On Thursday, the UK government has adopted the Open Standards – a set of policies designed to make public sector IT cheaper, more transparent and better connected.
From now on, all government bodies will have to follow certain guidelines regarding software interoperability and data and document formats, to enable adoption of open source solutions where possible.
The changes were announced by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who has been the driving force behind this new ICT strategy.
Last March, the government revealed a new ICT strategy, which committed it to creating a common IT infrastructure based on a suite of compulsory open standards, in order to save money in a recession.
In April, it emerged that one of the organisers didn’t disclose his links to Microsoft, prompting criticisms of the big vendor participation in the discussion.
Despite these drawbacks, the government says it has received “overwhelming” support from the public and the IT community for setting a single policy for open source solutions.
Among nearly 500 responses to the consultation, almost 70 percent said the Open Standards Principles will improve innovation, competition and choice in the provision of government services. Over 70 percent of respondents thought it would also help provide better value for money.
“We know that there are more real savings to be made in Government IT contracts – in the first half of this year, we have already saved £409 million on ICT services,” said Maude.
“Government must be better connected to the people it serves and partners who can work with it – especially small businesses, voluntary and community organisations. Having open information and software that can be used across government departments will result in lower licensing costs in government IT, and reduce the cost of lock-in to suppliers and products,” he added.
It is thought that the Open Standards will help SMBs provide more services to the public sector, and encourage more competition for the government contracts.
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This is truly a momentous turning point for the future of Health Informatics, not just in the United Kingdom, but on a world wide basis.
By providing the infrastructural and legislative framework and support for genuine open tenders, it may be the begining of the end for what had seemed to be endemic perpetual massive Information System Failures. The NPfIT had been a good example of how "Big" is not always"Best".
There is a lot to be said for open source home grown solutions.
There is now hope for a better tomorrow for all whose ife will depend on mission critical IT services in the near future.
We know why systems fail. It is time to set things right and put the Cobbs Paradox to rest.
Information System Failures and the NHS
To quote Douglas Carnall,
"Software engineering will become a profession more like medicine and the law: in which practitioners earn a fair hourly reward for their experience at interpreting, evaluating and applying knowledge from a specialized domain to the benefit of their clients.
Current models, which restrict the sharing and development of knowledge, are certainly counterproductive and arguably unethical. Open source is the future: all we have to do is built it."
Thank you.