ISSUE-35: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment

BSA-interop

Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment

State:

CLOSED

Product:

Interoperability

Raised by:

José Manuel Alonso

Opened on:

2009-04-29

Description:

comments by Maureen K. Ohlhausen at
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-egov-ig/2009Apr/0182

Summary:
The goal of the eGovernment initiative is to use information technology to improve citizen access to government in three primary ways:

· The delivery of government services to citizens;
· Citizen engagement and dialogue with government; and
· The provision of government data to citizens for their use.


As recognized in the W3C working draft, Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web ("Improving Access draft"), making the initiative a functioning reality will require software tools and standards to be developed and adopted. In deciding how best to identify and choose software for these purposes, the draft touches on the question of whether commercial or open source software is best suited to eGovernment needs. BSA believes that the choice should be made on the basis of neutral performance and cost criteria necessary to improve citizen access to government -- such as ease of use, interoperability, security, and total cost of ownership and deployment -- and not on whether the software tool is made available on commercial terms or through open source licenses. What is the best software for the task depends on the specific requirements necessary to meet these important eGovernment objectives, rather than in the inherent nature of a software development or licensing model. Furthermore, in the drive for a more open government, it is important to distinguish between open source products and open standards: whether a standard qualifies as “open” has nothing to do with the development and licensing model of the software used to implement that standard.

Related Actions Items:

No related actions

Related emails:

1. Opengovinnovation event (Was: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment) (from srush@knowbility.org on 2009-05-12)
2. Re: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment (from dmcallis@adobe.com on 2009-05-12)
3. RE: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment (from KevinNovak@aia.org on 2009-05-12)
4. RE: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment (from ken@clickforhelp.com on 2009-05-12)
5. Re: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment (from josema@w3.org on 2009-05-07)
6. [minutes] eGov IG call, 6 May 2009 (from josema@w3.org on 2009-05-06)
7. RE: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment (from maureeno@bsa.org on 2009-04-30)
8. Re: Business Software Alliance: Software and Openness Issues for eGovernment (from josema@w3.org on 2009-04-29)

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