Mandating open ICT standards and demanding interoperable ICT systems will lower the costs of government ICT systems, while increasing performance, agree one hundred French ICT firms working with open source and open standards. They responded to a poll organised last month by CNLL, a trade group. The Conseil National du Logiciel Libre (National Council of Free Software) says that the poll supports France’s policy on interoperability, the Référentiel Général d'Interopérabilité (RGI). The policy, maintained by DISIC, the inter-ministerial Directorate for IT, is to be modernised, and in May DISIC asked for comments on the draft revision.
In June, CNLL polled about one-third of its members. These agree near unanimously, he trade group reports: almost all of the respondents (97 per cent) say that interoperability and open ICT standards lower ICT costs while improving performance. Similarly united, 92 per cent predict that their companies will benefit from RGI’s adoption of open standards, with 98 per cent expecting this to increase their turnover.
France’s government mandating of open ICT standards could result in a EUR 1.5 billion increase in turnover and some 15,000 new jobs at the country’s free software enterprises, extrapolates CNLL. At the same time, France’s public administrations could expect to lower their ICT costs. CNLL estimates the savings to be between EUR 3 and 5 billion.
In May, the trade group encouraged the revision of the RGI. The group recommended that DISIC uses a strict definition of open standards. Interoperability can only be achieved if all system interfaces are fully public, and there are no restrictions to access or implementation, CNLL wrote.
“There is massive support of free software firms for the updated RGI ”, CNLL writes in June, following the poll of its members. The trade group adds that it hopes DISIC will not give in to pressure and that it will maintain the current definition of interoperability.