The launch event was also attended by Barbara Held, seconded national expert for e-government services at the European Commission. She insisted that the Commission is committed to encouraging software interoperability and open standards.
Held said: "I'm very sorry, there is no official open-source strategy. There is one for internal use. But going out to member states, there is no viewpoint."
"In the Commission, you will find people who are very distrustful of open source, and also open-source evangelists."
The Commission has recently faced controversy over a report it commissioned on open-source software, which calculated the positive impact open source could have on the European economy. Some industry observers suggested that the Commission's stance on open source might be changing, while the Commission denies any bias.
Held added that: "We promote the use of open source in public administrations", saying it was an important part of her department's mission. "Open source is a key element in interoperability and open standards. We want freedom of choice. And we might get better [quality] code.
"The National Open Centre is important because there is a lot of potential in that market. It is not only about governments. It is about information, and the dissemination of good practice. The more people know about open source, the more likely they are to implement it."
Talkback
Before accepting Noc's conceited claim as a 'landmark unique programme' or the 'national focal point' for the debate around open source, it's worth looking at the track record for each founding partner:
1) NCC - retired their Open Source Lab in 2006 in favour of a Microsoft / Dell sponsored Proof-of-Concept laboratory (see press release at http://tinyurl.com/35c73a).
2) Birmingham City Council - initially pursued ambitious plans for an 'Open Desktop' in Birmingham's Central Library. Despite the best intentions of library staff, their plans were scuppered by the amateurism of the Council's IT department. BCC spent £500,000 on deploying OpenOffice and Firefox on a handful of Windows desktops (see http://tinyurl.com/2smsm2).
3) OpenAdvantage - funded by the same regional development agency behind Noc, OpenAdvantage's impact on the adoption of open source in the region has been limited to distributing branded merchandise at Linux World and running Joomla! courses.
4) University of Central England - a curious institution largely responsible for forming OpenAdvantage.
5) Digital Birmingham - an initiative set up by Birmingham City Council and BT that brings with it no obvious open source expertise.
6) Open Forum Europe - tellingly not referred to in the publicity around Noc but known by many industry insiders as the key driving force behind the scheme. Backed by numerous proprietary software vendors, Open Forum Europe first came to prominence in 2003 when they signed an industry resolution calling for the EU to allow software patents. After claiming to represent the open source community's view on the subject they incurred the public wrath of Bruce Perens (http://tinyurl.com/b3gc) and Michael Tienmann (http://tinyurl.com/2t4f3j). Since then Open Forum Europe have secured public funding for projects such as the Open Source Academy (failed) and ToFE (failing).
The motivations for Noc are opaque and can be only speculated. But with the rather lacklustre launch of ToFE's 'Certified Open' scheme still a vague memory I, for one, don't believe in coincidences. Perhaps Noc is to Certified Open what the OEM is to Microsoft Vista - a mechanism for forcing an unnecessary but potentially very profitable 'upgrade' on an unsuspecting public?
John Pugh's comment is well noted:
"Open source has its enemies and its enemies are very close to government. They are very close to the top of governments and they are intending to stay there"
Unfortunately, sometimes enemies pose as friends.
The founders of the 'National' 'Open' Centre are:
Birmingham City Council - what motive could they possibly have other than the promotion of 'Open Source', after all they are well know for successful projects and for a report highlighting it's benefits.
NCC - whose 'Open Source Lab' quietly dropped from view after the Microsoft and Dell sponsored lab took it's place. Surely a coincidence.
OpenAdvantage - The running out of its funding is surely just another coincidence.
Many organisations will welcome the founding of this new 'national' initiative. Becta and the BBC will not be the only ones.
Strong opinions from ZDNet's readers here. It looks like several of you have concerns about some underlying issues affecting the National Open Centre. We'll be keeping a close eye on some of those concerns.
It's also interesting to see the number of times readers have clicked the cross at the foot of the article. We're interested in knowing why this is. Is it because you think there's more to explore with this story, or did you not like the story itself? Or is it picture stories that you don't like?
We'll be following the National Open Centre as it tries to expand through 2007, and any feedback you have we'll bear in mind when we write the next story update.