[Klug-general] Open Source Petition @ No 10 Website

[Adam Buckland]

I've had a reply from this now with the Govt's position made "perfectly"
clear!



Government policy on Open Source Software (OSS) is available in the
document "Open Source Software, Use within UK Government, Version 2.0,
28 October 2004". This is available from www.govtalk.gov.uk. The policy
is set out on page 4 of the document. In particular the Government will:


Consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements.
Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis;
Only use products for interoperability that support open standards and
specifications in all future IT developments;
Seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services; and
Consider obtaining full rights to bespoke software code or
customisations of commercial off the shelf (COTS) software it procures
wherever this achieves best value for money.
The UK Government champions open standards and interoperability through
the e-government interoperability framework (e-gif). This framework is
available from the 'govtalk' web site. The ability to substitute one
component for another removes the dependency on a single supplier and
encourages competition - an essential for Transformational Government.
Many authors of software embrace open standards and interoperability but
do not wish to make their source code freely available; they should not
be penalised. 

Interoperability and open standards also support the sustainability of
digital information beyond any single generation of technology. New
techniques for digital preservation being developed by The National
Archives require the periodic transformation of digital information to
new formats as technology changes. Such transformations will be
simplified by the adoption of open standards. 

Open interoperable standards, however, are not exclusive to OSS. A
policy on digital preservation, which includes guidance on the selection
of sustainable data formats based on open standards, is being formulated
by the National Archives, and will help define the standards for desktop
systems. See the National Archives technical registry 'PRONOM' at
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom