UKGovOSS - Open Source Government CommunityPublic Sector Forums

The Government has published today a ‘revised’ version of its Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use Strategy, coinciding with the launch of its new ICT Strategy, ‘Smarter, Greener, Cheaper’.

Outlined in the latest plans - the first update in almost a year - are new measures designed to promote open source adoption in the UK public sector.   According to the Government, these  will provide ‘more clarity on the actions expected of suppliers and procurers of Government ICT.’   While not amounting to a ‘wholesale’ shift in policy, the key changes include:

• Government IT procurements to include an open source test: Suppliers will need to ‘provide evidence of consideration of open source solutions’ or be disqualified from bidding (as previously blogged here)
• Where proprietary suppliers provide a ‘perpetual licence’ which gives the appearance of zero cost, procurement teams will need to apply a ’shadow’ licence price in calculating total cost of ownership. This will be defined as either the supplier’s un-discounted list price or the public sector price on a ‘Crown’ deal.
• The Government has also underlined to vendors it expects software licenses to be transferrable across the public sector.

In another very positive development, we can confirm Mark O’Neill, Chief Information Officer at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, will be the Government’s CIO lead for open source.

As widely reported, a draft ‘unclassified’ copy of the Government’s new public sector IT strategy has been made public, ahead of the final report’s scheduled release later this month.  The original PDF version can be downloaded here from PSF while the Conservative Party has also made a copy open to comments online (powered by WordPress).  Bear in mind this is said to be an ‘early’ draft of the strategy and not the finished work.

Notably, in terms of concrete action to take forward the Government’s strategy on Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use, the draft report says:

“the Open Source, Open Standards, and Reuse working group will deliver clear and open guidance for ensuring that open source and proprietary products are considered equally and systematically for value for money. By 2011, public bodies will store and share records of their approval and use of Open Source software on the G-Cloud. The Government Applications Stores will hold Open Source solutions that are available for reuse in the public sector and by 2015 public bodies  will review existing solutions available before going to market for new solutions.”

Judging from discussions I’ve had with the Cabinet Office, this isn’t the sum total of the Government’s plans to promote open source. However if you’re looking for a great analysis of the draft strategy, see this commentary from Computer Weekly’s Glyn Moody: Making Government IT Better and Open.

And talking of guidance on using open source solutions, NCC has a new white paper out, produced by the Open Learning Centre and OpenForum Europe.

Public Sector Forums reports that IT suppliers could be blocked from bidding for government contracts unless they can show they have seriously considered using open source software.

The decision was made at a recent summit meeting of the Government’s Chief Information Officer Council, its local government counterpart and sister body the Chief Technology Officer Council.

Minutes from the meeting, which are now available here, suggest cross-government agreement on what appear to be radical changes in the Government’s approach towards IT procurement, including updating the tender process ‘to ensure bids will be conformant to agreed strategies’.

This meeting report goes on to say a requirement will be included that ’suppliers must demonstrate actual review of open source products else bid will be rejected as non compliant’.  Specifically, suppliers who fail to meet the Government’s new requirements would be ‘down selected’ at the pre-qualification stage in any procurement.

As some will be aware, this development coincides with recent criticism by open source vendors that since the publication of the Government’s Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use strategy in February this year, there has been little evidence of change in public sector procurement practices.

Further details about the policy are expected to be given in the Government’s new IT strategy, due out in December.