Manager of AGIMO's strategic direction branch, Stewart's first assignment will be this year's Linuxworld conference and expo in Sydney next month where he will deliver a keynote address on "open source and the Australian government".

A spokesperson for AGIMO told Computerworld that Stewart's responsibilities include looking at how the office can improve the next version of the open source procurement guide and he will also "touch on examples of how open source is being used in the federal government".

"Open source falls in his branch," the spokesperson said.

Stewart will join an international line-up of government representatives at Linuxworld from as far afield as China, New Zealand, and Malaysia. Also represented will be Western Australia, New South Wales, the National Archives of Australia, and the United Nations-backed International Open Source Network (IOSN).

Linuxworld conference advisor Pia Waugh said the specialist government sessions will present the opportunity for mutual collaboration by government agencies across the region to "understand the open source opportunity at the business and broader national economic and social level".