Historically the Italian Public Sector has been pretty conservative to move toward open source adoption, but over the last two years many regional laws (PDF, Italian) and even the 2007 Italian Budget law paid special attention to free software.
Just one year ago the Italian Budget law considered open source as a favorable factor in assigning funds to sustain innovation by local public administrations.
A meme by ::MeMe::
Beatrice Magnolfi, undersecretary State for Public Administration Reform and Innovation, last year commented the law saying:
We do support Italian software industry growth, an archipelago of SMEs managed by young people, bringing innovation and creativity into the market.
She is perfectly right talking of “archipelagos” considering that the Italian ICT is highly fragmented (93,7 percent of ICT firms employ less than 9 employees), and I share her concern and interest toward small firms.
Speaking with senior public administrators and officers I found out that no one knew anything about those funds, and well informed voices say they have been allocated for different purposes.
No news good news? I doubt..
A Meme for Italian politicians: transparency pays, tell us the (open source) truth!
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