Renewed policy emphasises sharing and reuse of IT solutions

The government of the autonomous region of Galicia (Spain) will continue to encourage the use of free and open source software solutions in the public and private sector. This week, the government published the ‘Free Software Plan 2017’, outlining 110 actions.

In its ‘Plan de acción software libre 2017’, Galicia announces new initiatives to promote sharing and reuse of ICT solutions. The government is to share new software solutions, but will also emphasise the reuse of existing tools, pointing to Mancomún, the region’s software repository, the catalogue maintained by the Spanish central government’s Centre for Technology Transfer, and to the European Commission’s Joinup eGovernment portal.

The region announced the continued development and sharing of free software in the areas of industry, agriculture, healthcare, social services and education.

Amtega, the Agency for Technological Modernization of Galicia, will continue to advise and assist public administrations that are using or interested in using free software. Amtega maintains a free software resource centre, which provides training and consultancy services for the public and private sector.

The action plan reveals that Galicia’s switch to LibreOffice at several central government services and ministries will be finalised this year. On at least 6,000 workstations, LibreOffice will be the only office productivity suite.

Similar to the free software action plans of previous years, many of the actions are to be carried out with IT services providers and free software advocacy groups. The region has earmarked EUR 125,000 for activities involving the Galician association of free software companies (Agasol), the University of Galicia and others.

More information:

Free Software Plan 2017 (PDF, in Galician)

Announcement by the government of Galicia (in Spanish and Galician)