EU Commission: Open Bids Favor Proprietary Software

The Interoperable Delivery to Administrations, Businesses and Citizens (IDABC) agency of the EU is responsible for regulating delivery of interoperable software to its European constituents. In contract with the IDABC, the UNU-Merit center (a joint project of the United Nations University and Maastricht University in the Netherlands) issued a guidelines document on the public procurement of open source software. In preparing the document, researchers found that there was a definite bias toward proprietary software among public tenders. The authors recognized that many software procurements subtly or overtly favored certain brands and even specific applications. They cited that compatibility with previously acquired software was the motivating selection criteria for 33% of the one thousand IT organizations they studied. Rishab Ghosh, one of the authors of the guidelines, described the consequences of this behavior: "This implicit vendor lock-in means that a tender, meant to last for only five years, leads to a contractual relation lasting ten, fifteen years or more."

The bias is even more obvious when organizations ask for multiple licenses or copies of a software package. Ghosh and his colleagues provided some examples: of the 3,615 software tenders studied between January and August 2008, 36% specifically requested Microsoft products, 20% requested Oracle, 12% mentioned IBM, 11% wanted SAP and 10% asked for Adobe applications. Ghosh explains, "It is like requesting the latest Volkswagens and then expecting that everyone can sell these. We all know only Volkswagen dealers can do so." Karel de Vriendt, head of the Open Source Observatory and Repository unit at the IDABC (OSOR), offers his take: "These tenders should be protested against, and if necessary the tendering organizations could be taken to court."

The software tender guidelines currently serve informational purposes only. The authors wanted to show how to end discrimination against Open Source in public tenders, and listed in detail the specific characteristics of Open Source software. According to the authors, the fact that this software can be used and distributed without restrictions in an open environment, with a right to adapt and share it with others, should be enough reason to be strongly considered for public tenders. As Ghosh says, "Many people assume there is a level playing field and that measures to promote Open Source are no longer needed. In fact, there is widespread bias in favor of proprietary applications."

The first draft of the document with the title "Osor Guidelines: Public Procurement and Open Source Software" appeared Monday at the Open Source World Conference in Malaga. The final draft should be publicized during this week on the OSOR webpage.