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EU calls for open source e-government
Monday, July 08 2002
by Matthew Clark


A report published by the European Commission is encouraging EU governments to
share open source software resources as a way to cut down on e-government costs.

According to the study, "Pooling Open Source Software", which was financed by
the Commission's Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) programme, a
kind of software clearing house should be created in Europe in which various
administrations could "donate" software for re-use. What's more, the Commission
said that such a facility, which would concentrate on applications specific to
the needs of the public sector, would also encourage different governments and
administrations to re-create already successful e-government services.



With the cost of e-government soaring in Europe, estimated to increase by 28
percent to EUR6.6 billion this year, sharing software could help save money as
well, the report said. Taking into account the cost that would be involved in
localisation, the Commission said "sharing these e-government tools could lead
to across-the-board improvements in efficiency of the European public sector."



"Good practice is built on proven solutions that work," added Enterprise and
Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen. "Software and concrete
applications that work in practice are an important element of these. They could
be usefully used as a source of inspiration for member states to develop good and
interactive public services in the future." 



Alongside its suggestion that e-government software should be issued under an
open source licence, the study also said that a software pooling facility should
be made available to EU members which would provide quality guarantees and help
resolve questions of liability. These are some of the main issues that inhibit
the sharing of e-government developments already, the report claimed. 



"A step-wise implementation of the facility is however recommended, since
sharing competence and good practices is more urgent than sharing software," the
European Commission said. "More than simply providing software, the pooling
facility should thus make available expertise and help create a community of
developers, users and policy makers, providing opportunities for increased
cooperation, notably in software development and testing."



Such a policy could spell good news for Ireland and its e-government programmes,
which are consistently ranked as some of the best in Europe and in the world. 
Last month Ireland's e-government services topped the poll in a European Union
benchmarking exercise, for the second time, scoring a total of 84.72 percent,
well above the average score of 54.25 percent.



The Interchange of Data Between Administration (IDA) programme, the division of
the European Commission behind the new report, was created by the European
Commission, and is revised each year, as a way to help governments across the EU
connect their "back offices" as well as their public facing e-government
services



Last month, many of the recommendations in the study were broadly welcomed at a
specialist hearing held in Brussels, the commission said. For more information on
the report or the IDA programme, visit the organisation's HREF="http://europa.eu.int/ispo/ida">Web site.