(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
After filing a case to the Regional Administrative Tribunal of Lazio against the Italian Ministry of Work for launching a call for tenders where only Microsoft software was considered as eligible, Italian NGO Assoli (Associazione Software Libero) is criticizing again its Government.
The problem arose when the Government - specifically the Ministry for University and Research, headed by Mr.Fabio Mussi (Left democrats) and the Ministry for Innovation in the Public Administration, headed by Mr. Luigi Nicolais (Left democrats) - announced an official agreement with Microsoft Italia whose main goals are "education/training, technology transfer and facilitation of research projects".
AsSoLi publicly objected to the agreement by which Microsoft commits to invest only 737,000 euros - 0.0007% of the total turnover of the company for 2006, according to AsSoLi's calculations - in three years, to be subdivided among three research centres. Moreover, AsSoLi notices that, according to the agreement, the investment will not take the form of cash, but will rather be performed "through (the work of) third parties, on the basis of specific needs for hardware products, software, technical support services and training activities". On the other hand, continues AsSoLi, the agreement does not specify what would be the financial burden for the Italian Public Administration.
In reaction to what it considered a waste of public money, AsSoLi officially committed to make available to the Italian Government, for a period of five years, training activities, training material, technological solutions and software, either directly or delegating Italian companies specialised in Free Software, for a value of about 10.000.000 euros per year - a total value of 50.000.000 euros. AsSoLi stresses the fact that their offer is absolutely serious.
Moreover, AsSoLi conducted a study on the Microsoft Research Center located in Trento (Northern Italy). According to the study, Microsoft invested only 250.000 euros in research activities on their own products, with the Italian Public Administration paying more than 1.800.000 euros. The study was sent to hundreds of representatives of national and local institutions. AsSoLi also announced the forthcoming release of a second study, providing a more thorough assessment of the financial elements in the first analysis.
The Italian Government, through its spokesman Mr. Alfonso Lelio, has recently answered AsSoLi's criticisms, stressing that the agreement with Microsoft does not mean that the Government is not interested in investing in Free Software, or is not already doing so, as the Government claims is the case with the latest budget law, where 10.000.000 euros for 2007-2009 are allocated to "Information Society" projects, with an explicit priority to those that "develop or use" Free Software.
AsSoLi - Associazione Software Libero
http://www.softwarelibero.it/
EDRI-Gram 5.7, "Free software needs to be considered in Italian
public acquisitions" (12.04.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.7/free-software-italy
AsSoLi offers EUR 10,000,000 to the Italian Government (Italian only,
8.05.2007)
http://www.softwarelibero.org/lassociazione-il-software-libero-offre-5...
Text of the proposed agreement with the Italian Government (Italian only,
8.05.2007)
http://www.softwarelibero.org/progetti/proposta_governo
Study by AsSoLi on the Microsoft Research Center in Trento (Italian only,
18.05.2007)
http://softwarelibero.it/riflessione-politiche-innovazione-ict
Answer of the Italian Government to AsSoLi's criticisms (Italian only,
29.05.2007)
http://www.lastampa.it/_web/CMSTP/tmplrubriche/giornalisti/grubrica.as...
(contribution by Andrea Glorioso - Italian consultant on digital policies)