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Hi All, I thought I would share the following from the fsfe-uk group (with my annotations) History Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan was first drafted in February 2009. See Link: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/253407/Open%20Source%20Final.pdf A revised version was published in January 2010 by Angela Smith (then) Minister of State for the Cabinet Office See Link: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/318020/open_source.pdf The Green Party Members of Norwich City Council have been seeking to get a motion forwarded and carried by the council, the following is a reformatted (but unchanged) email from an open source software news group written by Christopher Cotton christophercotton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx who is the Political Assistant to the Green Party Members of Norwich City Council. From: Cotton, Christopher Date: 30 June 2010 15:43 Subject: Open Source Motion Hi, We had the following motion passed unanimously by council last night. It's not the most radical thing we could have proposed, but we're fairly happy that it's on the agenda and we have a springboard to really push Open Source in the council. I know it's many months since I asked for advice on this, but thanks for your help. Chris *Motion - ICT Open Source Software* Councillor Makoff to move:- 'The recently published "Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan" builds on existing policy for government departments to use open source software wherever it offers the best value for money and states that "where there is no significant overall cost difference between open and non open source products, open source will be selected on the basis of its additional inherent flexibility. Council, *RESOLVES* to ask the Executive:- 1. as part of the Strategic ICT Review agreed in this year's budget, to consider whether any of the software currently used within the Council could be replaced with better value for money open source alternatives; (2) to review policy and options on ICT procurement including:- * how to ensure that systems procured are able to adapt to unforeseen changes and advances in technology; 1 making it a requirement to assess the opportunities to use open source software, including the potential benefits, in a Total Cost of Ownership assessment; 2 the opportunities to the local economy that arise from using software that can be modified by local IT workers rather than being restricted to modification by large companies elsewhere; 3 whether the upgrade and exit/replacement cost of current proprietary systems could or should be included as a liability on the relevant Council balance sheets.' *Chris Cotton,* Political Assistant to the Green Party Group, Norwich City Council, Norwich NR2 1NH Tel (01603) 21*2969* *christophercotton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx* I hope this is one of many such motions from councils up and down the land, and that the executives of councils will start to be held accountable for the actions (or in-actions). Time will tell. I'm not a fan of the Green Party but I think the Norwich Council Green Party Members should be commended for their work. Tom. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html