By Felicity Ussher, 21 July 2000 00:30
NEWS Open source software has hit the European Commission agenda. But whether it will actually be formally adopted is likely to depend on personal relations between Erkki Liikanen and Neil Kinnock. Liikanen, Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, has launched a study into the possibility of the EC adopting open source for its internal operations. If adopted and implemented successfully, the project could pave the way for open source to be permitted in public procurement projects across Europe - a sector which accounts for 25 per cent of Europe's economy. But Liikanen has met with a wall of silence from former UK Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock who, as the Commission's vice-president for Adminstrative Reform, has ultimate responsibility for the decision. Kinnock has still not replied to a letter from Commissioner Liikanen, sent four months ago, which proposed a dialogue on open source. Even today, his office refused to comment on the issue. In a recent keynote speech on e-administration in Luxembourg, Liikanen said: "[Citizens] should not be forced to buy a specific commercial software to be able to have electronic exchanges with his Administration." He added that open source software gave IT directors "a new chance" to tackle security issues. Liikanen was in charge of EC Administrative Reform until 1999, when Kinnock took over. He has long been a fan of open source, and recently talked with Finnish compatriot Linus Torvalds, originator of the Linux open source platform, at an informal lunch meeting in Silicon Valley. When asked whether Kinnock - whose experience lies in industrial relations, education and transport - even understood open source, Liikanen's spokesman Per Hoergaard replied: "We hope so."
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