European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, wants public authorities to include IT standards in their procuring of software and IT solutions. She says this will tackle the problem of IT vendor lock-in "at its origin".

Kroes earlier this month sent a reply to Christian Ude, the mayor of the German city of Munich. Her letter was made public by the city yesterday.

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, wants public authorities to include IT standards in their procuring of software and IT solutions. She says this will tackle the problem of IT vendor lock-in "at its origin".

Kroes earlier this month sent a reply to Christian Ude, the mayor of the German city of Munich. Her letter was made public by the city yesterday.

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, wants public authorities to include IT standards in their procuring of software and IT solutions. She says this will tackle the problem of IT vendor lock-in "at its origin".

Kroes earlier this month sent a reply to Christian Ude, the mayor of the German city of Munich. Her letter was made public by the city yesterday.

A public sector organisation should only refer to a software or file format standard if the standard has been implemented in a sustainable open source software implementation. Without such implementation there is significant risk for the organisation, recommends Björn Lundell after a review of public administration's policies. Lundell is a researcher at the University of Skövde in Sweden.

Public administrations that want to move to vendor independent open source applications need to put a lot of effort in communication, recommends Massimo Carnevali, until recently the IT manager of the municipality of Bologna in Italy. "Communicate to everybody, from users to management. Explaining where users can find help could be more important than actually providing it."

Public administrations that want to move to vendor independent open source applications need to put a lot of effort in communication, recommends Massimo Carnevali, until recently the IT manager of the municipality of Bologna in Italy. "Communicate to everybody, from users to management. Explaining where users can find help could be more important than actually providing it."

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Public administrations that want to move to vendor independent open source applications need to put a lot of effort in communication, recommends Massimo Carnevali, until recently the IT manager of the municipality of Bologna in Italy. "Communicate to everybody, from users to management. Explaining where users can find help could be more important than actually providing it."

read more

A public sector organisation should only refer to a software or file format standard if the standard has been implemented in a sustainable open source software implementation. Without such implementation there is significant risk for the organisation, recommends Björn Lundell after a review of public administration's policies. Lundell is a researcher at the University of Skövde in Sweden.

read more

A public sector organisation should only refer to a software or file format standard if the standard has been implemented in a sustainable open source software implementation. Without such implementation there is significant risk for the organisation, recommends Björn Lundell after a review of public administration's policies. Lundell is a researcher at the University of Skövde in Sweden.

read more

The administration of the Hungarian city of Miskolc is moving to a desktop system based on open source, in order to become less dependent on a single proprietary IT vendor and to reduce costs for its desktop PCs. Already 60 percent of the civil servants use Open Office and Libre Office, two closely related open source suites of office tools.

The administration of the Hungarian city of Miskolc is moving to a desktop system based on open source, in order to become less dependent on a single proprietary IT vendor and to reduce costs for its desktop PCs. Already 60 percent of the civil servants use Open Office and Libre Office, two closely related open source suites of office tools.

The city next wants to replace its proprietary PC operating systems by moving to Ubuntu GNU/Linux, says Peter Szakal, a consultant at Open SKM, an open source IT service provider that is assisting the public administration with its migration.

The administration of the Hungarian city of Miskolc is moving to a desktop system based on open source, in order to become less dependent on a single proprietary IT vendor and to reduce costs for its desktop PCs. Already 60 percent of the civil servants use Open Office and Libre Office, two closely related open source suites of office tools.

The city next wants to replace its proprietary PC operating systems by moving to Ubuntu GNU/Linux, says Peter Szakal, a consultant at Open SKM, an open source IT service provider that is assisting the public administration with its migration.

Poland's government's use of proprietary formats is making it difficult for local public administrations to rid themselves of software vendor lock-in. The national government is relying on proprietary solutions for financial reporting, obstructing for instance the move by the municipality of Goleniów to gradually increase its use of free and open source alternatives.

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Poland's government's use of proprietary formats is making it difficult for local public administrations to rid themselves of software vendor lock-in. The national government is relying on proprietary solutions for financial reporting, obstructing for instance the move by the municipality of Goleniów to gradually increase its use of free and open source alternatives.

read more

Poland's government's use of proprietary formats is making it difficult for local public administrations to rid themselves of software vendor lock-in. The national government is relying on proprietary solutions for financial reporting, obstructing for instance the move by the municipality of Goleniów to gradually increase its use of free and open source alternatives.