Comments on: Open Source, UK Gov. & Institutional Profligacy

By: Update on UK Gov’s Institutional Profligacy | The Open Sourcerer

Update on UK Gov’s Institutional Profligacy | The Open Sourcerer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:21:42 +0000

[...] how it seemed that saving money was not being encouraged by our civil servants. I discussed it in this blog post: Phil Pavitt, recently-appointed CIO for HM Revenue and Customs, has revealed that attempts to cut [...]

By: Links 20/2/2010: Ubuntu 10.04 Gets New Appearance, Jacobsen vs Katzer Victory | Boycott Novell

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:14:53 +0000

[...] Open Source, UK Gov. & Institutional Profligacy As you will probably know, I have a vested interest in seeing the Cabinet Office’s Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use Action Plan[pdf] implemented in full and as quickly as possible. The comment above however, coming from deep within the halls of power, is a clear indication that there seems to be little appetite to drive this Action Plan into, ahem, action. [...]

By: Steve South

Steve South — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:25:59 +0000

I think the autohr got it partly wong, but it is even worse. First it wasn’t the Cabinet Office, Phil Pavitt/HMRC corrected tat error. It was OGC? These arethe peoplke who set procurement policy and these ae the people who tell procurement experts what to do. OGC should be closeddown. Any supplir who tries to do work with Government come across the idiots in OGC. Ask the conservatives if they will close OGC

Steve

By: Andy Loughran :: General Election Year - 2010

Andy Loughran :: General Election Year - 2010 — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:50:52 +0000

[...] I do to a man driving up and down the M6 trailing a giant billboard. Nor would I like to see the Institutional Profligacy of some politicians continue with the need for budget cuts and a decrease in [...]

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:21:37 +0000

That’s a really interesting service. I’d hope that Canada would adopt a similar system so I could write to my MP. Oh way, our government is currently prorogued for the second time…

I appreciate your efforts Alan. Keep it up.

By: Dan Fish

Dan Fish — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:35:58 +0000

The civil service in all departments seems to be all about empire building. I suspect this has always been the case and will continue to do so, even though as a nation, at this time of economic doom, we desperately need to mitigate costs within the public sectors and strip out unnecessary ‘back room’ staff and ill advised/executed IT projects etc Connecting for Health.

The Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use Action Plan is welcomed but unlikely to be enforced. Only if Open Source becames the prefered solution rather than ‘must be considered’, will OSS truly have a chance to make a difference. Until then “Institutional Profligacy” (copyright Alan Lord) and the marketing might of the proprietary software vendors, OSS is going to struggle in HMG and the public sectors.