Since the birth of the Linux User Group Scandiano on 2007 the members of this group, in which I’m active, have always tried to start a dialogue with local institutions in order to inform them about the benefits that come from the use of Open Standards and Free Software in terms of freedom, of independence, of security, of neutrality and of costs savings. During local political elections on 2009, the LUG Scandiano wrote a public letter to all candidates for mayor of Scandiano to ask them if they were planning to adopt policies in support of Free Software and Open Standards. The responses were published on the LUG Scandiano’s website and the political group that won those elections wrote in their program an important point about the plan to adopt and promote Free Software in the systems of the institutions the they will be going to rule.
In following months the LUG Scandiano continued to send reminders to the local governament, first by asking, with a letter written in collaboration with the Italian Group of the Free Software Foundation Europe, to use Open Standards for the documents distributed from the official website of the municipality of Scandiano which was accepted shortly afterwards, then by asking to start a plan for the progressive adoption of Free Software in the computer systems of the institution. Several meetings took place among the activists of the LUG, local governors and technical staff on these issues.
The 22/11/2011 has been published on the official website of the town of Scandiano a document which it is explicitly dispays the intention to adopt Open Standards and to start a gradual migration to Free Software.
With this declaretion, the local governors of Scandiano will start to “a gradual adoption fo Libre Office” instead of using proprietary software and to use the ODF file format for their documents managed within the organization, the PDF file format for the documents distributed and to evaluate different document types for collaborative drafting of documents with other parties.
All members of the LUG Scandiano are obviously pleased with this important effort and thank the local governors for their efforts. The resolution reached by local governors of Scandiano is obviously just the beginning of a complex project towards freedom and the LUG is committed, as it always has, to provide its widest support.
