

All of Iceland's public administrations moving towards open source - rbanffy
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/all-icelands-public-administrations-moving-towards-open-source

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edwinnathaniel
Here's the link to the actual Government policy:
[http://eng.forsaetisraduneyti.is/media/English/Free_and_Open...](http://eng.forsaetisraduneyti.is/media/English/Free_and_Open_Source_Software_-
_Government_Policy_of_Iceland.pdf)

I think the PDF provides more information as to why they are doing this as
opposed to the HN link which just stated that "we're moving to Open Source"
without explaining the "why".

~~~
arihelgason
This point regarding education is interesting:

 _free and open-source software provides teaching opportunities that do not
exist with proprietary software, since the background functions of free and
open-source software, including its characteristics and programming, can be
revealed to students. In these respects, free and open-source software is
better suited to arousing interest in computer programming and information
technology than proprietary software, where its use is all that can be
taught._

The other points from the report:

1\. When purchasing new software, free and open-source software and
proprietary software are to be considered on an equal footing, with the object
of always selecting the most favourable purchase.

2\. Every endeavour shall be made to choose software based on open standards,
regardless of whether the software in question is standard or bespoke (custom-
designed). Generally, software which is free for anyone to use is also
typified by open standards.

3\. Public bodies shall endeavour to avoid any undue dependence on particular
software manufacturers or service providers. The utilisation of free and open-
source software is one means of this.

4\. One goal for bespoke (custom-designed) software financed by public bodies,
including software for research and development projects, should be its
reusability. Keeping the software free and open-source is one way to achieve
reusability. Strategies shall be devised at the outset of such projects for
ensuring reuse of the software.

5\. Students in Icelandic educational institutions shall be given the
opportunity of learning about and using free and open-source software on a par
with proprietary software

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nextparadigms
Iceland seems to be doing a lot of things right lately: declaring bankruptcy
instead of bailing out the banks, ensuring Internet freedom, allowing feedback
from their own citizens on their laws/Constitution, and now moving the public
administrations to open source.

If only more countries took them as a role model.

~~~
HerraBRE
I'm Icelandic, and although I love my country... I am wary of the spin put on
some of these things. A lot of the events that followed the crash were pure
luck or even incompetence - I suspect the government would have liked to prop
up the banks, but just failed to do so. :-)

But these moves towards Free Software are on the other hand genuine, as are a
lot of the grass-roots efforts (I know many of the people involved personally
and have helped out with a couple of related projects).

These changes are also very fragile still, it's early days and one wonders
what would happen if Microsoft decided this was P.R. problem and decided to
throw money at trying to make "the problem" go away.

~~~
nickik
As I understand it they wanted to save the banks but then the gov changed and
the new guys didn't want to.

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dr_boozy
Hey all, I'm currently living in iceland and was asked by the fsfi here
(icelandic fsf equivalent) to point ppl to the newer announcement at
[http://www.ut.is/media/utvefur/adgerdaaaetlun_fyrir_innleidi...](http://www.ut.is/media/utvefur/adgerdaaaetlun_fyrir_innleidingu_frjals_og_opins_hugbunadar_lokaskil.pdf)
. Also we're holding the Reykjavik Digital Freedom Conference (www.rdfc.is) at
the end of the month if you're looking for an excuse to visit. We'd love to
meet you.

~~~
HerraBRE
Clickable: <http://rdfc.is/>

------
kls
I almost immigrated to Iceland when I was young, somewhere around 19, I was
living out in New Orleans and looking for something else. I ended up coming
back home to Florida but a buddy and I where literally hours away from going
when we decided to take a different path. I always thought about what would be
if I had, as it was the only time I thought about tying to become a citizen of
a different nation, with what Iceland has been doing with their government
since the economic collapse I have thought about it more and more. I really
like the way they are heading and think it will be a great place to live with
all the changes they are making. If I where a younger man making the same
decision now, I probably would have made the trip as I think there efforts to
clean up their government and financial institutions will reward them for
years to come.

~~~
davidw
The way you write, it's not entirely clear whether you actually went there or
not. Moving someplace you've never been is generally not a good idea if you
can help it. According to wikipedia, the highest recorded temperature, ever,
was 30.5 C. That would just not cut it for me.

~~~
kls
_Moving someplace you've never been is generally not a good idea if you can
help it_

I have more bad ideas than good, of that I am sure, but whether bad or good
they are always an adventure. You would have to know me on a personal level to
understand that I am a guy that lives a minute away from making a decision
that fundamentally changes my life. I may choose to move to China tomorrow and
by the end of the week I will be these. It's just the way I am, that being
said, I am a little more settled now, as I am married and have children and I
have to contain my nature. But I will say, in all my life, I have never
regretted the times I packed my bags in the middle of the night and
fundamentally changing my life, by the time the sun shined. I have however
regretted the choices that I thought about and never made, as I am left with
the wonder lust of what could have been.

~~~
davidw
I understand picking up and moving all too well, but citizenship is a Long
Term kind of deal.

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fjarlq
I think it's interesting and good that Iceland is doing this. But the first
thing I wonder is how many people does it affect?

Some perspective:

Iceland's population is about 320,000.

Iceland has 103,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Kentucky, or a bit
less than a third the size of Germany.

Their GDP is about $12 billion (per capita $36,000). The smallest GDP among US
states is Vermont at $26.4B (but then Vermont has about twice the number of
people). A bit less than Jamaica (though Jamaica has 2.8 million people).

 _[For what it's worth, I'm descended from Icelanders and have twice visited
there. I love it.]_

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skrebbel
My underbelly feeling says that this isn't very unique, nor novel (still good,
though!)

Admittedly I don't know the details, but I'm pretty sure that in the
Netherlands a large amount of government levels have guidelines in place that
state that 'if quality is equal, the open-source alternative must be chosen'.

Companies such as Zarafa (open-source alternative to MS Exchange) have been
able to grow and sustain themselves in their early years much thanks to these
guidelines.

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itstaken007
I have this new HP dm1 laptop running Linux (Ubuntu). It was really eye-
opening when my wife said "I will never use Windows again!". The thing is I
didn't evangelize about Linux at all. I just said: "This is the OS we'll use
for such and such reasons". She loved it after a while. The problem with
suspend/resume, right-click not working, and the computer getting slower after
a while is a bit of a nuisance though...

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why-el
This also has ramifications for government inner workings, if carried right.
Imagine if this extends to pretty much all branches of government, and you can
actually inspect all the code. It cannot get more open than that.

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itstaken007
makes sense

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toddnessa
I have found that open source software is often far better in quality than
other products that you would pay big dollars to buy. I am an Ubuntu user and
an Open Office user. I found the way that the way my computer ran with a
Windows operating system was horrible. The hard-drives were spinning hard all
the time. I felt that with every automatic update that my computer would run
worse and worse. When I switched my computers ran better and cooler.

Open Office has been a staple for me and has been great office software that I
use daily. VYM mind maps have been a blessing to me as well and very
frequently use it. Moodle was something I used while in business school as
some of the professors on campus required using it for submitting projects and
for working with a group.

Open source software and Apple products are really all I use anymore. Also, I
would rather use a server running on Ubuntu than one that runs Windows. My
feeling is that free and open innovation is something worth supporting.

