Politicians and City Council members of the city of Bern formed, on 26 April 2012, a group for Digital Sustainability that advocates the city's IT Department independence from of IT vendors and the introduction of solutions of long term sustainability.
The new group also wants to make digital data publicly available in order to increase openness and make it easier for citizens to get involved in the city administration.
"The Bern city council regularly considers requests for IT projects requiring millions for new hardware and software, or that involve renewing of existing applications", the Digital Sustainability Group said in a press statement via email. "The council is often faced with the challenge of having well-founded opinions regarding IT at the right time during the decision-making process."