Open Source in Government

A presentation by Arjen Kamphuis about the introduction of open source software for government use in the Netherlands. Back in 2002 I think the Dutch rail service could perhaps be forgiven for having a web site which only worked with Internet Explorer. At that time very few people were using Linux as a desktop operating system, and the browser wars had been over for some years with Microsoft having won by dumping and/or bundling its browser at zero cost.

I expect that something similar is about to happen in the UK. Vague noises have been made in manifestos about the possibility of using open source in government services, but if they really need to cut out somewhere between 20 and 40% of overall spending then they'll simply have no other option than to pursue the FOSS route. Possibly free web based services could be used, such as Google Docs, and even though Google may be relatively benevolent thus far, dependence upon a single proprietary supplier to run an entire government is probably not a recipe for success, with the possibility of improper influence, back doors or withdrawal of services if international relations turn frosty.