EU2004
Held in coordination with the Dutch
Presidency of the EU
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| Detailed programme
Keynote speakers Frans Nauta Secretary of the Innovation Platform chaired by the Dutch Prime Minister Colm Butler Director, Information Society Policy, Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Ireland Background presentation Rishab Aiyer Ghosh Programme Leader
FLOSS, MERIT, University of Maastricht The FLOSSPOLS project, supported by the European Union’s Sixth Framework IST Programme, conducts research on policy aspects of Free/Libre/Open Source Software, in particular the use of free software and open standards in government. This conference is organised as part of the FLOSSPOLS project, as is the first comprehensive EU-wide survey of government authorities on their usage of and attitudes towards open standards and free software. Preliminary results of the survey will be presented.
Luis Casas Luengo Managing Director,
FUNDECYT, Government of Extremadura, Spain The Extremadura Government launched its initiatives on libre software
in 2002 as a key element of its strategy to take the region into the Information
Society. The initiatives revolved around the development of a regional
version of GNU/Linux (called gnu/LinEx) and its deployment together with
other libre software in the educational system, the regional administration
and regional businesses. LinEx has been deployed on 80 000 desktops in
the public sector, and used as a basis to train 75 000 first-time computer
users in a regional technology literacy programme. These policies resulted
in Extremadura winning the EU Regional Innovation Award in 2004.
Gregor Lietz EDS (Federal Interior
Ministry contractor for the Migration Guide), Germany The first Migration Guide of the German Federal Ministry of Interior
in June 2003 was an enormous success, initiating and influencing many
open source migration projects in the public sector in Germany. The growing
maturity of the Open Source Market and the rising discussion about software
patents make it necessary to continue this work. The presentation describes
the current status of the Migration Guide giving an outlook for his future
development.
Session Chair: Agnès Bradier
Deputy Head of Unit, eGovernment, European Commission The EU policy environment on Open Source is mainly active in adjacent
policy areas like interoperability, eInclusion, eAccessibility and is
less pronounced in public procurement. There is no overall EU Open Source
policy. On the other hand, an increasing number of EU R&D activities
take up and deploy Open Source. There is an increasing demand for EU policy
in the area, considering the value of open standards, the discussion on
benefits of migrating to Open Source, the need to correct market failure
in the software market, and the considerable European legacy of Linux
and related software development. There remain legitimate concerns about
the sustainability of initial benefits and about fair competition and
the competitive advantage created by innovation.
In 2002, the Dutch Parliament passed a unanimous motion calling for the
government to use only open standards by 2006, and to stimulate open source
software within the public sector. In 2003, the Programme Open Standards
and Open Source Software (OSOSS) was launched, financed by the ministry
of Interior and Kingdom Relations and ministry of Economic Affairs. This
presentation will describe the national policy, the activities of the
OSOSS Programme, the aims and instruments used and the experience so far,
using real-life examples.
Using examples from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Interior,
the presentation will show how Openoffice.org was introduced into the
French Administration. It will include a description of the problems encountered,
the reasons for these difficulties, proposals for next steps, and lessons
learned on successful strategies for the introduction of OpenOffice. The
presentation will conclude with the current position in the French Administration
as a whole and the outlook for the coming year, taking into account the
recent announcements from the office of the Prime Minister.
A short overview of the Danish policy towards open source and open standards with descriptions of a number of pilot projects running open source on the desktop. Special emphasis will be placed on presenting the total cost of ownership (TCO) evaluation method carried out for Danish pilot projects.
In 2001 it seemed a very ambitious goal: getting well over 200 German
embassies and consulates worldwide hooked up via secure e-mail to headquarters
in Berlin, operating under tight budgetary constraints. Project plans
foresaw 10 to 12 years to get the job done. Two years later every single
German mission has not only secured e-mail, but also full access to a
worldwide, secured intranet. The strategy: open mind, open standards,
open source.
Since 1999, the Open Source Software has been one of the main topics
of interest for the Italian Research & Education Ministry’s
Osservatorio Tecnologico. This presentation describes how they support
the introduction and management of Open Source software; identify best
practice of Open source software in education; spread Open source principles
for student, teacher and generic users. It will describe the introduction
of open source into the school system and the Osservatorio’s guidelines
for software choice.
1400-1600: SESSION 2: EXPERIENCE AT THE REGIONAL/LOCAL LEVEL Session Chair: Wilbert Stolte Vice-Mayor,
City of Den Haag, The Netherlands The Vice-Mayor of the City of Den Haag (The Hague) will describe the
usage of open source in the city government, presenting their motivations,
experiences and future plans.
How do you procure open source applications for the public sector? What
are the differences between procuring an open source application and what
kind of management skills need to be developed within the Public Sector
Organisation to do this? The presentation will draw upon the experience
of managing the procurement and development of several large scale open
source applications in the London Borough of Camden to answer these questions.
The province in Genoa decided to introduce the Libre Software philosophy
within its organisation, in order to free citizens from the obligation
to buy specific products to access government services, reuse government
investments in software, increase competition and interoperability and
support local SMEs. Of course, Libre Software also saves costs. The presentation
describes Genoa’s involvement in libre software projects and its
implementation of libre software on workstations, GIS software and other
application areas.
When an upgrade of Haarlem’s office software became imminent, they
evaluated the option of moving from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org.
Their detailed studies proved that changing to Open Source software would
save several hundred thousand Euros a year, without losing any functionality,
and Haarlem initiated its migration to open source.
The City of Vienna has been using Open Source Software on central servers
for about ten years. Due to their positive experience in this area, the
EDP department of the City of Vienna has, since 2001, been monitoring
the quality and availability of open source software for the desktop.
The resulting feasibility study in August 2004 was the basis for the recommendation
introducing open source on Vienna’s desktops. This presentation
will describe the results and implementation plans.
The presentation will discuss the role of the local public administration
in the implementation of Italian and regional laws on free/libre/open
source software. It will present actual experiences in implementing regulations,
problems faced and opportunities for the future. 1630-1800: SESSION 3: INTEROPERABILITY AND OPEN STANDARDS Session Chair: Bernhard Schnittger Head of Unit (acting), IDA, European Commission
The European Interoperability Framework developed by IDA facilitates,
at a pan-European level, the interoperability of services and systems
between public administrations, as well as between administrations and
the public (citizens, businesses). This presentation will provide details
of the framework as well as related IDA activities on promoting open standards
and open document exchange formats.
The Dutch Government’s Programme OSOSS has made a catalogue of
open standards. This can be a reference for agencies that would like to
buy and develop software based on open standards. This presentation will
explain how this catalogue is developed and organised; what change management
there is, and how this initiative is related to comparable initiatives
like SAGA in Germany and e-Gif in the UK.
The presentation will discuss vendor independence as one of the main
criteria for open standards. Using concrete examples, it will address
the interoperability issues faced by public sector organisations in particular,
and how they can and do implement open standards. Open source and open
standards are distinct topics, and this presentation will address relations
between the two.
A vendor neutral overview of how public sector organisations can learn
from how large corporations plan, decide, and implement their migration
strategies to open source based solutions with a focus on maintaining
interoperability. This will cover the adoption of hybrid proprietary and
Open Source based software solutions and the main standards that are being
supported by the relevant stakeholders such as end-user organisations,
service providers, OEM's and ISVs. |
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