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Is Linux coming to Concord? NH lawmakers back 'open source software' and 'open data formats'
Posted by David Brooks | Sunday, February 5, 2012
There are so many interesting bills (or goofy ones, depending on your point of view) being considered by New Hampshire's massive legislature that it's easy to overlook something important. Case in point: I just discovered that both the NH House and Senate have passed HB418 (read it here), which says:
This bill requires state agencies to consider open source software when acquiring software and promotes the use of open data formats by state agencies. This bill also directs the commissioner of information technology to develop a statewide information policy based on principles of open government data.The bill reads like it was written by the state Linux Users Group - for example:
The acquisition and widespread deployment of open source software can significantly reduce the state’s costs of obtaining and maintaining software; open source software guarantees that its encoding of data is not tied to a single provider; open source software enables interoperability through adherence to open, platform-neutral standards;It doesn't actually mandate much - notably, it doesn't limit software spending to open-source projects - so it's hard to say whether it will come to anything. A similar push fizzled away in Massachusetts a few years ago. But if nothing else, it's an interesting application of the "live free or die" ethos.
Spotted via Slashdot.
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