For those of you new to all this, we need to go back to the era of the Office of the e-envoy (source of the apparently forgotten first iteration of the government opensource action plan way back in 2002)

In 2001 they introduced the government gateway which does something or other, or as the help page puts it:

The Government Gateway is the website you use to register for online government services. It is an important part of the government's strategy of delivering 'joined up' government, enabling people to communicate and make transactions with government from a single point of entry

Not so now, but at the time the government gateway was introduced you needed MS Windows in order to register.

Let's fast forward to 2011...

Government and Open Standards are back in the news where we were quoted:

The Cabinet Office is supposed to be the strategic arm of government, but it needs an overarching strategy on open standards if open source is to work. If this can be done then the benefits are clear, interoperability will save money over time.

The government has produced studies in interoperability, and it is clear that it works throughout the economy in general in helping drive prices down. But it has shyed away from explicitly referring to the IT sector.

This has meant that there has been no compulsion for those not already interested in open standards to allow for them.”

What I don't understand is what was wrong with the old one, even though it only lasted three months.

In January 2011, only nine years after the government first indicated might need such a definition more detail here (registration required) the government published a policy procurement note which for all its lack of teeth contained as good a definition of open standards as one might hope for, looking for all the world as if had been copied from the FSFE website

If the government adopts any policy that opens the door to royalties for standards then it would be interesting to know whether they have considered that this could constitute the imposition of a new tax.

The Welsh Assembly Government has just published its IT strategy. Sitting in there a small paragraph (3.2) about how Open Source Software is important to the local economy as it enables reuse of local skills rather than relying upon global providers.

It's a seriously important insight and its the first time I've ever seen this vital point in an official document.

Today a lot more people than usual will be wanting to watch the proceedings of the Home Affairs and the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committees.

The hearings will be taking place this afternoon in Portcullis House probably in a room not unlike the one here and as you can see the audience capacity will be about thirty people which today, looks like it could be a bit of a problem .

Don't worry! You'll be able to watch the proceedings on Parliament Live. Oh, wait a moment...