Today, the Danish Board of Technology published a report called Open Source Software in eGovernment which made headlines in national media, for example (the links are all in Danish):
- Microsoft koster staten milliarder – Microsoft costs the state billions(Politiken)
- Drop Microsoft og spar milliarder – Drop Micosoft and save billions (DR)
- Microsoft: Forkerte tal om open source – Microsoft: Wrong number about open source (Jyllands-Posten)
- Drop Bill – og spar milliarder – Drop Bill – and save billions (Berlingske Tidende)
- Staten kan spare milliarder på open source – The state can save billions on open source (ComputerWorld)
- Politisk flertal for mere open source – Political majority for more open source (ComputerWorld)
The report, made by an expert working group, claims that the government could save a huge amount of money if we move public IT-systems to open source, but also points out that there are many pittfalls and uncertainties.
Our minister of science, technology and innovation, Helge Sander, yesterday announced that we will start an open consultation process about software policy and open source software in particular. His press release said: (my translation)
“The [Danish] Government has increased the speed of digitising the public sector. It is important for us to have open and thorough deliberations about the use of Open Source Software in government. Our aim is to ensure free competition in delivering effecient and cheap software products to the administration. We need to assess cost price; quality; implementation costs; user training; and continuous development costs.”
So, we have been busy in the office today, preparing and opening a new thematic website for online deliberations about software policy and open source. It is open now. I’ll create an English forum too, if anyone wants to discuss with us. Let me know.
