This was faxed out from the OGCIO on 24 December 2007. The strategy states it is built on a previous draft strategy from the Presidential National Commission in 2004, which built on a GITOC strategy developed in 2003. The strategy covered three phases viz. Initiation, Enhancement, and Mature. Annex B is part of the approved Policy for FOSS in South African Government.
Author: Danie van der Merwe
Worked at SA Police and then SITA for a total of 35 years before taking retirement. My passions now are promoting open source software, green environment tech, and blogging about gadgets and technology.
Policy and Strategy Recommendations to the Presidential National Commission of South Africa – 5 Jan 2004
These recommendations followed after the National Cabinet approval in August 2003 on the policy on OSS. These recommendations proposed a set of policy enhancements to shift the overall policy posture from one that was neutral-to-enabling to one that was enabling-to-proactive. They also incorporated Open Content into the policy and brought to the fore important issues around intellectual property rights and Open Standards.
Lessons Learnt and Best Practices for US Military Software – 2011
This was a lessons learnt and a guide to help US government personnel and contractors implement open technology development (OTD) for software within government projects, particularly in defence.
This document marks a parting between South Africa and many other governments around the world. Whilst South Africa was early to adopt excellent FOSS policy and MIOS standards, other governments had started from 2011 or so to share implementation advice and guidelines. The UK government is another good example of this as well as the EU.
Open Software and Open Standards in South Africa to Address Digital Divide by Open Software Working Group – Jan 2002
The National Advisory Council on Innovation is a body set up by South African Act of Parliament to advise the Minister of Arts Culture Science and Technology, as well as Cabinet as a whole, on Science and Technology issues. They formulated these recommendations which included non-negotiable open standards as well as a FOSS policy encouraging the use of FOSS and ensuring a level playing field between FOSS and proprietary software with regards to procurement.
GITOC Proposed Strategy to using OSS in South African Government – v3.3 Jan 2003
SA Gov FOSS Policy Annex D: How FOSS and Open Content is Linked to South African Development Goals 2006
This is Appendix D of the approved FOSS Policy for South African Government. It specifically addresses how FOSS and Open Standards play a role in South Africa’s local development goals.
Concept Document for Establishing a National FOSS Collaboration and R&D Lab 16 Feb 2010
A document which was co-authored by Brodwyn Appanna at SITA FOSS Office, Gerrit Botha SAPS Enterprise Architect, and Karl Fischer Dept of Science and Technology to the GITOC FOSS Standing Committee, FOSS LAB Workgroup.
Letter of Appeal from SABS to IEC regarding DIS 29500 Office open XML 22 May 2008
The appeal centred around challenging the validity of a final vote which was based on inadequate information resulting from a poorly conducted BRM (Ballot Resolution Meeting).
Address by Ms Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister for Public Service and Administration, at the third Idlelo Conference 17 March 2008 on FOSSFA
Address-by-Ms-Geraldine-Fraser-Moleketi-Minister-for-Public-Service-and-Administration-at-the-third-Idlelo-ConferenceDownload
The address was made at the third Idlelo African Conference on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and the Digital Commons. The Minister commented about the Free Software movement in Africa as well as about the adoption of Open Standards and MIOS with a specific mention about ODF for exchanging office documents. She also commented about the leading vendor of office software who chose not to participate and support ODF in its products but rather to develop its own competing document standard which was then awaiting ISO approval.
The Minister also made comments about software patents and their anti-competitive nature.
Watch the video at https://youtu.be/dJ5E4EpYlSQ
DPSA Letter Implementing Open Document Format In All South African Government Departments 20 Dec 2007
The letter was issued on 20 December 2007 by Prof Richard Levin as Acting DG of DPSA. It referred the Cabinet endorsement of the FOSS Implementation Plan and Strategy (it was attached) and referred to one of the actions being the revision of the MIOS. It further stated that the MIOS v1.4 was signed by the Minister for PSA which included the stipulation that the Open Document Format (ODF) becomes the standard for all government documents. The letter called on all departments to take action towards implementing this standard.
It further gave timelines for the implementation up to March 2009.
The scanned copy attached here is a copy received by the DG of the Western Cape Government on 4 January 2008 which was in turn actioned to their IT unit. This attachment shows evidence of the letter being distributed out to departments around the country.