What else can we get for free?

Every department at the moment is looking to save money.  Whether it is saving a penny here or there; money saved is money earned.  One of the best things that many business have done to save money is to transfer to freeware.  Freeware is money that you do not have to pay for, and is usually as good - if not better - than the stuff you have to pay for. Which departments, therefore have looked into this area OR contributed to it?  Let's find out!

Nasa has a very good policy in which everything that it makes is available for commercial release.  This policy has had a MASSIVE effect upon the things that we have around us.  So does the British one have a similar policy?  The answer is no…  Now wouldn't it be cool if they did?  The thing is that this got me thinking about other ways that government can help us.

How about freeware?  Freeware is software that you do not have to pay for.  Believe me there is TONNES of it available. With respect, the government spends a LOT of money of making information available , it would be cool if they help develop ways to process it?  Let's ask them and see what we can do.

First off, I asked the National Counter Terrorism Security Office if they provided any help to the freeware community (With hindsight, I can HONESTLY say that that don't remember why I thought that this was a good a good idea), and lo and behold, they don't.  So let's think about some of the more (Sensible?).

Sometimes, thought, it could be that the different departments have not looked at the issue of freeware.  Maybe if the Cabinet office started the discussion into freeware, they would help the others?  Turns out they have not looked at it. OK well, how about if the British Space Agency was to develop or use freeware tools, would that help freeware?  They don't use it either…  Ok, how about the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills?  Surely they would give out grants 9as it would help develop people's IT skills and enterprise skills.  Again, the answer was that they couldn't find the info.  What about - closer to home - the Cardiff Business Technology Centre Limited?  At time of writing, they have not got back to me.

So why am I looking into this?  At the moment, every council is looking to save some money.  As previously stated in one of my other blogs, the G cloud and the cost of software is a bit hefty.  If these departments were to embrace the freeware, then maybe that would be able to save some money elsewhere.  I mean the Welsh Government have looked into the idea of freeware and cloud computing, so why not other governmental departments?  It would defiantely