Colleges urged to study open source

Briefing paper recommends greater use of open standards

Academic institutions are being encouraged to consider open source as the default for developing and deploying software.

Higher education advisory organisation the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) is to issue a briefing paper tomorrow (Friday) to UK colleges and universities, to raise awareness of open source.

Jisc, supported by its advisory service OSS Watch, advocates the use of open source as the default for software development, as well as providing guidelines on copyright, licensing, trademarks, patents and development practices.

Randy Metcalfe, manager of OSS Watch based at Oxford University, says the guidelines will help academic institutions make well-informed decisions.

'Getting them to consider open source is the useful way to help organisations to focus on what is important: the technical and user requirements, rather than a vendor sales pitch,' said Metcalfe.

'The institution might end up with a proprietary alternative, but at least they will have thought through the choices.'

Jisc believes that almost every UK further and higher education institution is using open source software in some way.

But Metcalfe says such software is rarely part of wider technology policies and strategies.

'The important thing is that open source is being thought through as a crucial element of the institutional IT strategy,' he said.

'The Jisc briefing paper will raise awareness and allow technology decision-makers to talk about open source with senior staff in a sensible fashion.'

Metcalfe says the briefing paper will also guide organisations that are considering open source as a cost-effective option, particularly as academic institutions spend millions of pounds on technology each year.

'Cost is a key factor for many institutions, and being able to get open source software without a licence fee is potentially a big issue, particularly for colleges,' he said.

The briefing paper follows guidelines issued last year for JISC projects and the government's published policy, which in 2004 set out guidance for the exploitation of publicly funded software development.

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