HU: "Hungary should set up a open source competence centre"
The Hungarian government should create an open source competence centre, writes the Hungarian Information Society (ITTK), a pressure group, in its annual report, published on 7 May.
The group urges the government to increase its awareness of this type of software. "The government should is advised to make ODF an official standard in all branches of government."
To align itself with other EU member states, it is vital Hungary makes software available using the EUPL, the group writes.
According to IITK, Hungary's government policies on open standards and open source are some five to six years behind on other EU countries. However, it calls 2008 'The year of Open Source'.
Last year the government came under pressure to make changes to its policy of software procurement. The Competition Office in early 2008 took the government to court over a tender requesting proprietary software. Even though the court dismissed the claims, the government in 2009 announced it would equally divide its annual IT budget on proprietary and open source software.
IITK says this new step will bring Hungary's IT procurement policies more in line with those in other EU countries.
"It is likely that the current financial crisis provides another breakthrough for open source, being cheaper and more reliable, increasing interoperability and making Hungary more competitive", IITK writes. "These are well-proven advantages, and it is not a coincidence that the state is increasing the pressure to use this type of software."
"With the right policies, in two to three years of active and conscientious involvement with open source, the government can close the four to six year gap."
Examples of implementations of open source and open standards are extremely important, the pressure group writes. "For here not only the role model procedures and solutions can be adopted, but also the tools themselves."
More information:
Kék Notesz 2009 (pdf, in Hungarian)
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