Tories would support Open Source Software for the NHS
David Cameron recently gave a speech where he expressed his preference for Open Standards and Open Source Software such as Linux for use in the NHS and other government projects:
We will follow private sector best practice which is to introduce 'open standards' that enables IT contracts to be split up into modular components. So never again could there be projects like Labour's hubristic NHS supercomputer. And we will create a level playing field for open source software in IT procurement and open up the procurement system to small and innovative companies…...look at the private sector's take-up of open source software, developed collectively by a community of individuals, universities and small and large firms from around the world.
They build the product, suggest improvements, check the source code and critique each others' work.
Linux, the open source pioneer, is now the fastest growing operating system in the world, and even IBM is basing their new hardware on it.
Information liberation could be hugely beneficial in the new economy.
After all, what are the great new giants of the internet - from Myspace to eBay - but information processing systems?