Researchers: Cost savings appear no reason to switch
Political commitment and innovative individuals are crucial to get public administrations to switch to open source software, conclude researchers at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University (Netherlands). The potential cost savings or the size and complexity of the public administration “have no discernible effect”, the researchers write in Government Information Quarterly.
“Top-down decisions by politicians in the municipality are the most important factor” write Leiden university graduate Alexander van Loon and his Associate Professor Dimiter Toshkov. “A new national policy in the Netherlands allowing for less discretion might be a good idea”, they add.
The researchers looked at municipalities in the Netherlands and used statistical models to determine the key factors to the spread of institutional and technological innovations in the public sector. “Having people within the organization who promote, inform about, and politically support the adoption of open source software appears almost indispensable” they conclude. However, key is internal pressure from city council members and aldermen.
Economic factors, like the financial stress of the municipality, appears to have no real influence, the two write. They add that public organisations are less impacted by direct economic pressures than private sector organisations.
The Leiden University researchers suggest that their conclusions are valid for other countries. There are no countries where the use of open source is mandatory, and in “such circumstances it seems that the presence of boundary spanners and political support within the organization could be found important.”
For their study, Van Loon and Toshkov sampled the Netherlands’ 415 municipalities. They reached out to 50 of the municipalities with over 70 thousand inhabitants and contacted 130 other towns and villages. They received input from in total 51 municipalities.