arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)
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Commission: PA should share Open Source (en) by rudy63 Monday July 15, 2002 at 12:09 PM |
Brussels, 8 July 2002. European administrations should share open source software resources, says report published by Commission
European administrations should share software on an open source licensing basis, to cut soaring eGoverment information technology costs (set to rise by 28% to ¬ 6.6 billion this year), says an independent study published by the European Commission. The "Pooling Open Source Software" study, financed by the Commission's Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) programme, recommends creating
a clearing house to which administrations could "donate" software for
re-use. This facility, which would concentrate on applications
specific to the needs of the public sector, could encourage the
replication of good practice in eGovernment services.
Commenting on the potential benefits of greater re-use of public
sector software, Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner
Erkki Liikanen stated "Good practice is built on proven solutions
that work. Software and concrete applications that work in practice
are an important element of these. They could be usefully used as
source of inspiration for Member States to develop good and
interactive public services in the future to the benefit of Europe's
citizens."
Although software would probably need to be customised to local
linguistic and legal requirements, sharing these eGovernment tools
could lead to across-the-board improvements in efficiency of the
European public sector. According to another report published in the
European Information Technology Observatory, EU public sector
expenditures on eGovernment are set to rise by 28% to ¬ 6.6 billion
this year.
The study suggests that software developed for and owned by public
administrations should be issued under an open source licence. It
also recommends that a software pooling facility should provide
quality guarantees and help resolve questions of liability that
currently often inhibit the sharing of developments. A step-wise
implementation of the facility is however recommended, since sharing
competence and good practices is more urgent than sharing software.
More than simply providing software, the pooling facility should thus
make available expertise and help create a community of developers,
users and policy makers, providing opportunities for increased
cooperation, notably in software development and testing.
The study recommendations were broadly welcomed at a specialist
hearing held in Brussels at the start of June.
The findings of the "Pooling Open Source Software" study are
available from the IDA website at
http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/jsps/index.jsp?fuseAction=showDocument&parent=news&documentID=550
European administrations should share software resources, a report
published by IDA says
IDA has released the results of an independent study on promoting the
re-use of software owned by public administrations. The study
recommends the creation of a software clearing house to which
administrations can "donate" software. This facility, which would
concentrate on applications specific for the needs of the public
sector, could encourage the replication of good practice in
eGovernment services.
Although customisation to local linguistic and legal requirements
would probaly be required, sharing software developed for
administrations could lead to across-the-board improvements in
efficiency of the European public sector. According to a report
published in the European Information Technology Observatory, EU
public sector expenditures on eGovernment are set to rise by 28% to ¬
6.6 billion this year.
The recommendations of the study were broadly welcomed at a
specialist hearing held in Brussels at the beginning of June. The
study suggests that software developed for and owned by public
administrations should be issued under an open source license. It
also recommends that a software pooling facility should provide
quality guarantees and help resolve questions of liability that
currently often inhibit the sharing of developments. More than simply
providing software, the pooling facility should make available
expertise and help create a community of developers, users and policy
makers.
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