A couple of months ago OSS Watch took the difficult decision to postpone Open Source Junction 5 – the latest in our series of events seeking to foster cross-sector innovation and partnerships. We’ve very pleased to announce that the event, which this time focuses is Open Source in the Public Sector, has now been rescheduled … Read more
OSS Watch has been awarded a place on G-Cloud, the UK Government cloud procurement initiative, and will be making a range of services available through the CloudStore. The UK Government has been working to make the purchasing of public sector ICT as simple and transparent as possible. All services listed on the CloudStore are part … Read more
We’ve got a great variety of talks lined up for Open Source Junction 5 next month. We’re still finalising the programme, but here’s some teasers: We’ve got Sander van der Waal from the Open Knowledge Foundation who’ll be talking about CKAN and public sector open data. From LocalGovDigital we’ve got Phil Rumens, who’ll be looking … Read more
Last week Open Source, Open Standards 2013 took place in London, an event focussed on the public sector. Naturally these being two topics we’re very keen on here at OSS Watch I went along too. Overall the key message to take away from the event was just how central to public sector IT strategy these two themes … Read more
Universities are ahead of the curve in adopting open source, says Scott Wilson – we should now lead the public sector in exploring its full potential. Read the full article at Guardian Higher Education Network. Read more
OSS Watch Briefing Paper: Open Standards and Open Source Open source software and open standards are two of the key interventions in technology policy, whether that policy is made by governments, public sector organisations, or companies. Open standards can ensure interoperability and assist portability, allowing the switching of solutions and avoiding vendor lock-in. Standards can also … Read more
While the UK government has for some time now been taking measures to level the playing field for open source software in the public sector, for example by pointing out open source options for proprietary systems, the new Government Service Design Manual goes one step further – mandating a preference for open source for government … Read more