Dear all,
we have recently sent over to you a draft proposal for a Public appeal
in favour of Open Standards, of Free software and of LibreOffice, for
the entire structure of European public administration, and we were
requesting for an official endorsement from the TDF Board.
As we have not heard anything yet and the DFD approaches quickly, I
would like to present, once,more, the final (revisited) version of this
document and renew our request for a rapid approval.
/_*Open proposal/ Public appeal to all European Governments*_/:
Your Excellencies Prime Ministers, Heads of State of all European countries and
Honourable Members of the European Parliament,
We, as European citizens, are living through an unprecedented period of
economic recession and a European debt crisis, in which some European
countries have undoubtedly been involved quite deeply. We believe that
by making this Open Proposal public, we are substantially contributing
to a more efficient management of our common European problems. As
supporters of Free Software and Open Standards, we noticed that over the
last decade, incautious mistakes were committed in this field, like
thechoice to *c
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=eltl=enjs=nprev=_thl=elie=UTF-8layout=2eotf=1u=http://www.minfin.gr/portal/en/resource/contentObject/id/d16589bf-bc25-47bb-920a-b61598724b95ommit
an entire state administration
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=eltl=enjs=nprev=_thl=elie=UTF-8layout=2eotf=1u=http://www.minfin.gr/portal/en/resource/contentObject/id/d16589bf-bc25-47bb-920a-b61598724b95
*to a proprietary office suite, conceding to a single company
exclusionary procurement deals, with the right to become the sole
supplier for all public services.
The best protection for our society is freedom itself
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/my_pubs/lu-21.pdf, which is not a
source of weakness but rather a source of strength. Free Software is the
only way to ensure that governments actually control their own data and
processes, including critical infrastructures. Free software means that
the users (including state agencies) are free to run, change, and
redistribute when they wish. Due to the availability of its source code,
free software can offer major advantages to all services in the public
sector:
As other illustrious people
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Use_of_free_software_in_public_agencies
have stated in the past, it is important to make it clear that the aim
of our proposal is not directly related to the amount of direct savings
that can, indeed, be made by using free software in state institutions.
That is, in any case, a marginal added value, which even though it will
rightly please all European citizens and Finance ministers alike, but in
no way is it the chief focus of our appeal. The basic principles
inspiring this proposal are linked to the basic guarantees which should
be at the basis of every European state of law:
To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is
indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single
provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this
free access.
To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the
usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the
goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by
them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which
can be guaranteed thanks to the availability of the source code.
To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is
indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow
control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to
third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public
are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the
citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the
world. Unrestricted access to the source code will eliminate the growing
number of programmes with *backdoors* and *spy code*.
Open Standards in public administration are still the rare exception. In
the proprietary world, which is still the norm in many governments,
generally only one vendor can provide software, that will be able to
access those data and processes
https://fsfe.org/projects/igf/sovsoft.en.html.
*With this public appeal we are calling for adoption of Open Standards,
implementation of Free Software and use of the free Office suite LibreOffice,
to be carried out within a 5-year time schedule, in ALL European public
services. It is crucial to demonstrate the necessary political will,
introducing decisive regulations to this direction*.
At times like these, any failure on your part to take political action,
will inevitably be interpreted as a grave insult by all European
citizens, who are already making heavy sacrifices.
We consider the introduction of Free Software and Open Standards, an
ethical, practical and economical imperative for
