DE: Federal government to increase its open source expertise

The project is one of 27 that were approved earlier this month as part of an IT investment package aimed to help the country's IT sector battle the economic crisis.

Other projects include boosting IT security by funding the development of phones that use encryption, increasing the IT security of laptops and of handheld and mobile computing devices. The government will also fund the development of applications that can use the country's digital ID card and digital health information card.

To help make the government's IT systems more environmentally friendly, funds will be used to build two new data centres. These should also be able to help public bodies increase the energy efficiency of their IT systems.

The federal government in late February announced it would invest 500 million euro in IT infrastructure, focusing on open source, green IT and IT security. Of these 500 million euro, the government is making 300 million available immediately for projects on innovation and sustainable technology, and for ideas useful for public administration. The remaining 200 million euro will be spent once there are concrete measures or plans.

"The funds are meant to support Germany's economy and to ensure that we leave the crisis in a stronger position than we entered it", said the IT Officer of the federal government, state secretary Hans-Bernand Beus, in a statement released in February.

The funds are part of the 50 billion euro package to boost the country's economy that was approved by the federal council in late February.

More information:

Federal Government statement (in German)

Yeebase news item (in German)

Computerwoche news item (in German)

Silicon news item (in German)