[Gfoss] Fwd: Open source software at the EC and EU Institutions

[Cristiano Giovando]

FYI


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roger Longhorn <ral at alum.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Subject: [SDI-Europe] Open source software at the EC and EU Institutions
To: GSDI Legal-Economic Work Grouup <legal-econ at lists.gsdi.org>,
SDI-Europe <sdi-europe at lists.gsdi.org>


FYI - from EDRI-gram newsletter of this week.

 9. European Commission: pro active in using open source software
 ============================================================

 The European Commission announced it would increase its own use of open
 source software for ICT projects: "For all new development, where
 deployment and usage is foreseen by parties outside of the Commission
 Infrastructure, Open Source Software will be the preferred development and
 deployment platform."

 Valerie Rampie, spokesperson of Siim Kallas, the European commissioner on
 administrative affairs, declared for the IDABC open source observatory that
 the publication of the strategy is made "mainly for information purposes".

 The new strategy paper of the Commission, that has been a supporter of open
 source software since 2000, explains that open-source software should be
 pursued provided it does not cost more and is in the best interest of
 European citizens.

 The Commission decided that "for all future IT developments and procurement
 procedures, the Commission shall promote the use of products that support
 open, well-documented standards. Interoperability is a critical issue for
 the Commission, and usage of well-established open standards is a key
 factor
 to achieve and endorse it."

 According to the Bloomberg News, the decision could be seen as a potential
 setback for Microsoft that "is trying to prevent an increasing number of
 defections by governments from its proprietary software toward software
 from
 open-source developers, who are allowed to modify the software source code,
 or underlying instructions."

 But the open-source developers are more than happy with the result : "There
 is a growing pressure on the commission to promote open-source software,"
 explained Carlo Piana, a lawyer for the Free Software Foundation Europe
 (FSFE).

 FSFE is also trying to convince other EU bodies to adopt open source
 software and open formats. In a public petition launched at the
 beginning of
 March 2008, FSFE has asked the European Parliament to practice what it
 preaches and to change its ICT system in order to allow the adoption of
 open
 standards.

 EU: European Commission to increase its use of Open Source(11.03.2008)
 http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7403/469

 EDRi-gram: European Parliament criticized for not using open standards
 (12.03.2008)
 http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.5/ep-open-standards

 EU to consider buying open-source software (5.03.2008)
 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/05/business/open.php

 Open Source Software within the European Commission - a co-ordinated
 strategy
 http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7389/5998

 <ends>

 Roger Longhorn

 _______________________________________________
 SDI-Europe mailing list
 SDI-Europe at lists.gsdi.org
 http://lists.gsdi.org/mailman/listinfo/sdi-europe