Islandia migrará a software libre

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is finding favour on the Icelandic government scene with the announcement that all of its public administration organisations will adopt it.

Tryggvi Björgvinsson is the head of the project and said that Iceland's adoption of open source software will start in major cities like the capital, Reykjavik and include all government ministries and the National Hospital.

It is likely to be a gradual move and build on work already done, while fostering an environment full of cooperation and knowledge sharing.

"The goal of the project is not to migrate public institutions to free and open source software in one single year but to lay a solid foundation for such a migration which institutions can base their migration plans on," he said according to a report on the European Commission's Joinup pages.

Starting like this will give the project a chance to build up an understanding of open source alternatives, document them and create a common infrastructure, all of which should make migration easier.

"This will foster collaboration between public institutions, IT service providers and the free and open source community in Iceland," the project leader added.

Public institutions will be brought on board through a series of letters that recommend open standards and open source alternatives, and that will provide examples of software that is easy to use.

"We are also making sure that in our public schools, the national curricula does not restrict the use of free and open source software," Björgvinsson added. µ