Share and reuse interoperability solutions for public administrations

The ‘Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies’, version 2.0, has become available following an online public consultation on the draft document which was initiated by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).

In March 2011 Glenn Archer, AGIMO first assistant secretary, requested feedback via the dedicated blog on the draft ‘Guide to Open Source Software’. The ‘Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies’ was revised and finalised following public feedback. It provides an introduction to open source software (OSS) as well as background information on the risks and benefits of using, distributing and developing OSS and guidance to assist agencies understand, analyse, plan for and deploy OSS.

Changes to the guide include the following:

• clarifying the focus of the guide;
• providing linkages, where appropriate, between AGIMO and other government documents as well as to other OSS products;
• highlighting the ‘Guide to ICT Sourcing and the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines’ in the document as it contains Australian Government information on procurement processes.

Some of the feedback received related to the Open Source Software Policy. The policy was released in January 2011 and it has been reproduced in the guide for ease of reading. AGIMO will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the policy and update it as appropriate.

Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer (CIO) commented on the AGIMO blog that she was very pleased with the public input.

Further information:

• Original news article - AGIMO blog - Department of Finance and Deregulation

• ‘Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies’

• Related OSOR.eu news article - AU: Government updates open source guide in line with national policy, and sought public consultation on new version