Daktari, am sure there is a lot we can learn from the French. One of the reason why the rich countries are rich is because they believe in getting value fo every penny that they spend. As the Brits say, take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. Its about investing our resources where we will get the best value.

Jacques Marzin, the French state CIO, confirmed on Monday that government is working hard at implementing the Open Source Guidelines signed last year by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. The guidelines promote the use of free softwares and open source in French ministries.

M. Marzin was one of the speakers at a conference called the "Etats généraux de l’Open Source", the first organized in France by the government and Syntec Numérique, an IT trade union.

See this link:

France's CIO: 'Implementation of Open Source Guidelines on its way'

"Open source allows us to spend our resources smarter", the CIO said. It also promotes the use of open standard to make government’s systems more interoperable. "It is like building one unique system". Free software and open source are a way to promote the concept of sharing the building of IT systems in government and help to modernise the state.

The french state spend annually 3,8 billion euro in its IT, including 300 million euro in software licences et support. "We have to remain more and more vigilant and every services have to be efficient", he explained.

Ikua