Australian IT: Two on Open Source in Australian Government

Tax to Open Up Software Policy

"The Australian Tax Office will adopt an open-source software policy for the first time, opening its Microsoft-dominated standard operating environment (SOE) to products such as Linux.

"ATO second commissioner Greg Farr said an internal review of open-source software--done in conjunction with the Gartner Group--concluded that the agency should evaluate and use open-source software where appropriate..."

Complete Story

Penguin Politics

"THE ACT's parliamentarians were working late one night in December when they passed a Bill that has shaken the world's biggest software vendor and fundamentally changed the way governments around the country buy technology.

"The decision by the territory's tiny parliament--sometimes unkindly compared with a local council--to pass Democrats MLA Roslyn Dundas's Government Procurement (Principles) Guideline Amendment Bill took proprietary software vendors by surprise, despite executives knowing the party had been courting the open-source community for several months.

"The Democrats--famously open in the way they develop policy and operate their party--had fallen in a big way for the open-source software philosophy and its promise of community co-operation in software development..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• LinuxWorld Australia: ACS Calls for Government Open Source Mandate(Feb 04, 2004)
• The Australian: Action Course on Open Source(Feb 03, 2004)
• Australian IT: Minister Rails Against Software 'Monopoly'(Jan 30, 2004)
• iTnews: Open Source Sneaks in SA Govt Back Door(Jan 12, 2004)