COSPA

Public Administrations spend every year a considerable amount of money for Commercial Off-The-Shelf software licenses. By using appropriate technologies, such expenses might be either dramatically reduced, or re-routed to further develop local business ecosystems. The Consortium aims at introducing, analysing, and supporting the use of Open Data Standards (ODS) and Open Source (OS) software for personal productivity and document management in European Public Administrations (PA). In particular, the introduction of ODS and OS software might be hampered by the cost of data migration and the interoperability and integration with existing solutions.

The Consortium aims at building a leading, effective and visible success case for the introduction of ODS and OS solutions in the PA by deploying ODS and OS solutions in several European PAs. The motivation for using OS software and ODS are mainly given by their extreme versatility, adaptability, transparency of functioning, and by the savings on software licenses. The European society as a whole would benefit from the adoption of ODS and OS software in the public sector since the citizen would not be required to buy proprietary software for accessing the information and services provided by the PA, and PAs would increase trust and confidence by using transparent and secure technologies.

Partners: Free University of Bolzano (Coordinator), Aalborg University, MTA Szamitastechnikai es Automatizalasi Kutatointezet, University of Limerick, University of Sheffield, Beaumont Hospital, Consorzio dei Comuni dell'Alto Adige, Hanstholm Kommune, Province of Genoa, Province of Pisa, SocITM, South West Regional Authority, Torokbalint City Council, Conecta (SME), IBM Belgium.

Project title: A Consortium for studying, evaluating, and supporting the introduction of Open Source software and Open Data Standards in the Public Administration
Funding: EU, FP6, IST-1-002614
Project period: January 2004 - December 2005
Coordinator: Giancarlo Succi
Local Scientist-in-charge (Dept. of Computer Science, Aalborg University): Michael Böhlen
FUB participants: Michael Böhlen, Peter Sune Joergensen