IT: Successful open source workshop on Sardinia

"The meetings were a rich exchanges of opinions, just like we expected them to be", says Marzano, a professor of IT innovation at the University of Bologna and a member of the Open Source Commission at CNIPA (National Center for Information technology in the Public Administation).

According to her, all attendees  enthusiastically shared knowledge and experiences. "Sardinia's first endeavours into open source began in the typical way of the open source community. We saw openness at work."

Last week's open source workshop was organised by the Laboratorio open source (open source lab), part of of Sardegna Ricerche, a research and innovation project financed by the regional administration. The practical demonstrations were organised especially to show public administrations and companies how the most commonly used open source applications work.

Attendees did not need to have any kind of experience with the applications. Next to the hands-on demonstrations, visitors could  listen to talks on the use of open source by public administrations or follow presentations on the general uptake of this type of software. Presenters also discussed the best practises for migration from proprietary to open source applications. Others demonstrated some of the tools that support an open source IT infrastructure.

The event was organised following last month's proposed legislation to reduce IT spending by the island administration by switching to open source. The regional council of Sardinia wants to increase its use of open source, in order to reduce costs, improve interoperability and to increase reuse of software.

More information:

Sporcati le mani con il Free/Libre Open Source Software (in Italian)

"Opportunities of Free and Open Source Software" social network (in Italian)