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Single-vendor software purchase stopped in Italy
The Associazione per il Software Libero has sent out a press release proclaiming a "historic victory" in its battle to ensure that free software alternatives are considered in Italian government purchases. A request for tenders for €4.5 million in Microsoft licenses has been withdrawn after the Associazione went to court with a challenge. "The most important result is that Associazione per il Software Libero succeeded in monitoring actions of public institutions in a domain -information technologies - that too often responds to pressures of some
companies and to mere 'technical' reasons instead of focusing on public benefit: free access to information (free format), adoption of trustworthy technologies (free software) and use of public money for the benefit of the citizens."
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Single-vendor software purchase stopped in Italy Posted Apr 11, 2007 21:07 UTC (Wed) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link] This is a great start, but...Does anyone know about the folks putting out this request for proposals? Was the original RFP just a matter inertia—bid it just as we've already done, and it came out this way? If so, we have a chance to make a large difference, by working with the contracting agency to show them what alternatives are reasonable. If not, unfortunately, this win could easily be useless. I've seen, up close and personal, instances in which contractors have worked with U.S. Department of Defense procurement agencies to specify requirements so specifically and tightly that exactly one product meets them. Guess whose? Congratulations to the ApiSL¹ for a great advance toward opening up the software market. Please keep us posted on how it goes henceforth. ¹ Do Italians go for the shove-all-the-initials-together method the U.S.ians do so often? :-)
Single-vendor software purchase stopped in Italy Posted Apr 12, 2007 13:00 UTC (Thu) by ipes (guest, #43384) [Link] From looking at the site their preferred abbreviation is "Assoli", with only one capital letter.
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