"A competence centre requires skills and competences" Hungarian Competence Centre sets up localised knowledgebase to overcome language barrier Author: Adrian Offerman The main goal of the Hungarian E-Governmental Free Software Competence Centre is to reduce license costs and to widen the use of open source software in public administration. The Hungarian public administration currently uses a lot of custom-made software, resulting in an application landscape of isolated islands with very little interoperability. This prevents the creation of larger, more complex e-government services. "pen source code and open standards will allow public agencies to ta#e back control over their locked-in data and extend e-government services. The language barrier, however constitutes a serious problem affecting the use of open source software. Hungarians in general have few foreign language skills ma#ing it hard for $T managers and procurement specialists to get acquainted with open source software and connect with international developer communities. To improve this situation the people from the Competence Centre have created an online open source #nowledgebase describing commonly used software solutions and case studies. This allows public servants in Hungary to get acquainted with open source packages in their native language. The Hungarian Competence Centre is very different from other competence centres. &ll its members including the project manager, come from the open source community. &lthough they have had to learn the ways of public administrators the diversity and hands-on experience of the team members has allowed them to find new opportunities for open source, to ta#e an active part in pilot projects and to disseminate their #nowledge and lessons learnt. The Hungarian E-Governmental Free Software Competence Centre (E- özigazgat#si Sza%ad Szoftver &ompetencia &özpont' in Hungarian( was set up in Ma* +,-+ %* the )inistry of .u%lic Admini$tration and /ustice as part of the State Secretariat for E-Government0 led %* deput* $tate secretary G#%or Fekete. 23ts main goal is to reduce license costs and to widen the use of open source software in pu%lic administration02 explains pro5ect manager Csa%a Erdei (in Hungarian(1 2Another important factor was to ta e %ack control over our data0 %* using open source code and open $tandard$1 The transition to the Open 6ocument Format (O6F0 i1e1 7i%reOffice0 formerl* OpenOffice( is pivotal in this strateg*12 2.u%lic admini$tration also currentl* uses a lot of special0 custom-made software, resulting in an application landscape of isolated i$land$ with very little interopera%ilit*1 That prevents us from creating larger0 more complex e-government services.2 2We do have a large national 3T strateg*0 %ut open source, interopera%ilit* and open standards are onl* a $mall part of it1 Although there is no central policy urging pu%lic agencies to deploy onl* open source software0 there are smaller statements sa*ing that we should1 And that9$ what we're trying to implement here. We are pioneering12 *** begin sidebar ((( The Electronic Public Administration Operational Programme The E-Governmental Free Software Competence Centre is a project under the European Commission9s Electronic .u%lic Administration Operational .rogramme1 3t was approved %* the European Commission on - August +,,: for the period +,,:--;1 Thi$ Operational .rogramme falls within the framework laid out for Convergence and <egional Competitiveness and Employment O%5ectives0 and has a total %udget of around =>++ million1 Communit* investment through the European <egional 6evelopment Fund (E<6F( amounts to some =;?@ million0 which represents approximatel* -1>A of the total EB investment earmarked for Hungary under the Cohesion .olicy for +,,:--;1 The overall ob5ective of the Operational .rogramme is to improve the performance of Hungarian pu%lic admini$tration1 Specific ob5ectives are the improvement of pu%lic administration operational efficiency and services effectiveness. The Operational .rogramme is expected to have the following results: • increased use of electronic pu%lic admini$tration $ervices %* citizens and companies' • fa$ter processing of standard cases %* the pu%lic administration' • greater num%ers of state administration %odies providing on-line case handling services' • an increase in the proportion of citizen$ and %usinesses ma ing online pa*ments to state administration %odies. The Operational .rogramme is structured in terms of five priorities: -1 <enewal of pu%lic admini$tration internal procedures and $ervices (approximatel* ;?1:A of total funding(: The main ob5ective of this priorit* is to increase efficiency in the functioning of the state administration at national0 regional and local levels through the