Bundestag: "Open-Source Strategy is Not in Jeopardy"

"Susanne Kastner, the chairperson of the Commission of the Council of Elders on the Use of New Information and Communications Technologies in the Bundestag (the lower chamber of Germany's Federal Parliament), has defended the decision in favor of MS Exchange and Outlook as a groupware solution for the parliamentarians. The use of a proprietary application did not put in jeopardy the open-source strategy for the information technology of Germany's Federal Parliament," the parliamentarian, who is a member of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD), said in a statement on the decision reached last Thursday. The direction decision passed in 2002 in favor of the use of Linux and free software in the server domain 'continues to be the declared goal of our work,' she stated. At present no 'adequate' open-source-based groupware product was being offered, she declared; hence it had not been possible to opt for one. After years of debate an address and calendar management system that 'fulfilled all the requirements' was finally being made available to the parliamentarians, she said..."

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