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
81 Quentin Pidduck Technologywise Ltd The availability and community behind open source projects can mean that at the end of the day it's a wiser solution than proprietary software anyway.
82 Adrian Croucher
83 donald callum robertson
84 Nigel Bovey
85 Richard Dougherty
86 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.
87 Ben McKenzie Presbyterian Support Otago
88 Dom Tupu Sole Trader
89 Hugh Gordon Cooper Retired State Servant
90 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!
91 Gabriella Turek self
92 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.
93 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)"
94 Richard Hector
95 Hadley Rich nice technology
96 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!
97 Francois Marier
98 Reed Wade
99 Yuri de Groot
100 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.
101 David Love sole trader
102 Tabitha Roder
103 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.
104 Dave Horn
105 Dave Koelmeyer Apertura Designs Limited
106 Terry Woods
107 Sam Bonner
108 Daniel Reurich Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Ltd
109 Wayne Mackintosh Personal supporter Great initiative!
110 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.
111 Eliot Blennerhassett this is long overdue
112 David Barnett
113 Jeff Crawford Northern Network Services
114 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.
115 Hilary Oliver
116 Greg Hewgill sole trader
117 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.
118 Glenn Ramsey Componic Ltd
119 David J. Pearce Victoria University of Wellington
120 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.