Information Technology and Power: The state policy in the field of open source software discussed at the Russian Open Source Summit 2012

On April 12, 2012 the deputy Minister of Mass Communications of the Russian Federation Iliya Massukh told about the state policy in the field of free software (OSS) at the Russian Open Resource Summit 2012 (that was) devoted to the development of free software in Russia.

According to Iliya Massukh, the model of OSS has established itlself as an effective one both in Russia and in the world. The Deputy Minister gave examples of the use of free software by the Ministry of Communications while implementation of national projects: the portal for public services as well as other components of the e-government operate effectively on the basis of open source. “Web-election 2012” project successfully implemented in March was also developed on the basis of OSS.

"The ministry has become one of the initiators of designing the rules of open source software development in Russia. As there are lots of developers, we try not to choose someone in particular but support the community as a whole ", - said Ilya Massukh. He also marked it was important to develop standards that ensure compatibility of software solutions created by different teams.

Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Communications noted a tendency of shifting from the classical model of the software use to the cloud model in which software is provided as a service. As international and Russian practice show, free software is the most effective instrument for implementing solutions based on cloud model.

Lately the Ministry of Communications of Russia has used free software and cloud model to create significant public projects. The effectiveness of this strategy shows a significant improvement of Russia's position in the ranking of e-government development according to the UN - our country has risen from the 52nd to the 27th position in 2011.