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.gov.au Guide to Open Source Software

Posted by timothy on from the stop-paying-redmond dept.

kieronb writes "The Australian Government Information Management Office has recently released "A Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies". Surprisingly, it actually appears to have been written by someone with a clue, and provides quite a balanced overview of what F/OSS is and how it differs to proprietary software. Choice quotes: "Sourcing OSS solutions is a new and less understood area for Government Agencies. As a recult, it often seems to involve higher risk. As open source solutions become more mainstream and agencies gain expertise in evaluating and deploying them, this perception of risk should subside."; "Access to source code is, however, valuable to agencies by virtue of the economic flow-on effects that accrue when multiple vendors offer competing products based on the same technology. Access to source code also reduces the risk of vendor lock-in.""

6 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. just in case.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    PDF Mirror

  2. Re:About bloody time Australia by lupin_sansei · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can't be a real Australian. Nobody has said "drongo" for about 30 years here. Drongo is about the same vintage as "swell" or "twit".

    --
    http://www.perthonline.net
  3. Re:About bloody time Australia by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 3, Informative

    We rarely (I have only seen it once in 26 years) throw prawns/shrimp on the BBQ and we never drink Fosters either.

    Talk about inaccurate stereotypes.

  4. Re:Been there... done that... discussed on /. by godless+dave · · Score: 2, Informative
    "Nobody never mentioned anything !!!!"

    Nobody, that is, except these Slashdot contributers:



    But other than that, nobody ever mentioned anything.
    --
    "If it's real, then it gets more interesting the closer you examine it. If it's not real, just the opposite is true." -
  5. So did Québec by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Governement du Québec also published information for it's ministères regarding the use of OSS. http://www.logiciel-libre.gouv.qc.ca/index.php?id= 296

  6. actually by dingfelder · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, the US was not a penal colony. Only one state (Georgia - and only the upper, non-coastal area at that) had a few ships (from 1732 to 1776) of almost entirely banished debtors, but that does not equate to a generalization about the country as a whole like you tried to present it.

    Contrast that small influx of people to the Australian system where 162,000 criminals were imported.

    Interestingly, the purpose of this lone penal colony was actually not to get rid of criminals (like the australian migration) but was the result of the Oglethorpe Proposal, in which the monarchy was trying to put a buffer between their southern territory (South Carolina) and the Spaniards in Florida.