Something called "open data" you may have heard of (Score 1)

Yes, there's a bigger picture here that seems to be overlooked. For example: 1) CIOs should be thinking about more than substitutes for Office, Sharepoint, Exchange, and even if you're just focused on that, then the real decision might be between Microsoft and something like Google Apps, not OSS. 2) Is this CIO turning a blind eye to what's happening in his county? The most dynamic part of OSS besides Linux are the Hadoop ecosystem and Node.js--very much cloud-native, data-driven phenomena. Southampton's the biggest city in Hampshire, and the University of Southampton's a huge proponent of open data and open data standards. Southampton in fact seems to be where data.gov.uk really got its start. Tim Berners Lee has a post at the University and collaborates with Nigel Shadbolt, Dame Wendy Hall and the other prominent open data folks from the University. 3) What's the real opportunity cost of ignoring OSS? Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Google, LinkedIn and Netflix donate millions of lines of code to communities who fork or at least use the best stuff donated. Github's a giant feedback-response loop that involves not only code but talent. Web companies and the OSS communities at large are monitoring and mining from Github and hoovering up the most talented web developers, and the technologies they're working with are what drives much innovation. Seems like Hampshire County as a place that provides government services ought to be thinking about providing more services online rather than less as a means of reducing labor cost and improving access.