On Free Software in German Government

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>]

On Free Software in German Government

http://www.bundestux.de/english.html

The possibility is there!

A statement of various public persons concering the
introduction of free software into the German parliament
(Bundestag).

Since the end of last year, a heated public debate has been
led on which operating system should be used in the German
parliament for the coming years. The debate has been
especially important for it's relevance in the general
discussion about different concepts of software. Central to
the debate are the open source operating system Linux and
the currently market dominating system Windows, which -
being proprietary - hides its source code from the public.

The signatories of this declaration have, due to the
following arguments, come to the opinion, that to ensure
economic competition, promote creative potential, secure the
open market and generally re-emphasize the democratic
aspects of German society, the German parliament would do
well to support the introduction of free software as a
prominent move towards the shaping of a new open society in
the coming century. Other arguments for open source systems
such as improved security, cost efficency and flexibility
have not been taken into our considerations, since they have
already been stressed enough during the debate of the last
year.

Economic competition and the open market

Our declaration does not wish to concentrate on the abstract
question of whether open source or proprietary software is
better, but wants to ask, quite concretely, whether German
parliament should continue to use the onesided combination
of the Microsoft operating system, its internet browser,
email client and the Microsoft office suite, or whether
alternatives are to be given a chance. Microsoft currently
does not only control the usage of computers in the German
parliament, but also has a market share of more than 90% -
an absolutely dominating position in Germany. We believe
that, in a free market economy, it is the state's duty to
prevent the development of monopolies and to grant the
possiblity of real competition. The public signal of
introducing alternative software in such a prominent
institution as parliament would be an easy and practicable
step in the direction of a more open market. While although
free software is not in itself a warrant for free
competition, in today' situation there seems to be no other
alternative to insure practicable and save information
technology equipment for the legislative.

Democracy

The democratic political bodies of the Federal Republic of
Germany need to be reminded to continue to stick to their
democratic principles within the secondary field of
politics. Civic supervision and improvement of software by
the general public is only possible using free software, due
to its openly accessible source code. Short term disclosure
of source codes - as offered by Microsoft - can only remain
patchwork. The extensive and decentralised work of many
programmers using free software has been the secret for it's
market competability today.

The democratic aspect cannot be reduced to its mere
increased security and flexibility, but is much more the
expression of an extended understanding of democracy,
encompassing economic and scientific progress. It therefore
seems to us the duty of a democratic state to support the
use of open source systems.

The unhindered access of all citizens to public knowledge
and the public domain can - rationally and cost efficiently
- only be realized with free software. All interested
parties, regardles of their financial capabilities, should
be able to truly participate in all online procedures.

Local advantages of Free software

The usage of free software in the public domain has come to
play an ever larger role worldwide. Just some examples from
the press:

South Korea just ordered 120.000 open source office
solutions and is looking to save up to 80% of previous
costs. 

Great Britain plans the mandatory introduction of open
source software in the public sector. 

The development of secure software with openly accessible
source codes plays a central role within the EU commision's
IT initiative "e-europe". 

Germany should not miss out on this development. We feel,
that the further introduction and distribution of open
source operating systems will play an important part in the
economic development of Germany in the future.

With an eye on the situation, open source systems are the
most attractive investment Germany can make. We therefore
clearly state:

The possibility is there ! Open Source Systems from Desktop
to Server 

  I support this statement: 

name:  
email:  
company / organisation:  
city/state: