The city of Madrid (Spain) should do a feasibility study to see if it can switch to free and open source software, one of its citizens has proposed on Consul, the city’s eParticipation portal.
According to the citizen ‘Almorca’, public administrations should implement free and open source software because IT projects financed with public money should be made available publicly, so that others can benefit. Switching to free and open source software also lowers costs, and allows audits of the code - increasing security, the citizen argues. By switching to free and open source, public administrations support local IT service providers, instead of foreign multinationals.
Almorca wants the study to be the first step in a migration plan. It should include an inventory of IT systems and applications. The citizen also wants Madrid to rule that all new software solutions written for the city are to be made publicly available.
The proposal was submitted on Consul on 8 March. So far, the proposal gathered 975 support votes. If it gets enough votes, the city would carry out the study in 2018.
More information:
Free Software at City Hall (in Spanish)
Edulibre news item (in Spanish)
Barrapunto discussion forum (in Spanish)