reorganisation of administrative processes with the support of 3T $*stem$1 3nternal processes will %e $treamlined and adapted to provide electronic services to citizens and %usinesses within the pu%lic administration1 +1 6evelopments aimed at improving access to pu%lic customer services (approximatel* >-1?A of total funding(: The main ob5ective of this priorit* is to deliver the actions required to improve citizen services. Special attention will %e paid to the accessi%ilit* of citizen services %* disadvantaged people. ;1 2.referential development$2 (approximatel* +,1DA of total funding(: This priorit* aims to improve the efficiency and Cualit* of pu%lic administration services within the Central Hungary region1 >1 Technical assistance in regions falling under the Convergence ob5ective (approximatel* -1>A of total funding(' ?1 Technical assistance for the Central Hungary region (approximatel* ,1>A of total funding(: This finances technical and admini$trative ta$ s in relation to the implementation of the .rogramme1 The E-Governmental Free Software Competence Centre The main ob5ectives of the E-Governmental Free Software Competence Centre (in Hungarian' E&O.--1+1-?-+,---+,---,,,-( are: -1 to promote the growing share of open source applications in pu%lic admini$tration' +1 to increase the interopera%ilit* of different $*stems through information technolog* developments %ased on open source tools and open standard$1 The project highlights the importance of: -1 reducing the cost of software licences in pu%lic administration' +1 improving the Cualit* of government information technolog* services %* enhancing interopera%ilit* %etween different $*stem$' ;1 using the savings from reduced software licence costs to improve the Cualit* of government information technolog* services' >1 eliminating vendor lock-in of national data assets through ownership of software rights (use0 development0 further improvement0 etc.(1 The Competence Centre gives advice and technical support to $everal pro5ects aimed at introducing open source $oftware in pu%lic administration1 3t documents this process in the form of case $tudies which will help future open source $oftware migration pro5ect$1 To ensure the success of open source software introduction and migration project$0 the Competence Centre considers it extremel* important to provide projects with a professional nowledgebase and %ackground material: • To prepare for the support of pilot pro5ect$0 the Competence Centre pu%lishes studies of former Hungarian open source software migration project$0 including the legal %ackground to the use of open source software in the EB and Hungary1 Other studies examine experience0 observation$0 result$0 and policies with open source projects out$ide Hungary1 • The Competence Centre has created an open source software framework which it eeps up-to-date. As the first step in creating the framework0 the Competence Centre has examined and evaluated the open source software for t*pical admini$trative and enterprise ta$ $1 The final framework will contain open source software which the Competence Centre recommends for particular purposes, and which is suita%le for Hungary %* virtue of %eing full* localised0 supported0 availa%le for wide distri%ution1 • 3n$tructors from the Competence Centre train end users and $*stem administrators at the in$titution$ ta ing part in the pilot project$1 The training material is pu%lished so that other institutions can ma e use of it1 • One of the most important factors in choosing open source software for pu%lic administration is full Hungarian localisation (in Hungarian(1 3n the case of end-user software this includes Hungarian documentation1 The Competence Centre ha$ underta en to help localise open source software which is otherwise suita%le %ut which does not *et have satisfactory arrangements for Hungarian localisation1 E4amples which the Competence Centre is working on include 7i%reOffice, )ozilla products such a$ Firefox and the Thunderbird e-mail client0 and the GNOME desktop environment1 • The Competence Centre is %uilding a freel* availa%le nowledgebase of case $tudies, software documentation0 articles and training information1 The nowledgebase contains material produced %* the Competence Centre itself as well as open source documents from other Hungarian and international sources. • Through its developers, the Competence Centre corrects bugs and functional deficiencies (in Hungarian( that crop up during open source software migration pro5ect$1 The Competence Centre also plans variou$ projects to enhance interopera%ilit*1 • The Competence Center created introductory %ooks explaining the %asics of LibreLogo (a 7i%reOffice exten$ion to teach programming in elementary school$(0 the WordPress CMS and programming in the