Sweden Moves Forward with Open Standards Requirements in Public Procurement

Posted by Andy_Updegrove on Jun 8, 2015 2:55 PM EDT
ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog; By Andy Updegrove
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The cause of open standards - including ODF - in government continues to move forward in the EU, one nation at a time.

Last July, the UK Cabinet Office adopted a rule requiring government purchasers to limit their technology acquisitions to products that implement an established list of “open standards.” Last week, Sweden took another step down the same road as it further refined a list of information and communications technology (ICT) standards. That list currently comprises sixteen standards. A posting at the European Commission EU Joinup Web site reports that other standards are to be added this year.

The process in Sweden is different, but to the same effect as the UK process. In each case, the question revolves around which standards at minimum meet the definition of an “open standard” as contained in the European Interoperability Framework (EIF). However, the current version of that document is somewhat contradictory. While it retains language favoring open source software, it backed off draft text that would have established a higher bar for open standards. EU countries, however, are free to set the bar wherever they wish at, or above, the baseline established in the finally-approved version 2.0 of the EIF.

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