Italian Public Administration gives priority to Open Source Software

The on-going debate regarding the use of free and open source software in the Italian Public Administration (PA) seems to be coming to a satisfactory conclusion. Italian public administrations are now obliged to give priority to free and open source software. This preference, however, cannot be given without a "comparative assessment". One of the tasks of the Agency is indeed to establish procedures and criteria that will help to justify their choices in the acquisition of computer programs.

...Public administrations in Italy and elsewhere in the European Union are expected to provide efficient services to businesses and citizens, to share software solutions, to discuss best practices, and to generally share their experiences. These are the goals of the Programme on Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA), a programme established by the European Commission...