Archive for 'opensource'
Open source policy: back where we started
It's good to see the coordinated publication of departments' responses to the Programme For Government exercise - including the Cabinet Office's reponse on government transparency, which also covered the use of open source software: We are committed to the use of open standards and recognise that open source software offers government the opportunity of lower [...] read on »
Remember to say thank-you
A bit of a tricky moment this morning. As you might have spotted, Downing Street has launched an initiative asking 'public sector workers' to help the government find ways to implement the massive spending cuts proposed in Tuesday's budget 'in a way that is fair and responsible'. And as has become the norm for such [...] read on »
Gov websites to use open source ‘whenever possible’
In the response to a pretty innocuous parliamentary question from Tom Watson, new Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude makes a statement which could, on the face of it, be of monumental significance for UK e-government. The Government believe that departmental websites should be hubs for debate as well as information-where people come together to discuss [...] read on »
The PC/Mac battle has ended – in a draw
Last week, Puffbox Ltd invested in a Mac. Somehow I never quite saw myself as a Mac owner: a combination of the cost, the vendor lock-in, the slightly smug grins on Mac owners' faces - even when the kit failed, as it seems to do with unexpected frequency, judging by my Twitter stream. But my [...] read on »
Cabinet Office's open source fail
A PQ from Conservative shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what her policy is in respect of the installation and use of (a) Internet Explorer, (b) Firefox and (c) Opera website browsers by Government departments. To which Angela Smith replies: Government policy regarding installation and [...] read on »
French military's open-source collaboration
Now this is how open source is meant to work. In January 2007, the French defence ministry's Direction Générale de l'Armement began work (in association with BT) on a project called Milimail, to enhance Firefox's open-source cousin, the Thunderbird email client for military purposes. It's now known as Trustedbird - and lists among its additional [...] read on »
Government beefs up open source policy – a bit
A bit out of the blue, this morning saw a revision of the UK government's open source policy. And whilst it still doesn't quite endorse the notion that open source solutions are fundamentally better solutions, it does ratchet up the expectations. Last year's revision to the 2005 policy statement introduced a subtle - but, I [...] read on »
Tories publish leaked Govt IT strategy with WordPress
You might have seen coverage in the last few days of the Government's forthcoming ICT strategy - 'New world, new challenges, new opportunities' - which leaked out last week, and is due to be published next week to coincide with the Pre Budget Report. The first I saw of it was at UKAuthority.com, with follow-up [...] read on »
WordPress plugin: Robots.txt Reminder
I'm sure we've all done it. You're creating a new WordPress installation, and for a bit of privacy whilst you build the thing, you choose not to 'allow my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati'. But in the rush to get the site out the door, you forget to switch the [...] read on »
Why the fork does the BBC need its own jQuery?
Of course it's good news that the BBC's in-house Javascript library, Glow has been released as open source. It's a very respectable chunk of code, with some quite nice built-in widgetry. But why on earth should the BBC have its own Javascript library in the first place? Its 'lead product manager' - itself a worrying [...] read on »