Desktop Summit - Berlin: EU member states' interoperability impossible without vendor independent PCs

Abstract

Europe’s public administrations are needlessly spending millions by not tackling their dependency on a single proprietary system for their desktop computers and office applications. This leads to suboptimal choices in licensing for and use of desktop software and desktop IT applications. In this talk I present unique data, collected over the past four years during my reporting on the EU’s public administration’s use of open source. This shows that the desktop PCs of Europe’s governments are completely locked-in to a single proprietary software vendor and how this results in reduced interoperability and data loss. I will discuss real solutions, put into practice by public administrations across the EU. Their experiences prove that a vendor-independent desktop PC is not only possible but that such a switch saves money and simultaneously offers civil administrations more choice in IT solutions, thereby helping them to improve their performance.

Gijs Hillenius

Context for Digital Government

Policy specialist on open source in public services, knowlegde transfer expert