____/ Matt on Sunday 04 May 2008 02:06 : \____
> http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7350/469
>
>> CH: 'Federal government should consider national Open Source policy'
>> Open Source News - 07 February 2008 - Other European Countries - Policies
>> and Announcements
>>
>> The Swiss government should develop policies to promote the use of Open
>> Source and open standards by public administrations, says Walter Donzé,
>> Evangelical People's Party MP.
>>
>> Last December, Donzé asked the Swiss government if it is feasible to develop
>> a strategy similar to the Netherlands, where the use of proprietary software
>> needs to be justified if Open Source alternatives are available. Donzé also
>> wants to know how much the Swiss federal agencies spend on software licenses
>> for servers and desktop PCs, with regards to the planned migration of 34.000
>> desktops to Microsoft Vista and Microsoft Office 2007.
>>
>> Donzé in total posed seven questions to the central government. "How does
>> the Federal government restrict the lock-in by software vendors of the
>> public administration? What would be the government's cost and security
>> benefits if it were to use Open Source software?"
>>
>> The government will send its answers back to the parliament early next
>> month, expects Open Source software researcher Matthias Stürmer, a board
>> member of the Swiss Open Systems User Group (/ch/open) "The Swiss government
>> developed a strategy on Open Source in 2005, but there are legal
>> restrictions regarding liability that currently limit public
>> administrations' use of this kind of applications. We are working with
>> members of parliament to see how we can get these restrictions removed."
>>
>> Ch/open also wants the Federal government to favour Open Source software
>> above proprietary applications at all levels of public administration.
>> Stürmer:"Last year we tried in vain to get the canton of Bern to develop
>> such a policy. A national push would be very helpful."
>>
>> Stürmer expects the government answers will be a topic at the 'Open Expo'
>> conference Ch/open is organising in March.
>>
>>
>> © European Communities 2008
>> Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
>> The views expressed are not an official position of the European Commission.
>
> At minimum they have the chance to drive the price way down by
> threatening a FOSS migration.
It's not a bargaining card. They already practically move to GNU/Linux. There
are many examples I can think of. It's actually driven by citizens' demands,
not the government attempt to get better prices.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_People%27s_Party_of_Switzerland
> http://www.isb.admin.ch/themen/strategien/00745/00750/index.html?lang=en
--
~~ Best of wishes
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