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Extremadura Regional Government of Spain will switch to Debian GNU/Linux and ODF on all the computers



Extremadura Regional Government of Spain will switch to Debian GNU/Linux and ODF on all the computers


All the computers of the Junta of Extremadura (goverment state of Spain) will
be running free software within a year. This project makes the Regional
Government the first Public Administration to adopt standards upheld by
international organizations, that favour "technological innovation and the
reduction of user dependency."

The councillor said during his speech for the press...

The councillor for Infrastructures and Technological Development, Luis Millán
de Vázquez de Miguel, met the press this Friday to inform about the agreements
reached in the last board meeting of the Government held last June 25. In said
meeting, it was agreed that all the computers of the Junta of Extremadura
would have to be adapted to free software office tools and gnuLinEx (the local
flavour of Debian GNU/Linux) within one year.

Thus, as from now on, all workers of the public administration must use open
document formats (ISO/IEC DIS 26300)  for their office applications for
information and creating administrative processes, as well as PDF/A (Portable
Document Format ISO 19005-1:2005) for Exchange Documents, when guaranteed
unalterable visualization is required.

Vázquez de Miguel underlined the fact that the Junta de Extremadura "is
the first Public Administration to adopt these standards" and that all the
international organizations related to ITCs agree that this is the most
important step towards "technological innovation, the reduction of user,
company and public administration dependency on proprietary, non-compatible
applications, and the increment of interoperability between systems and
applications on a global scale."

The councillor explained that a version gnuLinEx, adapted for the public
administration, will be established as the obligatory operating system in
workplaces of the civil servants of the Junta and that the OS will be
gradually introduced to all administrative organizations of the Junta de
Extremadura.

The deadline for the plan "is one year counting from the date the agreement is
approved", Vázquez de Miguel said, and he added that at the end of the period,
all the computer work carried out by the civil servants of the Junta must be
done so on the GnuLinEx operating system and that all additional software must
be open source or be distributed under a free license.

"This is an important initiative that the Junta de Extremadura has been
working on for a long time, accumulating experience and analysing the impact
on our organisation so as to guarantee its success", the councillor declared.
He underlined the fact that the agreement will have "a profound impact".

According to Millan, there are a number of advantages of switching to free
software and even more when used by the Public Administration, with important
consequences.

Amongst others, the councillor pointed out the long life of documents, which
will guarantee the conservation of all the administrative documents for longer
periods of time. It will also improve the relationship with the general public
due to the fact that, by conforming to standards and free software, the public
is not obliged to acquire proprietary software. According to de Millan, free
software also improves security, autonomy and rationalises public spending.

In this respect, the councillor pointed out that adopting free software will
allow the administration to "not be so exposed to the tensions of enforced
migrations", allow the administration to be have a say in the choice of the
applications and reduce the economic costs of support.

There is also a plan of migration support that is being prepared at the
General Direction of Telecommunications and Networks, which addresses issues
for system administrators and computer managers of each Council, that offers a
wide range of information and allows to develop communication tasks amongst
employees and adaptation training processes.

The Junta has also received collaboration offers, for example from El Corte
Inglés through their Expert Center (including a cooperation agreement signed
by the Junta de Extremadura and the computing division of El Corte Inglés),
Intel, and other large companies, such as Bull Espańa S.A. "with which we have
especially interesting agreements" due to the large body of practical
knowledge this project is going to generate and its application to other
administration and organisations.

For the future, Vázquez de Miguel has announced that at the end of August the
project will be presented un New York at the United Nations. A month later, it
will also be presented in "The City of Knowledge" of Panama and in other
related countries.

Background

The Council of Infrastructure and Technological Development carries out,
within its area of competence, The Global Project for the Society of
Information and Knowledge of Extremadura, the aim of which is to guarantee the
universal access of the citizens of Extremadura to new technologies and
communications so as to improve their quality of life.

According to the councillor for Infrastructures and Technological Development,
Luis Millán Vázquez de Miguel, the year 2002 signified a change in development
of the project when gnuLinEx was created and used as general-purpose operating
system for public education in the Autonomous Region of Extremadura. "A
software that has evolved the technical aspects and the implementation of
computer standards, backed up by European institutions and international
standardization organisations", remarks Vázquez de Miguel.

The councillor highlights the fact that the situation of free software in the
region has had "strong influences" in international press, which have been
following what has been happening in the region, covering matters related to
the application of the information society.

He also points out that, in the area of the public administration, "we in the
middle of the development what we call the Modernization, Simplification and
Quality Plan for the Administration of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura
(2004-2007)". For this plan, Extremadura relies on the Regional Intranet, "the
foundation of the interdepartamental communications of the Junta de Extremadura".

For Vázquez de Miguel, to make a headway in the integration of the Information
Society in modern day Public Administration and in the global society, it is
fundamental "guarantee the control and administration of aspects so important
as technological independence, interoperability between computer platforms,
homogeneous information systems, computer security for information systems,
real technological innovation and conformance to open and free standards."

More info http://www.linex.org

The New in spanish
http://www.regiondigital.com/modulos/mod_periodico/pub/mostrar_noticia.php?id=43131


-- 
Jesus Climent                  info:www.pumuki.org dj:triplestereo.com
Unix SysAdm|Linux User #66350|Debian Developer|2.6.17|Helsinki Finland
GPG: 1024D/86946D69 BB64 2339 1CAA 7064 E429  7E18 66FC 1D7F 8694 6D69

It's called a change-over. The movie goes on and nobody knows the 
difference.
		--Narrator (Fight club)



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