Governments should utilize Information Technology (IT) procurement policy to help achieve transparency, competition, measurement and efficiency in the purchasing process. A policy which incorporates open source as a choice for solutions complements the role of standards. Open source and open standards together can help strengthen a framework for procuring and delivering solutions to meet the needs of government.
Like it or not open source license complexity will not disappear. OSS must develop survival strategies to navigate the minefield of new IP issues without tripping over itself.
By implementing fair ICT procurement practices informed by a government policy that promotes the larger economic welfare and social benefits, we can begin to rephrase “may the best product win” into “may the most beneficial product win”.
Interoperability, localization and support are key for the open source desktop.
To build an open knowledge-based economy, the right problems must be recognized, supportive processes must be encouraged, and strong policies must be enacted.
In this article, the author tracks the progress of adoption of open source software across the world. In search of technologies best suited for their countries, governments around the world are looking into Linux and open source software technologies.
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