06 December 2006
The French government will make Paris a centre of excellence for open-source software development, it has announced.
French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, Thierry Breton, said the goal of the centre will be to develop a healthy and profitable open-source software industry.
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Friday, December 29, 2006
UK open source centre established
| The open source and open standards (OS&S) debate just got a permanent UK home, where a think-tank can evolve the innovative technology. The National Open Centre (NOC) will house the thoughts and possibilities of OS&S software strategists in Birmingham. [...] OpenAdvantage (University Central England) is partially sponsoring the endeavour alongside Birmingham City Council, Digital Birmingham and Midland Open Source Technologies. |
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Dutch Municipalities demand 'Openess'
In February 2003, the program "Open Standards and Open Source Software (OSSOS) for the Dutch government" started, funded by the Dutch government. One of the main tasks was to make the government independent from single software suppliers, among which are Microsoft and SAP. After three years, the effort starts bearing fruit. Ten big municipalities - together 2,7 million inhabitants and including Amsterdam and The Hague - signed a manifest.
In the OSSOS program, big municipalities have discussed what the demands for software tenders should be in the future. It became clear, interoperability and independence from software supplier should be the most important aspects for such tenders.
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Nonetheless, open source software isn't mentioned in the manifest. This is done deliberately. Instead of asking for open source, the manifest explains what the goals of that 'open source' should be; making it harder for suppliers to abuse the term 'open software', and label their closed software 'open'. There are four terms of 'openness' in the manifest:
- Supplier independence
- Interoperability
- Transparency and verifiability and
- Digital durability
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