OSNews: Will Open Source Come to the Rescue? Apr 1, 2004, 01 :00 UTC (14 Talkback[s]) (8708 reads) (Other stories by Robert W. Austin)
"Over the past months we have heard about how free and open source software (FOSS) is becoming more and more acceptable in the business community. There has also been a movement to have governments adopt policies that open the door to FOSS. However, it appears that the open source community has overlooked one vital area of the community that would most likely embrace FOSS with open arms, and that is the area of emergency services (Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services).
"Like any government agency, emergency service agencies need the basic office software, but they also need 'specialized' software, such as Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems, 9-1-1 Call Taking systems, incident reporting systems, etc. Today, almost without exception, every agency is forced to use a proprietary, closed source Windows program..."
