German government wants open standards and open source

The newly elected German government plans to support open standards and open source software. In its four-year coalition contract, the government led by chancellor Angela Merkel, writes it wants to orient its IT systems on open standards and include open source solutions.

Together with its sister party CSU and her liberal coalition partner (FDP), the government parties have constructed a 133 page coalition contract, which, in the chapter “Information and Media Society” declares intentions to expand e-Government by increasing electronic communication options for both citizens and enterprises.

It says, “The German government’s technical communication requires concentration, standardization, increased efficiency and a pooling of existing resources. Therefore we want to strengthen the government’s representative for Information Technology. We are examining at how the government’s IT can in the future orient itself on open standards, taking open source solutions into account.” Continue reading.