The Greek region of Attica, encompassing Athens, is considering a switch to free and open source solutions. Representatives of the regional authority discussed the move with the Greek Free/Open Source Software society. GFOSS has offered to help modernise Attica’s ICT policies.

According to GFOSS’ community manager Vassilis Chryssos, the newly elected Syriza government could be a strong advocate of public administration’s use of free and open source solutions. “There seems to be political support for such a switch”, Chryssos says.

He points to Syriza’s policy statements, collected by GFOSS ahead of the elections.

In a statement, GFOSS says that Attica region’s deputy head Panagiotis Athanasiadis wants to proceed quickly and start replacing proprietary software solutions by free software alternatives. One of the reasons to involve GFOSS, is to minimise disruption, the group writes.

GFOSS represents 29 universities and research centres in Greece, and draws on a nation-wide network of free software enthusiasts and ICT-specialists, including ICT service providers. Public administrations moving to free software will nurture the country’s small and medium sized ICT business, the groups says.

The advocacy group expects that Attica’s switch to free software will encourage other public administrations in Greece to do the same.

Several public administrations in Greece use free and open source software. Examples include the Thessaloniki Urban Area, which is using for instance LibreOffice on most of its workstations. The municipality of Pilea-Hortiatis is using the same office suite, as is Kalamarià.

More information:

GFOSS statement (in Greek)