western Australia)
* Norway's information technology minister announced the country's plans to convert the entire public sector to open source software. Norway will have migration plans in place by the beginning of 2006. (vnunet.com 6/28/05)
* The United Kingdom government plans to fund an initiative, known as the Open Source Academy, to accelerate the use of open source software within the public sector (CNet News 4/7/05)
* The United Kingdom National Computer Centre announced that it would provide an open source software Testing Laboratory for public institutions that are trying to adopt open source software. The lab is part of the Open Source Academy, a nationally funded project sponsored by the Office of the United Kingdom Deputy Prime Minister. (European Union Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens Open Source Observatory 7/1/05)
* The United Kingdom government created OpenAdvantage, a government-funded organization that promotes open source software and supports companies using, developing, or selling services around it (ZDNet 12/29/04)
* The Moroccan government held a one-day event to discuss the open source software developments in the public sector. Several Moroccan agencies use open source software and have developed their own open source software applications. (August 22, 2005 European Union Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens Open Source Observatory)
* The Indian government announced it would set up an open source software center to develop free software for its people and cut personal computer prices. (August 3, 2005 - European Union Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens Open Source Observatory)
* Malaysia has created the Malaysian Public Sector Open Source Competency Centre to support and guide the implementation of open source software in the public sector. The OSCC will also play a role in "ensuring and sustaining the dynamic growth of open source software usage and development in the public sector" (Malaysian OSCC brochure - July 2004)
* The Ministry of Information and Communication said it will provide a total of 3 billion won (US$2.95 million) for government agencies which want to use the Linux and other open-source computer programs this year (Linux News 3/28/05).