[Freegis-list] Free Software/OSS and public invitation to tender (öffentliche Ausschreibungen)

[Bernhard Reiter]

Am 18. Feb 2005 um 09:27:43 schrieb Michel.Garand at frankfurt-oder.de:
> As I am faced with the following position from Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann (im
> Auftrag von micorsoft) 

A legal study payed by microsoft.

> see http://www.kommune21.de/meldung.php?id=4237 and
> www.innrego.de/osvergabegutachten.pdf, with regard to legal apsects public
> tendering practice in Germany.

I only read the summary to far.

First it states the obvious: 
Tendering should be done neutral and describe functionality not products.
In practice should would a step forward for Free Software if this
would be done, because of course there is already infrastructure
and it is easier to buy a bundle of licenses than a Free Software equivalent.

Of course Microsoft takes this and turns this around and says: 
A political decision for Free Software cannot bypass the bylaw for tendering,
neglecting that this is done for proprietary software all the time.
And then the summary says that software always has product part, 
which is unwarranted and discriminatory towards Free Software business models.

> I am looking for public administrations with experience dealing with Free
> Software/OSS and public invitation to tender  (öffentliche Ausschreibungen)
> or any recent articles or research dealing with this topic and not financed
> by microsoft.

In Germany:
Check the work by the Germany Ministry of the Interiour (BMI),
the KBST and the German Federal Agency of IT-security (BSI).
http://www.kbst.bund.de/
They have a Free Software competence centre.
The BSI also has put out a few tenders 
(Intevation has won a couple, so I know.)
Contact the Kbst, because their statement was along the lines:
Every public administration that wants to contract Free Software does
not have a principal problem with it, even with current tendering practices.

> Thanks in advance for any hints, advice or even moral support dealing with
> my city administration.

Depending on what you want to do, contact Free Software
businesses in your vicinity or thematic area.
Hit them the weight (not all of the content) of the 
BMI migration guidelines (new edition pending)
(English pdf at http://www.kbst.bund.de/Anlage304428/Migration_Guide.pdf)
and the financial benefits.

Best,
	Bernhard

-- 
Professional Service around Free Software                (intevation.net)  
Experts for complex webmapping! In business since 1999:
	http://intevation.net/services/gis/webmapping.en.html
Pay for FreeGIS if you like it: http://freegis.org/about-paying.en.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.intevation.de/pipermail/freegis-list/attachments/20050218/cb2b84ac/attachment.bin