Birmingham City Council is to carry out large-scale
trials to evaluate the viability of open source software on its
desktop PCs.
The council has secured government funding to run 1,500 PCs
using the Linux operating system with Openoffice applications and
Firefox web browsers. The open source trial will include
public-facing PCs in libraries as well as those used to access core
systems in council offices.
Glyn Evans, director of business solutions and IT at the
council, said he was keeping an open mind going into the trials. “I
don’t have any desire to use open source just because it is not
Microsoft,” he said. “I am not sold on open source software
personally. I think the case has to be made. We need to cut through
the hype from that community and cut through the cynicism from
Microsoft.”
The council is investigating whether an open source desktop
could produce efficiency savings and help contribute toward the
Gershon agenda - which outlines plans for efficiency savings - in
local government.
The Open Source Consortium, funded by the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister, will provide the council’s funding, running into
hundreds of thousands of pounds, said Evans.
The trial will last a year, and there will be an independent
evaluation at the end. “We will measure costs, both initial and
ongoing. We will look at the costs of retraining end users and IT
staff,” said Evans.
“Productivity will also be measured – does open source
technology make people more or less productive? We will also look
at integration costs. Overall we want to find out if there is a
sound business case for the open source desktop.”
Meanwhile, public sector IT directors’ organisation Socitm has
produced research on attitudes to open source software in local
government. It surveyed 99 local authorities and found that more
than half were using open source software somewhere in their IT
department. The vast majority were using the technology in
applications and infrastructure, while only 8% were using it on
the
desktop.
Meanwhile, 60% of councils questioned thought their use of open
source software would increase over the next three years.
Evans said there was growing interest in open source in local
government. “Even if we did not have funding for this desktop
evaluation project we would be looking at open source in the back
office,” he added.