The Italian budget law encourages public administrations to use Open source software. The government in December introduced a provision (art.1, c. 897) that will favour projects using this type of software.
During the coming three years, a total of 30 million euro is available for projects that stimulate the information society. Those using or developing free software will be given priority.
Italy will also create a collaborative platform to enable public administrations to exchange Open source software. The repository should stimulate a community of public administrations using free software.
The government hopes that the change will benefit Italy's IT service sector, the majority of which are small enterprises. Beatrice Magnolfi, the Italian undersecretary for Innovation Policy, describes Italy's IT industry as an archipelago of small and young companies. ‘This law would stimulate innovation and creativity in the Italian market and boost the growth of an IT industry able to compete with multinational IT companies’, said Ms Magnolfi.
Using Open source software should bring down the cost of bureaucracy, she said. Ms Magnolfi expects that open standards will also make data exchange easier.
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Further information:
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Beatrice Magnolfi’s blog (In Italian only)