Open source thumbs up by Canberra
Open source thumbs up by Canberra
A survey conducted by Open Source Industry Australia Limited has received a positive result from Labor, the Democrats and the Greens who are actively supportive of open source procurement, although the Coalition has been silent on the issue.
The findings show that the parties in favour of open source believe that it can play an important role in the Australian economy and have a general acceptance of mandating open data formats where government data is crucial.
The Democrats and the Greens were more straightforward in their responses, but the Coalition and Labor seemed to be hedging their bets. The Coalition in particular repeated a mantra about businesses doing their own evaluations.
OSIA director Brendan Scott said: "We were very pleased to see that the Democrats have already introduced a Bill mandating Government use of open data formats into Federal Parliament, and that Labor support "active consideration" of open source.
"The single most important aspect in the storage of data in open formats. It is a necessary precondition to effective competition - whether it's for open or closed source programs - if Government data isn't open, it is impossible to effectively compete. You can hardly have a competitive software market when every taxpayer needs brand X to lodge their tax return or check their entitlements.
"The Government needs to mandate the storage of its data in open formats as a matter of urgency. They all said they support it, why isn't there legislation in place?"
The OSIA is disappointed that the Coalition still refuses to accept that patent law or the FTA could be improved. It says that Australia missed the boat on the IT revolution over the last 20 years and could squander its open source lead over the next 20 years if it does not pay recognition to the damage being done to open property by bad patent implementation.
OSIA would also like Labor to be less ambiguous in opposition to spurious software patents and for the Coalition to stop denying reality and recognise the danger facing the Australian software industry.
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