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Introduction and Background
With the current economic downturn placing public finances under significant pressure, local authorities need to prepare for a more challenging future. In a climate of increasing budget constraints, councils are now facing inescapable demands to develop new and innovative ways to transform services, generate cashable efficiencies and deliver more for less. At the same time, local government IT costs are rising: In January this year, Socitm (the professional association for public ICT management) reported ICT spending by UK local authorities would soar by 5% in 2008/09, reaching a record level of £3.2 billion of expenditure. These developments underline the need for councils to drive more value from their IT investments.
These imperatives are concurrent with a fresh resurgence of interest across UK government in open source software. In February, the Government gave an official (and according to some, long overdue) commitment to increase the use of open source software through the public sector - the first update in policy since 2004. Government has now redefined its approach to open source, asserting the need to give open source software equal consideration to traditional proprietary solutions. But will this new enthusiasm for open source in government be reflected in greater adoption? Is local government, the sector seen as potentially most receptive to open source, ready, willing and able to embrace this change? What do councils see as the key strategic, management and technical barriers to engaging fully with open source? And how can these obstacles be best overcome?
To help find answers to these questions and others, Public Sector Forums, who host the UKGovOSS community, conducted research to examine the adoption, perceptions and experiences of open source technologies within UK local authorities. The survey, which preceded the publication of the UK Government Action Plan for Open Source on 24 February 2009, ran from 18 November to 12 December 2008 and was completed by 168 respondents. Responses were anonymous unless respondents provided contact details. The majority of those taking part were from District Councils (31%), followed by Unitary authorities (27%), County Councils (17%), Mets (14%) and London Boroughs (7%). The survey looked at variety of issues including:
- Distribution of open source technologies in local government
- Attitudes with local authorities to open and proprietary software
- Predicted growth of open source in local authorities, including local government business/IT areas expected to be impacted greatest by open source
- Perceived and real risks, challenges and barriers to open source adoption in local government, as well as areas of opportunity, and
- What needs to be done to help councils address these obstacles and increase their use of open source software.
Why this report is worthy of your attention:
This report, to the best of our knowledge, represents the most up-to-date and comprehensive ’snapshot’ of the state of open source software activity in local government. We hope this report is useful and look forward to your comments on our findings.