The Guardian reports that the UK government has just evened the procurement field for open source software . This means that open source software companies are able to respond to RFPs from the UK Government just like closed source companies do, whereas in the past there were barriers to the procurement of open source software.
The US Department of Defense implemented a similar policy change last year. At the Military Open Source Conference in Washington DC last year, I remember one participant relating how she had been told by her base commander that she couldn't consider open source software. One of the speakers at the conference made it uneqivocal that she should go back and explain to her base commander that the policy had changed, and that she was now required to accept bids from open source companies.
Comments