Poland is recommending the use of open standards in governmental IT projects. The Council of Ministers in April approved national IT guidelines, which advise the use of open, publicly available IT standards.
The National Computerisation Plan also calls for technological neutrality in all government led IT projects. The program is scheduled to be implemented between 2007 and 2010.
The plan got the immediate support of a coalition of Polish IT companies founded last year, KROSS, Koalicja na Rzecz Otwartych Standardów, the Coalition for Open Standards. "One of the top three priorities announced by the government for development of the state's ICT systems is technological neutrality which will be achieved by using open, publicly available IT standards", KROSS said in a statement. "We fully support this decision."
The Polish open standard lobby group includes international IT companies like IBM, Oracle and Sun and Polish IT companies such as Aba, DRSA and Macrologic and organisations such as Wikimedia Polska and Internet Society Poland.
Representatives of KROSS met Grzegorz Blizniuk, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration in February. At the meeting both parties recognised the fundamental importance of open standards. "The government's decision in April conforms directly to our demands", writes KROSS.
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Further information:
- KROS (in Polish, mostly)