Free ITIL®

The Free ITIL Movement is an informal community for those who wish to support the following proposition:

We the supporters of the Free ITIL Movement call upon the Cabinet Office of Her Majesty's UK Government to honour the spirit of the government's policy on transparency and public data, and the letter of the United Kingdom Government Licencing Framework (UKGLF), by releasing the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL).

So far 2.5% of those reading this page have gone on to sign the petition. C'mon folks! Get with it! Here's why:

The OGL is a new licence introduced by the new UK government to open up public data. Supposedly tax-payer-funded products of the government are supposed to be released back to the public as a commons resource.

"free as in free speech not free as in free beer"
ITIL is a body of knowledge that has a huge international user community. Over a million people have been trained in it. That community

• contribute much of the content
• review all the content
• translate all the content
• did all the marketing, and still do most of it
• ran the international roadshow in 2007 to release the latest version to the world
• continue to operate the only useful communities

We hope that the UK Government will take this opportunity to make a major contribution to IT efficiency and effectiveness worldwide by releasing ITIL back to that community because:

• ITIL will otherwise eventually be over-run by other frameworks with a more enlightened attitude to creating a community of open content
• Developing countries are constrained in their ability to access the content which costs about five hundred pounds per copy, and to access training which costs thousands of pounds to attend
• ITIL is currently entangled in contractual and licensing constraints that led the UK's Office of Public Sector Information to remark " ...this begs the question as to why [OGC] sponsors the publication of proprietary IT service management guides"

The OGC has already collected royalties on a million certifications, hundreds of thousands (millions?) of books, and many trademark licences and product certifications. I think it is safe to say they have covered costs. Besides setting ITIL free doesn't mean making it free. People will still buy the books, just not because they have to, not as often, and not at monopolistic prices. Vendors will still certify their products, companies will still use accredited trainers, and another million people will be certified.

We think ITIL content should be open content available for reuse in the same way that the similar Microsoft Operating Framework is already (it uses the Creative Commons licence). OGC would retain control of the ITIL trademark, protecting the brand (which must be acknowledged every time the open content is used). We think this should not constrain trainers from providing un-accredited training about ITIL (let the buyer decide if accreditation is important), consultants from using ITIL in their own products (thereby further promoting usage and sales of ITIL), and authors from adding value to the ITIL body of knowledge.

By opening up ITIL, Her Majesty's Government will make a major contribution to the IT industry worldwide, will entrench ITIL's preeminent position, and will encourage the community to willingly contribute volunteer content and labour to OGC's products into the future.

Please, free ITIL®. Someone has to govern the ITIL brand to keep all users honest.
But they should be free to use it honestly.

Not convinced? Here's more on why this is a good idea.

If you support this idea, send your views to the UK Government here by joining our petition.

195 Petitioners as at 30th July 2011