Open source solutions provide the public sector with great opportunities to improve customer service, cut costs and enhance democratic participation of citizens in the information society. Public sector ICT investments also play an important role in the emerging open source market and they can catalyze the adaptation of ICT in this sector to the face the challenges of an open world.
Current public sector themes within COSS include
- Development of public IT procurement processes in collaboration with governmental ICT strategy programs (KuntaIT and ValtIT programs)
- Advocating the Open Document Format (ODF) in Finland as the coordinator of the ODF Alliance National Action Group.
- Providing information and consulting services and project coordination to support the adoption of open architectures and open source solutions in public administration.
COSS has a specialized working group JOSS focusing on governmental operations. COSS members are welcome to join the working group. Our contact person for governmental affairs is Mr. Petri Räsänen or in ODF-related operations Mr. Elias Aarnio.