Open source and politics in the UK

[keithpeter]

Hello all

http://www.order-order.com/2007/03/open-source-osborne.html

Guido is a somewhat cheeky and very biassed commentator on politics in the United Kingdom. He has just posted an article about open source and the attempts by various people to get the UK Government to take OSS seriously as an alternative to commercial software.

Many of his readers may never of heard of Open Source, and so this is a chance to take the idea to a new market so to speak.

Has anyone got any other examples of mainstream political debate on OSS?

[floke]

(Un?)fortunately it doesn't matter what Osborne thinks. He's got as much chance of ever becoming Chancellor as a potato.

There's a fair amount going on in terms of OSS in the UK though, although it's mostly at the local level. There's a current debate going on about the role of BECTA and the education system, although I don't expect anything dramatic to happen anytime soon. Central government used to be a lot more 'Linux-friendly' until Mr Blair and Mr Gates got to know each other. You do know that Gates got an honourary knighthood?

[keithpeter]

I like potatoes :-)

Seriously, many UK FE Colleges are beginning to use server side OSS (Moodle, ELGG) and some software (e.g. Audacity for sound recording).

I'm not aware of any FE Colleges using OSS clients, but I would be delighted if there is an example.

The point I was making is that Guido's blog does get eyeballs.