Govt gives free software a run

By RICHARD WOOD

The e-government unit of the State Services Commission has surprised the Open Source community by implementing Open Source directory software in one of its projects.

Directory software holds the basic identity information to verify a computer user's identity.

Open Source software is developed co-operatively by individuals and businesses around the world and provided free for use, to modify and redistribute.

Open Source will also get a look-in against competing vendors' products when the e-government unit considers which software to use for authenticating business and public access to Government services online.

NZ Open Source Society spokesman Peter Harrison said Open Source usually missed out on Government deals because the software did not have an associated vendor to respond to requests for information.

"I'm impressed that some of these Government departments are looking beyond vendors," said Harrison. "The Government purchasing guidelines do not specify looking at Open Source."

The e-government unit supports the email side of the Government's Secure Electronic Environment (SEE) system for interdepartmental communication.

Program architect Brendan Kelly said the SEE Mail project required a directory so agencies could find who was using the secure email service.

OpenLDAP, the software being used by the commission, has been tested running on Open Source operating system Red Hat 7.1 Linux.

An e-government online report said the unit was "very impressed with the stability, consistency and reliability of the product", but OpenLDAP is mentioned only as a stopgap measure.

The report said an Open Source directory presented a "viable starting point deferring the need to select a particular directory vendor, allowing valuable experience to be gained in the implementation and usage of a directory for minimal outlay."

Kelly said OpenLDAP was a viable option for further use within the Government.

Unit head Brendan Boyle said the e-government unit considered Open Source software every time it needed a solution.

He said looking at Open Source was not just about cost.

"Cost would be an implication obviously, but the bottom line is that whatever we do has to meet the need."

Kelly said the use of OpenLDAP was not intended to replace any existing Government department's directories and the unit had consulted major vendors to ensure the system was inter-operable.

"In developing the policy we worked with Microsoft, Novell and Solnet to cover the major flavours of types of directories," he said.

"All three vendors were confident it would not cause them problems." "

Boyle said the expertise gained from using OpenLDAP would also be useful for the wider authentication system that would be required for government-to-business and government-to-citizen systems.

That is a deal all the major directory vendors will be wanting to win.

Peter Revell, country manager of one such vendor, Novell, said he was not familiar with OpenLDAP capabilities but it had not been a serious challenger.

"In the debates and strategic thinking with [our] customers regarding meta directory strategies and identity management, OpenLDAP is not on the radar screen at all."

The Inland Revenue Department has Novell software providing authentication for 16,000 employers. That deal was talked about last year as being able to be extended to the general taxpayer.

Boyle said that although having one directory for public access was the most efficient, any arrangement was more likely to involve a number of directories due to privacy considerations.

S.E.E. Directory: Paper 1 - Viability of open source options in the directory space