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Next Steps

Open Standards

• Endorsement of current open Standards identified in the GC standard on Web interoperability and GC standard on Web accessibility
  • HTML5, UTF-8, RDFa Lite, Schema.org, Atom
  • WCAG 2.0
• Require that all new purchases, upgrades or migrations (including cloud solutions) store and manage data with open Standards
  • Factor in the use of open Standards when calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) of a solutions including exit or transition costs
  • Configure existing solutions to use open standards where possible
  • EARB process to support active application when adopting solutions
• Endorsement of current preferred (pilots, principles, guidelines) open Standards in the GC
  • Open Contracting Data Standard (PSPC Open Contracting Data Standard pilot)
  • PDF/A, EPUB3, XML, CSV (GC open data/information principles)
  • EPUB3, PDF/A, ODF, EML, MBOX, .. (LAC guidelines on file formats for transferring information resources of enduring value)
• Align with UK open standards for government
  • Adopt open Standards selected by UK Open Standards Board
    • HTML5, PDF/A, ODF, Open Contracting Data Standard, vCard, iCalendar, ..
  • Collaborate with UK to select new open standards for governments
  • Adapt and adopt UK guidance on ODF and procurement to GC

Open Source Software use

• Plan to eliminate current lock-in to closed-source operating system by favoring use of open source multi-platform or Web applications
  • Endorse open source Web browser, office suite and other productivity tools for use by all departments and agencies’ workplace technology devices
• Require that all new purchases, upgrades or migrations (including cloud solutions) actively and fairly consider open source software (OSS) during procurement
  • Factor in the use of OSS when calculating TCO of a solutions including exit or transition costs
  • Select OSS on the basis of its additional inherent flexibility, when there is no significant overall (full-lifecycle) cost (TCO) difference with closed-source solutions
  • EARB process to support active application when adopting solutions
• Use OSS components in development projects and build solutions based on existing OSS

Open Source Software contribution

• Support and be an active contributor (code, issues, testing, roadmap, ..) to OSS used by the GC and/or where there is benefit to Canadians
  • Comply to the licenses of OSS projects they contribute to
• Support initiatives such as the The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative to help ensure that critical libraries for modern Internet communications are monitored and supported

Release code developed internally as under Open Source Software licenses

• Publish as OSS all source code created or modified, whether developed in-house by government staff or through negotiated contracts

• Encourages contributions to its OSS projects, whether it be code, commentary, bug reports, feature requests, or overall strategic direction

Open Source Software Community Building

• Provide awards and recognition for departments, units and individuals using open standards and open source software in the GC

Other

• Update cloud adoption strategy to reflect direction on the use of open standards and OSS