Geek Reservists

Well done to the South African government for adopting a policy of open source. It is good to read that SITA has set up FOSS Program Office.
However I must note that their site does not play too nicely in my FF3.

Seeing that FOSS is all about the community, why don't governments encourage participation by civilians? Why not set up a Geek Reserve similar to the Police Reservist volunteers - they may even entice foreign volunteers that are interested in the platform.

Reward contributions with a medal/certificate or a tax break or a donation payable to the open source project platform that is being used and volunteer numbers will swell.

A good starting point for prioritising the migration would be a catalogue of software currently in use along with # of instances and licence fees that are currently funded by tax payers. Although volunteers are more likely to contribute in areas of their own interest, which may not necessarily coincide with governments priorities.

But before diving headfirst after the first replacement that is tagged as FOSS, a well documented and accessible architecture should be established like the US National Institutes of Health.