I'm afraid Matt might be right. Government by using commercial software creates an little economy that wouldn't exist if they used open source software. I've worked in planning & GIS departments for a few councils and the cost of the software is extraordinary. Kensington and Chelsea spent £1m on software for a planning system. Place that across all local authorities and the money spent of software must be huge. It would be nice to get a figure on it.
I remember the German government turning down a corporate-wide Microsoft licence in favour of linux. That move, a few years ago, must have made them look at open source. It would be interesting to know if they've had any publicised savings or sucess stories. Andy Bailey On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:27 +0100, "Matt Ford" <[email protected]> wrote: > Playing devil's advocate here but I can imagine people in government > being afraid of taking away people's jobs by open sourcing software. If > they don't open source it then someone else may be given the job of > writing exactly the same software all over again, during a time of > recession they may be inclined to think this is a good thing. > > Those more informed of us would realise that such an opinion is an > example of the broken window fallacy. We can only hope that there are > sensible people in place to explain the economic benefits of open source > as an aid to innovation and 'progress'. > > Dave Briggs wrote: > > This seems a sensible petition to sign: > > http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/open-source-tic/ > > > > "The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) is running > > a project called Timely Information to Citizens (TIC). As part of this > > project, several local authorities are being given funding totalling > > approximately £1m to develop software and web services to improve > > local information and service provision. > > > > While CLG's aim is that these projects are incorporated into a "best > > practice toolkit", we ask the government to reduce duplication of > > effort and expense and make this software available for other users at > > the earliest opportunity by releasing each package on deployment under > > an OSI-approved open source licence. > > > > Though we welcome these projects themselves, as citizens we cannot and > > do not support this substantial sum of public money being spent to > > create private, proprietary software." > > > > -- > > Dave Briggs, Digital Enabler > > [email protected] | http://davepress.net | 07525 209589 (Mobile) > > > > Sign up for my monthly digital participation newsletter at > > http://davepress.net/newsletter > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list [email protected] > > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
