Baltic Sea waterfront / Ventspils, Latvia (cc-by-sa by anjči)
After the EURO2012 in Free Software continued yesterday, we have twelve other matches to look at today. Israel vs. Latvia was especially interesting because Latvia caught up just recently and was able to beat the best country in this group so far. Thus, chances are high that they can lead the group in the end and qualify for the finals. At least that’s my view. If you come to a different result, please let me know. Here is what our wiki says about the two countries:
Israel
- 2003-12-30 : Israel suspends acquisition of Microsoft software – waits for Open Source alternatives
- 2003-12-15 : Israel accelerates Free software migration
- 2010-0-10 : Minister of Improvement of Government Services, said that projects under his responsibility will go open source to improve transparency. (sorry for the google translate links, else it was in Hebrew…)
Latvia
- Ministry studying open source for government mail and groupware
- 2011-01-21: ODF acceptance mandatory
- 2011-01-26: Valmiera municipality values its vendor independence
- 2009-12-04: Ministry of Education approves open source software for schools
In Group F, Greece caught up, too. In February there was the news about a free Linux system for teachers and pupils at elementary schools and in March the First migration of a Greek Public Organization to Free Software was announced. But that’s not enough to make that much of a difference in that group yet.
And really tough was to decide the result between Norway and Denmark. I made it a draw, but judge yourself and let me know:
Norway
- 2006-04-12: skolelinux.no: Report by Knut Yrwin about a Research funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research
- 2008-07-14 Experiences from the Use of Skolelinux: Use of OpenSource Software at Four Norwegian Schools
- 2008-11-17: seattletimes.nwsource.com: Norway encourages use of open source software
- 2007-12-21: Open document standards to be obligatory for state information (implemented 2009-01-01)
- 2009-07-08: Media formats become obligatory open standards as well (via (via pro-linux.de (German) and linuxnews.pl (polisch) )
- 2009-07-28: Government adopts open standards starting 2012
- 2009-10-14: Friprog awards Kongsberg municipality
- 2010-11-24: All regions and nearly all municipalities now use FS
Denmark
- 2009-04-22 Municipality uses OpenOffice and saves a million DKK per year
- 2009-09-00 Roedorve (DK) migration to OOffice (Slideshow about the migration)
- all governmentally ordered software are released as Free Software and available on a governmental portal : /softwareborsen
- Parliament resolution on Open Standards : B103 June 2nd 2006: Parliament imposes on the government the duty to ensure that the public sector’s use of IT, including use of software, is based on open standards”
- 2008-12-19: Tønder elementary school to use open source
- 2009-09-30: Lyngby-Taarbæk moves schools to OpenOffice
Here is the table with all results of today:
| Group | Country I | Country II | Score I | Score II |
| A | Germany | Kazakhstan | 4 | 0 |
| B | Andorra | Slovakia | 1 | 2 |
| B | Armenia | Russia | 1 | 4 |
| B | Republic of Ireland | Macedonia | 1 | 2 |
| D | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Romania | 1 | 2 |
| F | Georgia | Croatia | 0 | 1 |
| F | Israel | Latvia | 2 | 3 |
| F | Malta | Greece | 2 | 2 |
| G | Bulgaria | Switzerland | 1 | 2 |
| G | Wales | England | 1 | 1 |
| H | Cyprus | Iceland | 2 | 3 |
| H | Norway | Denmark | 3 | 3 |
The next matches will take place on Tuesday (March 29, 2011). I’ll update the tables on the wiki after that.
As always, if you have anything to add, please leave a comment, drop me a note or edit the Fellowship wiki page about FS in public administration or write a dent to the euro4fs group at identi.ca.