Using open standards and open source is the best option for Italy’s
plans to modernise government, improve education and cut costs, says
the Italian open source advocacy group Associazione per il Software
Libero.
The Italian government presented its e-Goverment plans last week Wednesday.
With ‘Piano E-gov 2012’, minister for Public Administration and Innovation Renato Brunetta hopes to achieve the goals set out by the European Union member states in Lisbon in 2007 to modernise governments and increase competitiveness of the region. One such aim is to reduce by 25 percent the administrative burdens, by 2012.
Marco Ciurcina, representative of the open source advocacy group, noted Brunetta’s plans do not mention open source software or open standards. "To implement this plan, however, these are his best options."
"The principles of the plan, to increase efficiency and transparency, will help to get free software and open standards accepted by all Italian public administrations", said Ciurcina.
The open source lawyer expects the government to adhere to its own laws, which require the administration to prepare a comparative analysis before purchasing software and to use open standards. "Brunetta will also have to consider the Guidelines for Public Administrations on Procurement and Open Source Software." (draft version published by the Open Source Software Observatory and Repository on behalf of the European Commission, ed.)
Italy’s use of the Internet is far behind when compared to other EU member states, premier Silvio Berlusconi said when announcing the plans. Just 17 percent of Italian families use the Internet, almost half the European average of 32 percent.
Italian news papers reporting on the E-Gov plan, noted that a day earlier, minister Brunetta presented three examples funded by Microsoft. A spokesperson for the proprietary software vendor said the three pilot projects were offered free of charge. "We wanted to give Brunetta some concrete examples showing how local governments can be modernised."
Last years agreement on these three projects was criticised by several Italian open source groups including the Associazione per il Software Libero. "We cannot really comment on these projects, since the government did not publish the agreement", says Ciurcina. He added that the groups’ Freedom of Information request was accepted a few weeks ago, and he expects the ministry to provide the association with more information on the agreements soon. "Hopefully then we will be able to discover if these three projects discriminate against free software in any way."
Source: Open Source Observatory "IT: Open standards the best option for E-government plan" January 27, 2009
