Genoa: major economic centre and latest adoptee of open source technology.
The municipality has for some time now given open source technologies equal weight, but now that position is changing specifically to favour open source and, more crucially, open standards.
Perhaps mindful of the contrast between Munich’s and Frieburg’s experiences of adopting open source, the city’s IT department is using online learning modules to educate employees in the new systems. This article from H-Online details some of the software swaps that are being made, including moving to Zimbra, an email and collaboration system that we offer.
Genoa: One corner of the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle, with banks dating back to the middle ages, shipyards and steelworks active since the 19th century and with a cultural pedigree as long as your arm.
The Genoese are a canny bunch, and admit that adopting open source is a strategic move, ensuring “long-term access to data, without legal or technical barriers”. The administration is aware of the challenges inherent in continuing to manage “the breadth and complexity of our information systems, grown over the years out of numerous systems and applications and differing in age and technology” and so approaches open source with care and eyes wide open.
Genoa: a city with a thriving economy and the foresight to base its activities on sound open source technologies, for the very best of reasons.
This is the most reassuring aspect for us of Genoa adopting open source. These are its reasons, and we agree with them wholeheartedly:
- Promoting open standards
- reducing dependence on software vendors (just see the tangle the UK government is failing to extricate itself from when it comes to software vendors)
- extending the lift of computer kit
- financial savings