Members of the Management Information Team of the City of Surigao periodically undergo FOSS trainings.

The Management Information Team (MIT), the technical working group of the City of Surigao's Committee on Computerization Program, proudly advocates the use of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and open source programming framework. The MIT uses open source software in developing information systems needed by the City Government, and in implementing computerized solutions for the use of the Surigaonon community.

This website is hosted in a dedicated Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Linux server using Apache for the Web server, MySQL for the database server, PHP for the Web-based applications and dynamic Web content and other FOSS solutions embedded by default in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server Edition. Our website is also developed using Joomla! content management system. The Surigao City Community Forums, meanwhile, is powered by Simple Machines.

	The MIT staff attend an Ubuntu training with volunteer-trainers from the International Open Source Network, an information technology advocacy of the United Nations Development Programme.

Our mail server is also run by Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Linux server using Zimbra Open Source Collaboration Suite, which integrates open-source software, such as Postfix, openLDAP, Apache Tomcat, MySQL, ClamAV, SpamAssassin and Amavisd-new. It provides basic webmail services and other collaboration solutions like calendaring and directory services.

Because of open source software, the MIT staff easily benchmarked applications, thus developing time becomes shorter. The staff members also continue to undergo FOSS trainings to better enhance them in FOSS development. Trainings are also continuously conducted for the employees of the City Government to give them alternative solutions to otherwise proprietary software.

As of August 2007, the MIT proudly announces its conversion of 30 desktop computers out of the almost 200 computers in the City Hall. Spreadsheets with formulas and macros were also converted to open document format using OpenOffice.org Calc. Although the transition is slow and a little bit hard, the MIT would push through with its migration project. Procurement of proprietary software like Microsoft Windows are withheld at the moment, unless necessary or the application that's going to be used has no alternative in FOSS. Meanwhile, those computers which are still installed with Windows were installed with OpenOffice.org, Pidgin, Inkscape and other open-source software ported in Windows. This way, users become familiar with open-source software even before converting their desktops to Linux.