Iceland To Use Open Source Software For All Public Sector IT

The Icelandic government has begun a one year migration program to use open source software for all public administration departments.

The city of Reykjavik, the country’s ministries and the National Hospital are three named public institutions that will be moving away from proprietary software this year, the EC’s Joinup reports.

Public sector migration

The plans are a marked acceleration to the the Icelandic government’s policy on free and open source software, originally published in December 2007. The Prime Minister’s Office recommended that any new software purchases for the public sector should be considered with free and open source options on equal footing.

“Free and open-source software is expanding rapidly all over the world, having already earned recognition as a realistic option when selecting information technology solutions,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. “It is important for governmental authorities to support it and allow for its continued development, since the use of free and open-source software can reduce the ties of businesses, the authorities and the public to individual suppliers or service providers, thereby cultivating greater choice.”

Noting that many neighbouring countries had already formed open source policies, the PM’s Office at that time made suggestions as to how administrations could best implement an open source strategy. The recently announced one year project will take the government’s recommendations a step further by preparing a complete transition.

“The goal of the project is not to migrate public institutions to free and open source software in one single year but to lay a solid foundation for such a migration which institutions can base their migration plans on”, said the project’s leader Tryggvi Björgvinsson.

The plan for the year ahead will involve contacting heads of public administrations to promote free and open source software using examples of successful transitions, including those of the education system and the newly founded Media commission.

“Public institutions have slowly been migrating to free software over the last four years,” said Björgvinsson. “This school year, 2011-2012, two new secondary schools moved their systems entirely to free and open source software, bringing the count to five out of 32 schools.”

“The country-wide migration project will build upon their experience and hopefully pave the way for other institutions to follow.”