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Open Government: the Latest Member of the Open Family
,----[ Quote ]
| One of the most exciting developments in the last few years has been the
| application of some of the core ideas of free software and open source to
| completely different domains. Examples include open content, open access,
| open data and open science. More recently, those principles are starting to
| appear in a rather surprising field: that of government, as various
| transparency initiatives around the world start to gain traction.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/open-government-latest-member-open-family
Swiss government rethinking Microsoft no-bid contract?
,----[ Quote ]
| It's unclear at this point from my point of view how this situation will end.
| It is clear that the issue of a no-bid contract is an issue, as is the fact
| that (according to Red Hat at least) the Swiss claimed they went with
| Microsoft because they saw no alternatives.
|
| What this whole situation does though, is highlight the fact that open source
| vendors are not going to standby idly, while governments simply renew their
| proprietary choices without giving open source vendors at least the
| opportunity to bid on contracts.
`----
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/05/swiss-government-rethinking-mi.html
Microsoft responds on Swiss no-bid deal
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/05/microsoft-responds-on-swiss-no.html
Recent:
Gericht stoppt Bundesauftrag an Microsoft
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/open_source_microsoft_gericht_1.2640703.html
Swiss Court Halts Non-Competitive Contract With Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Ade writes "Looks like the challenge to the Swiss Administrative Court
| concerning the government contract given to Microsoft without any public
| bidding was successful: The court has issued a temporary injunction (note:
| article in German) against the Federal Office of Buildings and Logistics
| (BBL), effectively stopping the CHF 14M (£8M; $15M)-contract to deliver
| licenses and support for software used on government computers for the next
| three years. According to Swiss Government practices, any contract over CHF
| 50'000 has to undergo a public call for offers. The BBL cited 'no serious
| alternatives' as the reason which this contract never did."
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/05/28/1938216/Swiss-Court-Halts-Non-Competitive-Contract-With-Microsoft?art_pos=12
Open source businesses oppose restricted tender in Switzerland
,----[ Quote ]
| A group of open source companies has launched a legal action against the
| Swiss Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics (FBL). The agency awarded a
| 3-year, 42 million Swiss franc contract for licence extensions to Microsoft
| following a "no-bid" process for those extensions. Linux specialists Red Hat,
| Univention and Collax, groupware vendors Zarafa and Open-Xchange and a range
| of other companies which earn their living from open source software are now
| protesting against the award.
`----
http://www.h-online.com/open/Open-source-businesses-oppose-restricted-tender-in-Switzerland--/news/113368
Red Hat Sues Switzerland Over Microsoft Monopoly
,----[ Quote ]
| £8 million a year to Microsoft, with no public bidding. And that's just the
| tip of the iceberg, say open source activists
|
| Linux vendor Red Hat, and 17 other vendors, have protested a Swiss government
| contract given to Microsoft without any public bidding. The move exposes a
| wider Microsoft monopoly that European governments accept, despite their lip
| service for open source, according to commentators.
|
| The Red Hat group has asked a Swiss federal court to overturn a three-year
| contract issued to Microsoft by the Swiss Federal Bureau for Building and
| Logistics, to provide Windows desktops and applications, with support and
| maintenance, for 14 million Swiss Franc (£8 million) each year. The contract,
| for "standardised workstations", was issued with no public bidding process,
| Red Hat's legal team reports in a blog - because the Swiss agency asserted
| there was no sufficient alternative to Microsoft products.
`----
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/red-hat-sues-switzerland-over-microsoft-monopoly-965
Public Call for Tender Requested: Swiss Group Challenges Microsoft Contracts
,----[ Quote ]
| The Swiss Federal Office for Construction and Logistics (Bundesamt für Bauten
| und Logistik, or BBL) is reported as having purchased Microsoft licenses in
| the order of 42 million Swiss francs (about $38 million). Because no public
| bids were tendered, open source organizations are now requesting a review of
| the decision.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/online/news/public_call_for_tender_requested_swiss_group_challenges_microsoft_contracts
Federal government grants 42 million franks contract to Microsoft — without
tender
,----[ Quote ]
| The Swiss federal government published in the Swiss Official Gazette of
| Commerce that it has granted a maintenance contract over CHF 42 million to
| Microsoft — however, without a prior tender. The monopolist apparently had
| been granted the contract under exclusion of any potential competition.
|
| The Federal Office of Construction and Logistics (BBL) apparently signed the
| maintenance contract over Windows and Office licenses, SharePoint et cetera
| in February already. A tender had never been held, so competitors had never
| been given a chance to demonstrate their own products. This, however, is
| clearly against the official regulations for acquisition of resources. A
| speaker of the Open Source corporation group /ch/open announced that the
| decision would be contested in front of the Federal Court which,
| incidentally, is a known user of the OpenOffice.org suite.
`----
http://blogs.fsfe.org/tonnerre/?p=38
Related:
Official: Zürich’s students get rid of “Windows Tax”
,----[ Quote ]
| Thanks to their efforts, students and staff in Zürich now have the freedom
| to /choose/ what software they want to run on their laptops.
`----
http://www.doink.ch/wp/?p=59
FSFE, SIUG File Official Objections to Switzerland's Vote on MS-OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| It all reminds me of when I was a kid, and we'd sometimes settle things in
| the playground with a coin toss. There was occasionally a smart aleck who'd
| yell out as the coin was thrown up into the air, "Heads I win, Tails you
| lose." This ISO process seems like that, in that people are voting against
| MS-OOXML in numbers and raising serious questions, but somehow they get
| ignored or bypassed.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007081708383138
Swiss Cheese [for OOXML]
,----[ Quote ]
| The present spin doctors of Microsoft and ECMA managed to convince Mr.
| Thomann to reject every serious technical and general concern we had
| regarding OOMXL by pointing to compatibility reasons. At the end we had a
| majority _against_ Microsoft but which (giving the unfair rules) results in a
| Swiss vote _for_ Microsoft. Mr. Thomann was fretting and fuming at the end of
| the meeting how it can be that successful international companies (we had
| representatives from IBM, Google, ...) vote against the best interest of
| their customers and theirself!
|
| Yes, this is how the democratic system at SNV / ISO works. After the meeting
| I could not eat as much as I wanted to puke...
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-15521/swiss-cheese
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