31st March 2010
* Presidency of the Greek Republic * Greek Parliament * Prime Minister's Office * Ministry of Transports and Communications * Ministry of Education, Life Long Learning and Religious Affairs * Members of Parliament and candidates of all parties * Computer Scientists Union of Greece * Technical Chamber of Greece * Free Software / Open Source Software Society
Cc:
* General Secretaries of Districts * Prefects * Mayors * Universities and Technical Schools Computer Science Departments
Today, on the occasion of the international Document Freedom Day, the Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free Software / Open Source Software and Free Software Foundation Europe take the occasion to request from the Greek Government the immediate, comprehensive and mandatory adoption of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) and other Open Standards for the Greek public sector.
[0] http://documentfreedom.org
[1] http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html
Numerous successful migrations of public bodies across Europe show that Open Standards clearly are a superior strategic choice for public bodies. If any technical or organizational obstacles to the introduction of Free Software and Open Standards exist, they can be overcome with political will, proper planning and skilled execution.
Open Standards allow the public sector to develop its own IT strategy independently of any particular vendor. Information stored in open document formats such as ODF will remain accessible far into the future, when current proprietary vendors will long have disappeared.
Crucially in today's dire economic situation, Open Standards and Free Software can bring huge cost savings to the Greek public sector. No license fees need to be paid, and IT solutions can be fully tailored to the needs of each organization. Public bodies will no longer depend on any particular software vendor, but will instead be able to choose their IT solutions freely in a competitive market.
We believe that Greece would do well to follow the lead provided by the European Commission. The European Interoperability Framework [2] highlights the importance of Open Standards for the public sector. Many European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway have made Open Standards mandatory for their public sectors.
[2] http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/3473/5585#finalEIF
The former European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, remarked on June 10, 2008 [3] that
"As purchasers, we need to be smart when we buy technology. We need to be aware of the long term costs of lock-in: you are often locked-in to subsequent generations of that technology. There can also be spill-over effects where you get locked in to other products and services provided by that vendor. That is just bad purchasing."
She added
"But there is more to this than ensuring our commercial decisions are taken in full knowledge of their long term effects. There is a democratic issue as well.
When open alternatives are available, no citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to use a particular company's technology to access government information. No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first.
These democratic principles are important. And an argument is particularly compelling when it is supported both by democratic principles and by sound economics. I know a smart business decision when I see one - choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed."
[3] http://repository.openforumeurope.org/media-centre/press-releases/ofe/speech...
In the public interest, the Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free Software / Open Source Software and Free Software Foundation Europe ask the Greek public sector to make a firm commitment to ODF and other Open Standards.
Ioakim Tellidis
President Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free Software / Open Source Software (GREEK.L.U.G.)
Karsten Gerloff
President, Free Software Foundation Europe
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We are on advocacy phase now, soon we wait for the first reactions and feedback.