Montreal Tech Watch

Québec Government makes way for open source software in IT infrastructure

By Heri Dec 9th 2010 in Legal, Open Source

salon du logiciel libre de québec In what appears to be a 180 degree turn, Michelle Courchesne, Présidente du Conseil du Trésor of the government of Québec, announced that any governmental organization and any other entity depending on the government must consider open source software for any IT project, at the Salon du Logiciel Libre in Québec city

“Must” is highlighted here since she repeated it multiple times, with a sense of urgency and wishes to get ahead in open source software (article in French).

Not so long ago, local IT companies with an expertise in Linux and open source software, such as Savoir Faire Linux, had to file lawsuits at government agencies just to have the right to bid. IT directors from the government then didn’t took seriously “open source heads”, with maybe a belief that serious infrastructure needed multi-million dollar licenses from Microsoft or Oracle.

The new directive from the QC government is an opportunity for Open source software providers, and that’s exactly what motivates the government. Michelle Courchesne explains that the move will foster a dynamic software industry in Québec. They don’t believe anymore that their IT infrastructure should be built with products from multinationals but can be built from local expertise. For Québec and Montréal, hopefully many will see the opportunity to start software houses, and as a result, we will see more talented software engineers as well as designers and UI experts.

It’s also a good sign for movements such as MontrealOuvert. Open Source software brings with it also openess (duh!), crowdsourcing, sharing, as well as open source and open data values; which means the MontrealOuvert should use be able to capitalize on this announcement. There is still a learning curve, but change is coming!

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