Here in Finland the government has been pushing Open Source for a while already.

The Ministry of Finance started an Open Source examination project back in 2001, and made openness of code and interfaces a recommendation for governmental information systems (also in Finnish).

In addition, the Ministry of Interior is funding the Finnish Center for Open Source Software (COSS), an Open Source advocacy group.

The number of areas where Open Source products and solutions are applicable, is increasing steadily. COSS aims at recognizing the key sectors where needs and possibilities for Open Source are most urgent, and directs its efforts towards them.

COSS contacted me last week, and we will have to see how Nemein could work together with them. Cooperation with Open Source business incubators like Linux Greenhouse could also be interesting.

Midgard has already made some inroads to government use, including running the New Zealand eGovernment portal (see case study).