"Microsoft has lost a head-to-head competition with OpenDocument Format supporting software, with the decision of the Bristol, England City Council to convert its 5500 desktops from Office to Sun's ODF compliant StarOffice office suite. The City, after extensive study, concluded that it would save 60% of total costs of ownership over a five year period by making the switch. And, as an assist to cities, it has made the documentation of its analysis and other materials available at the Open Source Academy Website in the UK."
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Member since:2005-07-24
custom written applications can be standardised; the same application used in each local city council, and again, the cost would be spread over a number of players rather than just each operating independently of each other.
So true - I guess one of the main problems is that coordination is hard.
A step in the right direction is that government bodies are starting to require their custom-written software to be released as open-source, which encourages reuse by other government bodies.
The Dutch government even started a sourceforge.net-like site for this (https://www.uitwisselplatform.nl). Now there are some practical issues of course, but this clearly shows some good intentions imho.
It makes sense from all perspectives. I hope this will grow.
Member since:2005-07-06
Sounds like a great plan, and due to the nature of the internet, why not make it a global setup where by all councils can share their custom written software?
Pretty much, where ever you go in the world, city councils all roughly provide the same sorts of services irrespective or whether they're located - it would be a co-operative which would run on the basis of generating enough cash to keep things moving along, but not to the point that its making a massive profit.
Member since:
2005-07-06
The problem with alot of city councils is this; they operate by themselves. If they want to move, they should form a coalition, and all work together to migrate together, thus spreading the costs over all the participating players rather than each working by themselves.
With that as well, custom written applications can be standardised; the same application used in each local city council, and again, the cost would be spread over a number of players rather than just each operating independently of each other.