[OSGeo-UK] Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: UK Government Action Plan

[Joanne Cook]

Dear All,

As you might be aware, the UK Government have announced their action plan for Open Source, Open Standards and Re-use. 

http://www.cio.gov.uk/transformational_government/open_source/index.asp

http://www.cio.gov.uk/documents/open_source/090224opensource.pdf

In some ways this is a repetition of a plan they announced back in 2004, and I'm not totally sure how much progress there has been in the 5 years since then. However, I would like to hope that the UK local chapter for OSGeo could play a part in helping to ensure that GIS software gets a look-in in all of this. 

At the moment you might feel that we don't have much to offer- but I would like to hope we can change that. The first thing is that we have been given permission to have our own web pages under the main OSGeo website- I have the instructions for doing this and hope to start moving content from the wiki to this new site very shortly. Once I figure out how to do this, I'd like other people to help with the process. Having a dedicated web presence under the main OSGeo banner will, I think, raise our profile, and make us look more professional (much as I love wikis). Leading on from that I would like to start producing printed materials for the chapter.

Secondly, I would like to formally respond to the action plan by contacting Tom Watson- the Minister for Digital Engagement and registering our interest. Having read the so-called action plan, I do feel that it's more of a wish-list than anything else, and I would like to see firm proposals on how they plan to open up the current procurement process to new companies offering open source, as opposed to the established large technology firms, and I would like him to respond to that question at least.

Thirdly, those people on the cc list for this email- I'm not sure all of you have subscribed to the mailing list, and I'd like to urge you to do that. Your name is on the cc list because you have previously expressed interest (or someone has expressed interest on your behalf) in the local chapter- but this is the last time I will email people who are not actually on the mailing list as I don't want to spam people that are not interested! I'm also slightly reluctant to sign people up en mass, so, please sign up if you are interested at: http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/uk

So- consider this a call to action to push forward with the local chapter!

All the very best

Jo



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Joanne Cook
Senior IT Support and Development
Oxford Archaeology (North)
01524 880212
http://thehumanjourney.net


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