Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Open Technology Foundation Launched Today


In Canberra today, I attended the launch of the Open Technology Foundation (OTF), an organisation which is dedicated to advancing the uptake of open technologies in government across Australia and New Zealand.

The OTF will focus on researching open technologies and how they are adopted, with the goal of delivering practical programs that enable governments to confidently implement open solutions. One interesting trend from overseas is that governments are increasingly choosing open technologies to meet citizens' growing expectations for online services at significantly reduced costs. One of the first OTF projects will target local Aussie and Kiwi governments.

Here at Google we are really passionate about openness.  In fact, we believe that open systems win. Quite simply, open source software (like Android and Google Chrome) benefits the whole internet: it provides the platform upon which people can innovate further, and create new systems. This helps to build a really robust ecosystem of technological innovation and fosters an environment of information sharing.

We wish the Open Technology Foundation well and look forward to hearing their voice in debates around openness and innovation.

Posted by Alan Noble, Director of Engineering, Google Australia.