The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) released a simple two page synopsis of their investigation into the use of FOSS in Federal Government agencies recently. They also have several interesting papers about FOSS on their Open Source software page. Some snippets include:
86% of agencies have a positive view of OSS and expect its usage to increase over the next 5 years
Agencies understand that by adopting OSS standards and solutions they could protect their investment in ICT systems, data and software
Agencies indicated their desire to be both vendor and format independent, with the high level of flexibility available to them by using OSS leading to an environment of innovation and transparency
And then the kicker:
OSS vendor support is perceived as problematic and was indicated as the biggest challenge facing OSS adoption by respondents.
Hopefully the soon to be released Census will help overcome the biggest challenge facing FOSS adoption in Government, and then 2008 will be a serious power year for FOSS in Australia 🙂 The report is due out in late February, and some teasers will be presented at linux.conf.au.