NZ Ministry of Justice discussion paper

http://nzoss.org.nz/system/files/moj_oss_strategy_1.0.pdf

Two of the quotes from this paper are of particular interest

The Ministry has stated its commitment to be an 'employer of choice' for skilled technical professionals. Adopting OSS in development and deployment is consistent with such a commitment. (Put bluntly, technical professionals want to keep their skills sharp and current; in 2007, working with open source tools and contributing to OSS projects are the way that's done.)

Broader issues within NZ government related to economic development. More widespread adoption of OSS is a form of 'Buying Kiwi' by means of encouraging growth of NZ-based software and service providers.

Could it be that a contributing factor to the high level skills shortage that we are facing is government sector preference for the use of proprietary solutions where the high level skills are effectively imported?

The rear of the lead dog

Confused of Calcutta has a great post called "Build versus Buy versus Opensource".

His advice-

For common problems use Opensource.
For rare problems use Buy.
For unique problems use Build.

and his closing comment had me in stitches

Maybe this way we can all stop building solutions that look like the rear of a lead dog….