eGovOS 3 Announced

A reader writes:"German Minister Otto Schily and at least 2 other ministers will be keynoting at EGOVOS 3: Open Standards and Libre Software in Government conference in Paris, France on November 24-26, 2003. EGOVOS 3 will bring together the largest number ever of high level government officials working in Open Source and Free Software. In addition to the national ministers, 15 senior politicians, government IT officials and representatives from the European Commission, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama and the US will being making presentations." You will find general registration is open - free, but limited seating. Additionally, press registration is open as well. I normally don't post many conference announcements, but this one should have significant impact on governmental decisions around Free/Libre/Open/Whatever Software.

Comments

Paradox

[Anonymous Coward]

How can software be free if its use is mandated by a government?

Re:Paradox

[LarsWestergren]

How can software be free if its use is mandated by a government?

As long as they follow the GPL, why should this be a problem? They are only using it same as everybody else, they are not assuming control of it.

You might as well ask, How can air be free if its use is mandated by a government?

Re:Paradox

[LarsWestergren]

This is a problem because while the software may be "free", the people are not. Nobody likes to be told what they can or cannot use from some bureucrat.

I think you will find that in Germany and other places were they are pushing for the use of free software, they are not forcing the PEOPLE to use anything, they are mandating that employees in goverment departments should use Open and Free Software. There is a big difference.

Also, since they are choosing open protocols and standards, the people have more choice now than when they used a proprietary format such as Word for communication.

And since the GPL isn't even the "free-est" license (the BSD is), how is this freedom at all?

So 99% more freedom than before isn't freedom at all in you mind?? Wow, you have some tough standards.

For the record, I work in the public sector in Sweden. I am working on a project dealing with digital books for dyslectics and blind people, it is licenced under BSD. If another goverment wants to use it for their people, fine. If a company use our code to make a vastly superior product and start to use it commercially, fine.

In the end, it benifits those we exist to serve, visually impared, dyslectics or others who are prevented an any way from reading normal books.

Governments key to the desktop

[pork_spies]

Governments have the power and resources to train thousands of admins to hack free software systems, and they could save millions by not buying you-know-who's licences. So, I hope this goes well.

Microsoft reps going?

[192939495969798999]

Anyone know if Microsoft reps will be on hand to provide a counter-argument? I wouldn't be surprised -- while this group is all for free software, some scare tactics to try to sell licenses would be likely, considering the group ultimately decides what millions of users will run.

Government involvement is a double edged sword

[Dancin_Santa]

I have no doubt that the proliferation of Free Software as a result of government promotion of it will result in a virtual awakening of people's minds to the problems that face everyone. The essential human trait is desire for liberty. Second to this is desire for security. Unfortunately these two desires are often mutually exclusive.

They complement each other when one realizes the in Freedom lies the ability to protect ones self. To build a wall of security, if you will. However, this is difficult and treacherous as one person's wall of security is hardly a match for the evils wanting to penetrate it.

So the person turns to government, an amalgamation of people dedicated to the mutual protection of each other. Security becomes an easier thing to maintain, but at the cost of individual Freedom. Enjoining any social contract means losing some Freedom.

So we have now governments interested in promoting Free Software. It is interesting because Free Software doesn't require promotion. All it requires is that it exist Freely and it will be shared with others who wish to use it.

So what sorts of benefits do the governments see in Free Software? No doubt they see the benefits that any user sees, Freedom to interact as an individual with a piece of Free Software. But from the point of view of Free Software, there are hazards.

The government is answerable to no one, especially inanimate objects like Free Software. There exists no method of redressing any violation of the Freedom of the Free Software. In essence, we are throwing the Software to the lions and hoping for the best.

I'm all for the proliferation of Free Software, but I think it is important to realize that government is the antithesis of Freedom. It exists only to usurp Freedom. Care must be taken to see that Free Software is not abused by governments.

Advance only so far, then come to a speeding halt?

[Talthane]

disclaimer: UK-only view below, I do not speak for the rest of the EU

Government would be an ideal environment for open source development, because it's a highly collaborative world. Authorities get together all the time, online and off, to share information and work in partnerships. They're far, far better at collaboration than private companies - not least because of limited resources.

What stops government being open source entirely, in the UK at least, is that open source applications for government don't exist. Do a search for 'government' on SourceForge and you get back less than four active projects, mostly unsuitable for Europe. I know, I've looked. Authorities need systems that can do things like council tax, sundry debtor tracking, payroll, personnel, time recording, electoral registration, development control, building control, licensing, contract administration, GIS, records management, benefits claims, cost of works, invoicing, BACS, asset management, inventory management, architectural works, flexitime monitoring, enforcement notices recording, dog warden control, callout control, grant awarding and tracking, sampling storage and results monitoring and so on. That's an extract from one authority I worked for, and it only employs 300 people. Local government is hugely multifunctional.

The only OSS work I know in that list is in the area of GIS and it's not that advanced. I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Believe it or not, authorities don't want x300 PHP/MySQL content management systems or yet another webserver, which is what SourceForge consists of on a bad day.

If open source does gain a bigger foothold in government, it'll only be on the desktop and in OpenOffice. Maybe Apache. But it'll never displace proprietary systems from government unless it expands beyond the developer-centric to include the kind of back office systems we use here. I think after that little list it'll come to a screeching halt due to lack of apps.

Oh, and in the UK we emphatically do not call it Libre Software. Methinks that's the French up to their linguistic nationalism again. It's continental Europe that doesn't call it free software - those of us from the country that gave the world English actually use the English word :-)

Re:"The government is answerable to no one"

[Anonymous Coward]

No matter what country you live in, I highly doubt the government is answerable to anyone but the military.

Re:"The government is answerable to no one"

[bhima]

Not even knowing where you live I think it's safe to say:"your government is corrupt, does not have your or lour loved ones best interest in mind, and most participants are engaged in a two pronged effort to be reelected and to move as much money as possible from the public trust to their or their cronies pockets." Statistically I'd have a more than even chance of being right!

Checks and balances exist to be broken

Democracy isn't necessarily the best form of government.