The NSW Department of Education has put Microsoft on notice after it agreed to extend its software licensing agreement with the company for just one year instead of renegotiating a new three-year contract.

It's always seemed to me one of the biggest problems for free software that it's not well known in schools. As Microsoft understands - and as Apple first learned - if you get them young, you've pretty much got them forever. So it's good to see efforts being made to spread the open source word in the educational world, like this new effort by the Portuguese Ministry of Eduction

Senator Kate Lundy hosted a pre-2020 Summit event in Canberra last week to generate ideas on how open source technology, open standards and open access to information might transform the way government departments and the business world operate.

A deal struck by government CIO John Suffolk and the Cabinet Office could save the public sector billions of pounds by supplying networked, supported PCs for around half the typical price.

US intelligence agencies are using Google's technology to help its agents share information about their suspects.

"Let me introduce myself -- I am the Bulgarian Minister of State Administration. I am pleased to announce that the Bulgarian government, having read the "Philosophy" section at www.gnu.org, has decided to stop tormenting the citizens, taking away their freedom and restricting them.

The Open Information Systems for Emergency Services (Open ISES) Project recently released their latest version of an open source Computer Aided Dispatch program called Tickets. They have also begun work and released our first draft of Cards, an Emergency Medical Dispatch program.