Khmer Software Initiative

In the “eEurope — An Information Society for All” (June 2000) it noted that “during 2001 the European Commission and Member States will promote the use of open source software in the public sector and eGovernment best practice through exchange of experiences across the Union (through the IST and IDA programmes)”.

The European Commission released a report “Pooling Open-Source Software” to address cost savings by sharing software on an open source licensing basis. European administrations should share software on an open source licensing basis, to cut soaring eGovernment information technology costs. The study recommends creating a clearing house where public sector software applications can be donated for re-use and could encourage the replication of good practices in eGovernment.

In August 2003, the European Commission initiated an effort for “Encouraging good practice in the use of open source software in public administrations”. The initiative will primarily focus on the development of national and regional open source competence centers to facilitate the exchange of information about opportunities and risks associated with open source software.

In October 2003, the European Commision’s “Interchange of Data Between Administrations (IDA) Open Source Migration Guidelines” noted that “There are many reasons for Administrations to migrate to OSS. These include: the need for open standards for e-Government; the level of security that OSS provides; the elimination of forced change; the cost of OSS. All these benefits result in far lower IT costs.