The government of the Spanish autonomous region of Extremadura considers the use of open source as strategic and as a requirement for technological sustainability. The region will continue to overhaul its IT environment, switching to open source software where possible.
Open source software enables collaborations, said the Extremadura government CIO, Teodomiro Cayetano, in a speech last week Wednesday. His talk was part of the announcement of the First Spanish - Portuguese Free Software Conference. This two-day meeting is taking place on 28 and 29 September in Mérida, the region's capital.
The conference is organised with the support of both the regional government and the administration of the city of Mérida. The conference is combined with the Spanish Joomla Days.
According to the Spanish IT news site Gaceta Technologica, CIO Cayetano reaffirmed Extremadura's support for open souce. Examples include the migration of the desktop PCs to a thin client infrastructure using Linux, and an overhaul of the region's website, using an open source content management system.
In January, CIO Cayetano announced the start of a large-scale project to replace the current proprietary desktop software with an open source desktop. With 40,000 desktops, that would make it Europe's second largest open source desktop example, between the French Gendarmerie (90,000 desktops) and the German city of Munich (14,000 desktops).
More information:
Gaceta Technologica news item (in Spanish)
Recording of the speech from Extremadura's CIO (mp3, Spanish)
Blog post on the Joomla Day Spain website (in Spanish)
First Spanish-Portuguese Free Software Conference web site
Joinup news item