EU to consider buying open-source software
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission will propose in the next few days to buy more of its
| computer software from open-source developers, a commission spokeswoman said
| Wednesday.
|
| [...]
|
| "There is a growing pressure on the commission to promote open-source
| software," said Carlo Piana, a lawyer for the Free Software Foundation
| Europe, which represents open-source developers.
`----
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/05/business/open.php
Open source: the key to sustainable savings in public sector IT
,----[ Quote ]
| Things could hardly be tougher in the Whitehall front line. Last year Gordon
| Brown made it clear in his budget speech just what he expects – 4% annual
| growth in spending on front line services financed out of just 2% overall
| budget growth.
|
| Enacting this latter day miracle of loaves and fishes is not going to be
| easy. But it will not happen at all unless Whitehall ends its chronic failure
| to use market power to deliver sustainable savings in the massive bill the
| public sector pays for software.
|
| Nowhere else would departments or their agencies tolerate a monopoly or a
| monoculture. Imagine if every department decided, as policy, to buy its
| hardware from the same supplier. Of course innovation wouldn’t stop –
| improvements in manufacturing and the fundamental laws of physics would see
| to that. But the pace would slow – what’s the incentive if the buyer is
| locked in? – and the price would rocket.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=563&blogid=17
Recent:
Probe into votes on Microsoft standard
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission is investigating the process under which a key
| Microsoft document format could be adopted as an industry standard - a move
| that would carry significant commercial benefits for the software company.
|
| Officials at the European Commission's competition directorate have written
| to members of the International Organisation for Standardisation, asking how
| they prepared for votes in September and later this month on acceptance of
| Microsoft's OOXML document format as a worldwide standard. Without ISO
| acceptance, Microsoft could stand to lose business, particularly with
| government clients, some of which are becoming increasingly keen to use only
| ISO-certified software.
|
| The ISO process has been widely criticised, however, with some members of
| national standards' bodies accusing Microsoft and its rivals of attempting to
| influence the vote.
|
| Tim Bray, a member of the Canadian national standards body, called the
| procedure "complete, utter, unadulterated bullshit" in a recent blog posting.
|
| [...]
|
| In addition, in several countries, a large number of Microsoft partners
| joined the national standards organisations just ahead of a vote on the issue
| in September.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft said it openly encouraged its partners to participate in the ISO
| process, but was not funding any third parties doing so. The company said it
| would cooperate with the European Commission's inquiry.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88e570a2-ea56-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Europeans ‘better’ contributors to open source community?
,----[ Quote ]
| But as for end users’ appetite for open source, he said: ““In Europe the open
| source trend is definitely gaining increased momentum. And the surprising
| thing is that in European geographies we find a bigger appetite amongst
| enterprises for participation in the open source community and specific open
| source projects.”
`----
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2008/02/europe_better_c.html
Global consortium launches study on open source as a development tool
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Union has awarded a €703,000 (US$ 1 million) grant to a
| consortium of 11 organizations to explore the use of Free/Libre/Open Source
| Software (FLOSS) as a development tool.
`----
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/unu-gcl021908.php
EU Invests $22 Million in Next-Generation BitTorrent Client
,----[ Quote ]
| A few weeks ago we reported that the EU Greens launched a pro-filesharing
| campaign named “I Wouldn’t Steal”. In a continued effort to support the
| development of P2P technology, the European Union has now invested $22
| million in the development of an open-source BitTorrent client.
`----
http://torrentfreak.com/eu-invests-22-million-in-next-generation-bittorrent-client/
Related:
European spend on open source software hits 22bn Euros
,----[ Quote ]
| Rishab Ghosh, a senior researcher at the UN University in Maastricht,
| will tell the Open Ireland conference in Dublin that the spend in the
| US on free/libre or open source software (FLOSS) stands at 36bn
| Euros and accounts for 20pc of software spend in the US.
`----
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single7850
Source of the revolution
,----[ Quote ]
| According to Ghosh, the notional value of Europe's investment in
| free/libre or open source software (FLOSS) today is e22bn,
| representing 20.5pc of the region's total software investment.
| Spending on OSS stands at e36bn and accounts for 20pc of software
| expenditure in the US.
`----
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single8105
|
|
