In an effort to promote open standards and open-source technology across the UK, the National Open Centre (NOC) will throw open its doors today at an official launch event at the Houses of Parliament.

The NOC is supported by IT organisations such as IBM and the National Computing Centre, as well as public sector representatives including Birmingham City Council. The aim is to develop policy, identify opportunities and foster innovation around open standards and open-source use.

The objectives will be supported by an NOC web site that will point visitors to existing resources, and an activity centre. The group will also host an events programme to debate issues such as the impact of shared web services on end-user licences, and whether the public sector is “suffering from procurement policies which militate against [open source and open standards]”.