[Osia-members] Good news from Spain/Catalonia

[Jack Burton]

By now I'm sure many members have seen this already (originally
announced in December, but first English language reports started
appearing yesterday):

https://itsfoss.com/barcelona-open-source/

Short version:

* the City of Barcelona will be migrating their computing
infrastructure (desktop & server) to 100% open source by Spring 2019.

* 70% of the year's software budget allocated to OSS initiatives

* moving away from large multinational outsourcers in favour of local
SMEs plus substantial growth in in-house personnel.


Barcelona is the capital of Spain's second most populous province,
Catalonia.


Of course, Australia's second most populous state is Victoria --
wouldn't it be nice to see something similar happen at the City of
Melbourne, for example?


Or if population isn't the best measure, consider political
similarities instead. In Catalonia, the secession movement has gained
great popularity, much as it did in Western Australia -- it's not a
huge philosophical step to go from the natural desire for the freedom
of self-government to the natural desire for software freedom --
wouldn't it be nice to see the City of Perth, for example, benefit from
a similar move to 100% FOSS?


If these sorts of good news stories are something which you still feel
passionately that Australia deserves its fair share of too, please
consider lodging an EoI to serve on OSIA's 2018 board.


Just a thought.