The Norwegian government is considering to stop funding the work of Friprog, its resource centre on the use of free and open source software and open standards. A decision will be taken in the coming months. The centre is looking for alternative sources to continue its activities.
According to reports in Norwegian media, the Ministry for Government Administration and Reform has already decided to scrap the 18 million Norwegian kroner (about 2.4 million euro) budget for Friprog that it had reserved for the next four years. The centre's director, Morten Amundsen, learned of the decision in meetings with the minister in May.
The ministry today denied that a decision on Friprog has been made. A spokesperson for the ministry said that "there is no government conclusion on the eventual further support of the Friprog Centre. Which bodies will receive financial support next year, will be clarified when the national budget for 2013 is presented on 8 October."
Friprog's Amundsen commented that the centre is working on alternatives. "It is business as usual here, but the insecurity about the future is not good for the employees."
In June Amundsen told Norwegian news site Digi.no that he believes the government should continue to fund the resource centre's activities. "There are many challenges ahead, with Norway's government focussing on common IT components and several major governmental IT projects. When developing software solutions for state and local government sector, sharing, reusing and collaboration should come first."
One of Friprog's activities is organising of an annual conference, Go Open. The most recent edition of Go Open took place in Oslo on 23 April. Attendees included Norway's HRH Crown Prince Haakon, who attended a presentation by the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales.
The centre is continuing to work on workshops and conferences such as this, Amundsen said.
More information:
Digi news item (in Norwegian)
FSFE news letter
Go Open conference