Tag Archives: open source software

Can councils rise to the Open Source challenge? Should they?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 1st September 2010 - 3:33 pm

There was an interesting little piece in the Guardian few days ago suggesting that local authorities could save £51 million by moving some council employees to Open Office* and ODF**, and away from Microsoft Office and their document format, with the total savings rocketing to £200 million if every council employee in the country moved over.

This sensible proposal came from Cllr Liam Maxwell who’s reponsible for IT in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, and I’m sure Cllr Maxwell would be the first to acknowledge it’s not a new suggestion. The office suite – as a commodity …

Posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments

Government websites to use Open Source “wherever possible”

By Iain Roberts | Fri 4th June 2010 - 11:52 am

In response to a question from Tom Watson, Government minister Francis Maude asserted that Government departmental websites should “wherever possible” use Open Source Software. This is very significant change in emphasis from the previous government, which merely said that open source and proprietary solutions should both be considered on an equal footing.

The implication, if this policy is implemented, will be departments having to justify not using open source for their websites should they choose to go down the proprietary route. We await seeing how this turns out in practice, since warm words from the cabinet office don’t necessarily translate …