Open Standards NZ Co-signers

The undersigned have all agreed that the New Zealand government should create a level playing field for software by mandating that all software procurement, particularly of commercial-off-the-shelf software, only considers software complying with open standards that are vendor-neutral, royalty-free and unencumbered by patents.

Where no relevant open standard exists, the government should undertake to develop suitable open standards, building on those already available elsewhere.

The goal is for software suppliers to the NZ government to compete to meet government-specified open standards rather than competing to set their own proprietary standard as is currently common practise.

# Name Organisation Comment Submitted
1 Dylan Reeve Dylan Reeve 22 Jul 2015 10:39
2 Dave Lane NZ Open Source Society We at the NZ Open Source Society think that a level playing field for software is crucial for achieving an equitable society in the Internet Age. With more and more government services and compliance requirements moving to online systems, it has never been more important to ensure that we don't hand control of our national systems to overseas corporate interests. This is unfortunately currently the case, and we think it needs to change. We trust that the NZ government will see the common sense and free-market appeal of this initiative, and recognise that it will both reduce costs and increase social equity by reducing barriers to online participation by both the private sector and the citizens of NZ. 22 Jul 2015 10:40
3 David J. Pearce Victoria University of Wellington 22 Jul 2015 10:56
4 Glenn Ramsey Componic Ltd 22 Jul 2015 11:01
5 Alexander Charles King Linuxworks Limited Open standards hold the potential to increase the productivity and accessibility of business and government. If universally adopted, we could create a step change in productivity. 22 Jul 2015 11:04
6 Greg Hewgill sole trader 22 Jul 2015 11:08
7 Hilary Oliver 22 Jul 2015 11:11
8 Traveler Hauptman MechAdept Limited Between the software we use with proprietary formats and those with open formats, we greatly prefer those with open formats. When working with a customer using open formats, we can often find suitable free software to work with the format. This is important for reducing operating costs with one-off projects. For open formats that we use often, we have the option of purchasing software with the set of features that suits our needs best. 22 Jul 2015 11:36
9 Jeff Crawford Northern Network Services 22 Jul 2015 12:06
10 David Barnett 22 Jul 2015 12:32
11 Eliot Blennerhassett this is long overdue 22 Jul 2015 12:36
12 Donald Johnston Learn Rapidly Ltd I don't want to be forced to use proprietary software when there is excellent alternative open source software available. 22 Jul 2015 12:55
13 Wayne Mackintosh Personal supporter Great initiative! 22 Jul 2015 13:05
14 Daniel Reurich Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Ltd 22 Jul 2015 16:04
15 Sam Bonner 22 Jul 2015 16:45
16 Terry Woods 22 Jul 2015 16:45
17 Dave Koelmeyer Apertura Designs Limited 22 Jul 2015 16:57
18 Dave Horn 22 Jul 2015 17:33
19 Neil Harsant SysLinx - Sole Trader Proprietary data standards come with no guarantee of long term support. Internationally agreed standards to come with such assurance. Government's information is ultimately the property of it's citizens and commercial organizations should not be in a position to hold that information hostage. 22 Jul 2015 18:29
20 Tabitha Roder 22 Jul 2015 20:09
21 David Love sole trader 22 Jul 2015 20:31
22 David Crosswell sole trader When open source software supplies the needs of governments that dwarf that of New Zealand, with the reliability, stability, and security required by such entities as the International Space Station, along with the New York and London stock exchanges, there's no valid rationale for the New Zealand government to spend money on an inferior standard. As far as open standards are concerned, government should be facilitating communication, not stifling it. 22 Jul 2015 20:59
23 Yuri de Groot 22 Jul 2015 21:41
24 Reed Wade 22 Jul 2015 23:32
25 Francois Marier 22 Jul 2015 23:54
26 Harry Chapman Open standards are the way to ensure all citizens of New Zealand are able to open the files that the Government creates. We can do better! 23 Jul 2015 07:58
27 Hadley Rich nice technology 23 Jul 2015 08:08
28 Richard Hector 23 Jul 2015 11:06
29 Amie Holman Sole trader I work in the government, I have to use propietry software all of tyhe time, close platforms and non exsistant intergrations. Not only do we continuiosly send .docx files to everyone, we are stuck in an environment where any efforts to be as open source as possible are stiffled and discouraged. this makes me the ranty werid person in the office who often ends emails like the following "As you might notice the document is in .odt format (open licence format which means it’s legal for you to open the document in programs other than Microsoft word) this will mean if you want to track changes you will need to save as .docx (the licence that means I can only open the document legally in Microsoft word. This perpetuities the propriety software monopoly, which stifles freedoms and innovation, and goes against the ethos of open government partnership. I feel like this is a thing we might need to look at in the future)" 23 Jul 2015 17:00
30 Roderick Francis David Aldridge As a user of the Linux operating system I have had problems communicating with some government electronic services. I have had to resort to mail. 23 Jul 2015 17:46
31 Gabriella Turek self 23 Jul 2015 17:48
32 Grant Paton-Simpson Paton-Simpson & Associates Ltd Requiring open standards is good for the purchasers of software such as government. It also levels the playing field so that New Zealand companies can fairly compete with international software companies. Single-word answer for why we should be following open standards? Flash! 24 Jul 2015 07:23
33 Hugh Gordon Cooper Retired State Servant 24 Jul 2015 16:32
34 Dom Tupu Sole Trader 24 Jul 2015 16:43
35 Ben McKenzie Presbyterian Support Otago 25 Jul 2015 10:19
36 Tony Bray Personal The whole of the NZ government should mandate open standards in all software and digital media. This should include Education, Health, Employment, Law, et al. 25 Jul 2015 11:33
37 Richard Dougherty 25 Jul 2015 23:05
38 Nigel Bovey 26 Jul 2015 20:58
39 donald callum robertson 27 Jul 2015 09:40
40 Adrian Croucher 27 Jul 2015 16:57