The Netherlands economic affairs ministry said last week that parliament had approved a plan that will mandate the use of open standards and open source software government-wide. It has also set an ambitious May 2008 target by which time all national agencies will be expected to use open software. State and local government organisations will be required to adopt the same rules by 2009.[...]Under the new open standards and open source policy, agencies will need to justify their use of propriety software where there is no obvious alternative. The new rules will be enforced by an "open source police" unit and an open source hotline.

Massachusetts has been leading similar efforts in the U.S. While open source will save governments money on expensive software licenses, there are more important reasons to use it. As governments become e-governments, it is important that government forms, licenses, documents and archives be open-able and usable by any citizen or business on any computer platform.