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Proposal for a Network of International Cooperation between public administrations and free software

Slightly over a year ago, on the 18th of May 2004, Barcelona was the scene of the signature of the Barcelona Declaration for the Advance of Free Software. This Declaration was signed by Manuel Castells, Vinton Cerf, Marcelo D'Elia Branco, Juantomás García, Jesús M. González Barahona, Pekka Himanen, Miguel de Icaza, Rafael Macau, Jordi Mas, David Megías, Òscar del Pozo and Pam Samuelson.

The objective of this manifesto was to make the importance of the historical context of free software clear, together with the challenges and opportunities that it involves. These were classified into seven different areas: academic, technical, strategic, legal, social, volunteer-related and institutional.

The part aimed at institutions specifically refers to the following points:

“Stimulating the use and development of free platforms and open source within the public administrations guarantees better interoperability of information systems, the possibility of audits of program source codes in order to protect data security and confidentiality, the independence of distributors to stimulate competitiveness and the reduction of software licence costs.

Moreover, free software contributes to the development of a software industry in the region, replacing the transfer of royalties to outside the region in the form of licence payments with service contracts based on the new model of business brought about by free software. This fact is an incentive for new businesses and for the creation of new skilled jobs, making the most of the local knowledge that is available.

For this reason, among others, different governments on all of the continents are developing public policies in this area. However, we must be inspired by the logic behind the main reason for the success of the free software community and we must stimulate cooperation between the different administrations, with the aim of reducing development costs and sharing our experiences.

To this end, we propose the creation of a network of international cooperation between public administrations, establishing institutional relations with third sector organisations (including NGO’s), communities of free software developers, universities, bodies of the United Nations and the private sector, in order to attain these objectives.”

One year after its publication, we would like to highlight the interest and the acceptance on the part of the public administrations in different parts of the world of the need to work together to disseminate, stimulate, develop and promote free software as one of the most important tools society has to help it to transmit knowledge.

The first step was taken on the 6th of last June, when the following institutions met in Barcelona:

  • Marcelo d’Elia Branco, signatory to the Declaration of Barcelona and coordinator of the “Free Software Brazil Project”
  • The Prefecture of Rio das Ostras COMSOLI (Consortium of Municipalities for Free Solutions)
  • The Prefecture of São Paulo, responsible for the telecentre network of that city
  • The Government of Venezuela
  • The United Nations Development Plan for Bogotá (Colombia)
  • The Ministry for Public Administration
  • The Government of Majorca
  • The Community of Madrid
  • The Basque Government
  • The Government of Valencia
  • The Andalusian Government
  • The Extremadura Government
  • Localret (Local consortium for the development of communications networks and new technologies, which currently groups together almost 800 of the 946 municipalities of Catalonia)
  • Barcelona City Council
  • Sant Bartomeu del Grau Town Council
  • The COSPA project
  • The FOBSIC (Observatory Foundation for the Information Society of Catalonia) and
  • The Government of Catalonia, as the meeting’s organiser.

For this reason, the creation of an international working group of public administrations was proposed in order to debate and work on free software, with the following objectives as its starting point:

  • To come up with a unified discourse in order to position the free software debate and alternative within the framework of the World Summit on the Information Society which will be held in Tunisia next November.
  • To study in greater depth the political debate and the legislative frameworks. In this respect, the European software patent directive is of particular concern, as if it is passed it could be lethal for the development and the consolidation of free software.
  • To promote and coordinate a second meeting within the framework of the Network of Local Authorities for the Information Society (IT4ALL) in Bilbao in November, where the creation of a network of international cooperation between public administrations will be proposed, within which it will be possible to debate and make political progress concerning free software.
  • To promote interrelation between administrations on a north-south basis.
  • To invite other public administrations to participate in the debates on the creation of the network, aimed particularly at local administrations.
  • To highlight the joint work of the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Andalusia as examples of excellence in work and collaboration.
  • To make the most of the line of work initiated by the MAP (Ministry for Public Administration) towards the use of free software, together with its useful position within the European Union’s IDABC project.
  • To encourage the coordination of projects and technical recommendations, with the intention of:
    • Promoting technological debate and including in it other concepts such as open standards, licences, patents, technological neutrality, development and innovation.
    • Promoting the creation of platforms for exchanging information, documentation, applications, etc. which provide access to contacts and resources and save time.
    • Promoting social debate and its main economic consequences concerning free software, with special emphasis on the development of regional economies.
    • Promoting training and education with and in free software as a vehicle for the Knowledge Society.

The Government of Catalonia has undertaken the task of providing a motor for this network in the coming months, together with consolidating its work and reaching the objectives set in the meeting held in Barcelona.

Barcelona, 6th June 2005

FOBSIC