SSC Releases Legal Guidelines Version 2

Today the State Services Commission released a new version of its Legal Guidelines for Open Source Software. This document was largely the result of a very productive cooperation between the NZOSS and the SSC after the publication of the first version of the document in March.

Laurence Millar, Deputy Commissioner Information and Communications Technologies, said the SSC received over 100 emails from the open source community about the first version of the paper, and traffic to the e-government website, www.e.govt.nz, saw a fivefold increase in the days following its release.

"After we had reviewed the feedback, some of which was quite comprehensive, we recognized the need to develop a new version that more accurately represented SSC's position on open source," Mr Millar said.

"We believe the updated paper is an improvement and takes into account the views we received. We would like to thank the New Zealand Open Source Society for their assistance during the revision process. Their members provided valuable feedback on the initial document.

"The whole process has led to an improved document and one that more accurately reflects SSC's support for the use of open source in New Zealand government," Mr Millar said.