Public administrations that use open source solutions will experience an increase in the flexibility of their IT systems and an increasing focus on cooperation with other administrations, said Bart Lindeboom, director for computerisation and automation in the Dutch town of Ede, addressing representatives of South Korea's Ministry of ICT, Science and Future Planning, during a workshop in the capital Seoul, on 3 June.
According to Lindeboom, these are two lesser-known benefits of free and open source, in adition to the usual cost savings and decrease in maintenance requirements.
Switching to open source changes those working in the IT department, and improves the relationship with ICT suppliers and service providers, Lindeboom said.
24 % lower ICT costs
"Some say that switching to open source increases maintenance efforts", Lindeboom said. "Our municipality proves this allegation to be false." Recent comparisons of IT costs in Dutch municipalities show that Ede's annual costs for ICT are 24 per cent lower than its peers, while spending 92 per cent less on software licences. The municipality is running dozens of open source solutions, including LibreOffice, Zarafa+webmail, Firefox, TYPO3, zaaksysteem.nl, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Nagios, and Asterisk.
The town's CIO recommends that governments interested in the advantages of open source fight on multiple fronts, including IT departments, education, and management. "It requires long-term vision and investments."
Open standards
Lindeboom also briefed the workshop attendees on the Dutch national programme on open standards and open source, NOiV. He brought copies and USB keys with most of the NOiV information to Seoul, much of which is available in English.
Ede's IT director was one of two European speakers at the workshop organised by South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the National IT Promotion Agency. The attendees were also addressed by French Major Stephane Dumond, who presented the Gendarmerie's open source strategy.
More information:
OSOR news item
OSOR study
OSOR news item on Gendarmerie
Osor news item on Korea