Belgian federal decision

Thought this was nice to know:

Op voorstel van de heer Johan Vande Lanotte, Minister van Begroting, en de heer Peter Vanvelthoven, Staatssecretaris voor Informatisering van de Staat, keurde de Ministerraad de richtlijnen en aanbevelingen aan de federale overheidsdiensten voor het gebruik van standaarden, op maat gemaakte toepassingssoftware en vrije software goed.

If you don't know Dutch (or French -- the site is bilingual, just like Belgium itself): Belgian federal ministers have decided to mandate open standards for all federal service departments, and to make all software to which the government owns the copyright free (as in speech). This is great news, much of which has been the result of the persistent lobbying of a few people, including Herman Bruyninckx and others. If you like this news as much as I do, be sure to thank them!