"Japan is revising its laws to dictate that where open standards exist they will be given priority in government procurements," says the summary of a new report on open software standards. "Denmark has achieved remarkable cost-savings through the government's use of an open standard. And in India the government has been collaborating with business to promote innovative services within the entrepreneur community based on open architectures. Open standards bind together open ICT ecosystems and drive interoperability."
The report --
Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems by Harvard Law School's
Berkman Center for Internet and Society -- goes on to emphasize the importance of ICT to economic development. "Mandating interoperability and changing procurement policies," it says, will help governments "reap clear economic benefits."
Representatives of 13 nations contributed to the report which was sponsored by Oracle and IBM.
