Translate.org.za - Civil Society Petition to Government on Free and Open Source Software and Open Content

Civil Society Petition to Government on Free and Open Source Software and Open Content

Translate.org.za is now a signatory to a petition to the Minister for Public Service & Administration urging Government to lead in the adoption of Open Source. The introduction to the petition reads:

We, South African civil society, petition you and our Government to adopt Free and Open Source software and open content wherever possible.
As a developing country, South Africa, along with all the countries on the African continent, needs you and our Government to act as agents of positive change in our society and trigger shifts in the information and communications technology market dynamics, in order to favour the supply of local ICT content, support, skills and service providers, and to reduce our longstanding dependence on imports and the negative effects created by this dependence.
We recognise that similar goals are set out in the black economic empowerment policies and charters adopted by Government and others. However we note here that those mechanisms are insufficient when it comes to the issue of software, other ICTs and content procurement, and therefore make this appeal to you to take a stronger, direct leadership role to the benefit of all.

Read the full text

We urge other members of civil society to support this effort. A level playing field is simply not enough. If Government supports Open Source, as they have stated in various documents and forums, then a proactive approach to driving this change must be lead by Government. If this does not happen then the fields may be level but they will still be unequal.

We as Translate.org.za also urge Government departments who undertake work that enables language, to strongly focus on Open Source so that all may benefit, not simply the elite who can afford computers.

Update - 4 Sep 2006: An introductory article has been added which raises some worrying statistics. The South African government spends almost R3 billion per annum on a single proprietary vendor. It also seems that Government's IT spending accounts for over 50% of the country's IT spending. Thus Government quite clearly has the buying power to radically reshape the current markets. Clearly they have set this direction and intent in various strategy documents. Civil society is thus correctly calling for action on this strategy for the benefit of all South Africans.

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