PT: Consensus among political parties on open source and open standards in the Public Administration
Gonçalo Caseiro, Member of the Board of the Agency for the Public Services Reform (Agência para a Modernização Administrativa - AMA, in Portuguese), gave a presentation that addressed the issues of interoperability, open standards and open source in the PA, the AMA's perspective on these issues, and provided examples of actions taken in recent years within the PA.
The discussion focused on various topics, among which included the following:
- the importance of open standards in the PA and the impact that legislation which has been recently approved by Parliament will have in the coming years on information systems in the PA and in its modernisation;
- the use of open standards as a facilitator in the interaction between citizens and businesses with the State and their contribution to a more active civic engagement;
- the importance of open source as a factor in the cost reduction of software in the PA;
- the importance of open source as an incentive to create a software industry in Portugal with conditions for internationalisation;
- open standards and the adoption of open source technologies as guarantors of national sovereignty and of the freedom of choice of products and technological solutions;
- the need for further interoperability between PA systems and services, for the enhancement of processes and modernisation;
- the need to increase investment in PA IT training resources;
- European policy on software patents and the need to combine the protection of intellectual property rights related to the software with the freedom to use technology as an essential mechanism for software industry innovation and development.
The discussion resulted in a consensus among the political parties in attendance. Agreement was reached on the importance of the national software industry for economic growth and the positive impact of open standards and open source technologies in the PA reform, as well as the need to expand the coverage of the open standards regime to local PA during the next legislative period.
An audience of approximately 75 people actively participated in the discussion, raising numerous issues with party representatives and contributing decisively to its success.
The event, held at the Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE-IUL), was attended by the following MPs: António Bob Santos (Socialist Party); Jaime Quesado (Social Democratic Party); José A. Vilar Jesus (Democratic and Social Centre - People's Party); Bruno Dias (Portuguese Communist Party); and Carlos Patrão (Left Bloc).
Further information:
- Official press release - ESOP (in Portuguese)
- ESOP (in Portuguese)
- Related OSOR.eu news article - PT: Open standards become prerequisite for government IT
- Background information - ePractice eGovernment Factsheet for Portugal
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Quelle/Source: epractice, 14.07.2011
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