Open source software represents a serious alternative to proprietary products, and should be used as a tool to open up software markets to more competition, according to a report carried out under the auspices of the Danish government.
While a number of governments in Europe and elsewhere are eyeing open source software as a way of cutting costs and stimulating localised software development, the Danish study goes a step further, arguing that public sector support for open-source and open standards may be necessary for there to be any real competition in the software market.
The report stirred up controversy in Denmark when it was published in Denmark last year, but has not been available in English until this week, when the Danish Board of Technology released it in a translation backed by the European Parliament.
"Open-source software represents a serious technical and economic alternative to proprietary software -- even where there are proprietary industry standards," the report said. Open-source software licences allow anyone to modify and redistribute the source code of the applications, meaning no one organisation controls the software's development.
The study recommended that governments take an active role in promoting standardised file formats and alternatives to dominant proprietary applications in order to help break a "de facto monopoly". "The ordinary market conditions for standard software will tend towards a very small number of suppliers or a monopoly," the Board of Technology stated in the report. "It will only be possible to achieve competition in such a situation by taking political decisions that assist new market participants in entering the market."
Proprietary standards
The Board was particularly critical of closed, proprietary standards such as Microsoft's Word format, arguing they go against the principles of e-government by requiring citizens to use particular software and reinforcing monopolies.
"A strategy for e-government should not be based on a closed, proprietary standard in a key technology," the report said. "There is no genuine competition at present in the desktop (office software) area, largely due to the fact that Microsoft formats also represent de facto standards for electronic document exchange."
The Board recommended that the Danish government take an active role in promoting an open, XML-based alternative for file formats, either by switching to OpenOffice's XML format or launching an EU-wide project to develop a new format.
However, the report recognised that establishing a existing alternative or a new format would be an uphill battle, given that Microsoft Office cannot read OpenOffice documents or other formats. The Board recommended that Denmark begin a series of trials to test the feasibility of introducing open-source software such as OpenOffice.
E-government
Open source could also help make public sector software procurement more cost-effective by introducing real competition, the report said. "Proprietary systems entail a strong tie to a single supplier, and in reality this precludes competition," it argued. "User-owned systems are more expensive in actual development, but provide an opportunity for greater competition in continued development, and are therefore cheaper in the long run."
A coordinated plan for using open source could also give governments a stronger hand when the time comes to renegotiate contracts with Microsoft, the study said.
The Danish Board of Technology urged the government to take action, dismissing the lukewarm approach of other European countries: "It is... not sufficient for us in Denmark to follow Britain and Germany, for example, in merely recommending that open source should be 'considered'. A more active decision must be taken in those areas where there is a de facto monopoly."
While the report sparked a heated debate in Denmark, the country's government has not implemented any wide-ranging open source policies, merely reaffirming in a June white paper that it would choose software that offered the best value for money.
Talkback
Is it just me, or these pseudo-studies highlight mostly geo-political views of the world (i.e., Europe versus American corporations), rather than economical or technical ones ?
It's just you!
While it's easy to trivialize this sort of study and the US versus <whomever> the reality is that Microsoft's monopoly position both on the desktop and in the mindset means that competition and the resulting innovation are lacking.
Take IE for example. Ever since Microsoft 'won' the browser war IE's development has all but ceased. And Office hasn't significantly changed since Office 97 (except for the bug count).
Until government's start promoting alternatives to a monopoly, the industry will continue to stagnate. However, it's important to note that this doesn't mean that government needs to unfairly promote alternatives to Microsoft.
For eaxmple, government can say that they will only use file formats that are openly published and available for all to use. Microsoft isn't disadvantaged with a decision like this, but it means that others can actually produce competing products without the added expense of having to deal with an unpublished, and unnecessarilyt complex file format like dot-doc.
Once an open file format is established all government needs to do is maintain the standards for all software but saying that software that doesn't support the standard, or software that tries to break the standard, won't be considered until if works with the standard. This will stop any attempts to Embrace and Extend.
The OpenOffice.org file format would be an excellent choice. It's openly published (in a detailed 400 page document), open to use by any one, and also opent o contribution by anyone. And while some express concern that Office doesn't support this format, if governments said this is the format we're using and to sell you software to us you need to suppor this format properly I'm sure Microsoft has enough money to get support for the format in place. It might even help them sell copies of their next version of Office.
Of course the only really open format is a text file comprising ASCII format characters. If you use ANY other file format for archive purposes, it will become obsolete. This is in addition to the extra storage capacity required.
Now now now. Do you even know the openoffice file format? It is a compressed xml file. Meaining you uncompress it with standard compression tools followed by interpret the plane text that is encased. ie unlike you state, it will not become obsolete, any more than html can. It is plain text with tags sorrounding it. At the very least you could always fire up notepad and get the important info out.