It seems our colonial cousins from across the great pond have taken quite a liking to open source technology -- an action that they claim will boost the UK's uptake in public services and innovation, and reduce costs and risks.

The ‘Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan' released last month praises the benefits of non-proprietary technologies. In a statement accompanying the report, Tom Watson, Minister for Digital Engagement, said that open source was a great example of how people working together can come up with products to "rival and sometimes beat those of giant corporations."

"Over the past five years many government departments have shown that Open Source can be best for the taxpayer - in our web services, in the NHS and in other vital public services," he said. He added that open source use encourages greater innovation, supports agility and cost cutting.

Generally speaking, the term open source refers to any software program or platform composed of source code made available for use or modification by other developers. The technology is typically developed as a public collaboration and made freely available for anyone to use without restrictions on intellectual property. Examples of open source technology include Wordpress, a blogging platform, and Mozilla Firefox -- that web browser all your geeky friends say is better than Internet Explorer. (It is.)

According to a Forrester Research survey of 2,200 IT executives in the UK, France, Germany, the US and Canada, some 46 percent of businesses have implemented open source software, or plan to pilot it this year. The main motivation to move to open source is cost savings, according to 56 percent of respondents. Because open source free and provides access to diverse production models, crowd-sourcing, and communities of programmers just dying to made cool stuff using the code, the green or pounds saved are more than enough to receive an approving nod.

Another driving force behind the conversion is the fact that planned implementation or expansion of open source software in business is higher than that of any other technology, including business process management, application lifecycle management and enterprise service buses. Recently, public companies in the US and Spain switched to open source systems such as Linux and OpenOffice.org, with an expected savings to reach the hundreds of millions of dollars.  

Because of the growing popularity of open sourcing, many vendors have been quick to show their support of the UK government's plans, including open source veteran Sun Microsystems.

"In the current economic climate, attention is focused on ways to keep down costs while increasing return on investment," said Kim Jones, President and managing director for Sun Microsystems in the UK and Ireland. "The UK Government could save millions of pounds every year if it made more use of open source as part of a competitive procurement system. We are convinced that open source and open standards drive much needed choice, competition and innovation in the market."

Perhaps it's time to remove the multi-million software contracts Uncle Sam engages in weekly as well...

Also Interesting:

[+] Interesting Gov 2.0 video from the Air Force

[+] Shale Oil: The Bubble Wrap Energy Solution

[+] Greasy fries may one day fuel our military

[+] L.A. is full of crap...and cashing in on it

[+] Top 50 Government Innovations for 2009 Announced by JFK School