93 wiersze
3.8 KiB
HTML
93 wiersze
3.8 KiB
HTML
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<html newsdate="2010-08-02">
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<head>
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<title>German ministries flout IT open interoperability requirements</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>German ministries flout IT open interoperability requirements</h1>
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<h2>Survey finds only 2 of 87 departments are conforming to federal open
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document regulations</h2>
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<p newsteaser="yes">Research published by FSFE this week suggests that the majority
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of federal government departments in Germany are ignoring requirements to
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implement <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/activities/os/def.en.html">Open
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Standards</a>.</p>
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<p>A survey was conducted by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) to
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investigate the state of government adoption of ODF, and to promote wider
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uptake of Open Standards. "Although federal policy has wisely embraced Open
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Standards for interoperability, accessibility and security, it is clear that
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most government bodies are still using inefficient proprietary formats" said
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Karsten Gerloff, President of FSFE. "Ultimately citizens will end up paying
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the
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price for this lack of conformity through higher bills for public IT
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contracts,
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and slower services due to interoperability problems" he added. "They
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will also pay a price in freedom, as they are forced to use
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proprietary software and standards to communicate with government
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authorities".</p>
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<p>Since the beginning of 2010, the German Information Technology Council
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(Rat der IT-Beauftragten) has required state departments to support Open
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Document Format (ODF) in order to communicate with the growing number of
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individuals and organisations that use it. The policy, which is based upon the
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findings of the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee - a panel of experts
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from the federal
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administration, requires that departments have the capacity to read, write
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and
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send ODF files.</p>
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<p>When 87 letters were sent to the ministries challenging them to
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demonstrate
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their conformance by replying in the open format, only two of them replied
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in
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ODF as requested. The Chancellor's Office and the Ministry of Food,
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Agriculture
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and Consumer Protection (BMELV) were the sole respondents to use the correct
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format. Five other federal bodies responded: all of whom underlined the
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importance of Open Standards to them. Despite claiming that they were
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ODF capable however, instead used other non-ODF formats for their
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response.</p>
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<p>Usage of ODF continues to grow in public institutions throughout the
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world, and is already officially approved in ten separate national standards
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organisations, in addition to being the mandatory standard for
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communication between NATO's 26 member states. "The Chancellor's Office and
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BMELV have set an example for Open Standards in public administration"
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concluded Matthias Kirschner, German Coordinator of FSFE, "but overall there
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is clearly a long way to go before practice meets policy for ODF in the German
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public sector".</p>
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<p>FSFE shall continue to monitor ODF uptake in order to ensure the
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protection of German citizens' right to communicate using Free
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Software.</p>
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<p>The seven bodies that participated in the survey were:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Bundeskanzleramt (The Chancellor's Office)</li>
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<li>Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und
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Verbraucherschutz (BMELV)</li>
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<li>Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) Bundesforschungsinstitut für
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Kulturpflanzen</li>
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<li>Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung</li>
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<li>Bundesministerium des Innern</li>
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<li>Bundespräsidialamt</li>
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<li>Der Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die
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Informationsfreiheit</li>
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</ol>
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</body>
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</html>
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