[discuss] New Zealand and Open Source

[RobinH]

This is an extract from a New Zealand Green Party newsletter, which may be 
of interest.
DHB = "District Health Board", a local body which administers hospitals etc.
Nandor is a Green Member of Parliament. NZ has a population of just over 4M.
Robin in New Zealand
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Govt should follow DHB lead on open source software

Green Party IT Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos is congratulating District 
Health Boards on their move towards adopting open source software and other 
Government agencies should follow their lead.

A report in the IT media today says DHBs are to trial a two-tier system, 
with only their most intensive software users staying with Microsoft's 
proprietary products and the rest going to open source, such as 
openoffice.org. They will also be asking makers of health-related software 
to develop open source versions of their products and pushing for greater 
representation in the Governments bulk contract negotiations with 
Microsoft.  New Zealands DHBs have paid Microsoft $20 million in license 
fees over the last three years.

I'm sure New Zealanders want their tax dollars going into treating patients 
rather than building Bill Gates' empire, said Nandor.

Open source is a more cost effective option than commercial software all 
round and making greater use of it in the health sector would benefit 
hospital staff, patients and the local software industry.

(etc)