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On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 11:57:32AM +0100, tom wrote:
> Henry even if a certain local authority was interested in open source I
> would not assume for one minute that they are also interested in
> providing jobs, developing skills or necessarily cutting costs.
>
Agreed. You could of course argue that one of the functions of
Government would be developing skills, promoting efficiency, and dare I
say it increasing the Regional Domestic Product.
I would also agree that this is difficult and requires skill.
> The time to prepare and implement conversion from proprietary to free
> software was during the good years when the conversion costs could have
> been absorbed
Agreed. It there not something in the bible about 7 fat years and 7
lean years and the fat years being the times to prepare.
Funny how stories repeat.
> .... the investment required now would be far too
> expensive and painful and would be seen politically as folly given the
> commercial sector is tightening its belt.
>
Difference in emphasis between the UK and US. The US is actively
spending money on infrastructure investments that pay off in the medium
term. UK seems to be get re-elected presumably because they cannot blame
anyone else.
March
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Yvette Cooper, today announced
Government action to ensure vital PFI infrastructure projects will
go forward as planned despite the current financial market
conditions.
April
The Budget says that the Government will work with interested local
authorities and city-regions to assess the scope for accelerating
development by allowing investment in infrastructure to be financed
from the increased property tax base that could be enabled by the
existence of improved infrastructure.
> Currently a lot of local authorities are loosing good staff with
> experience of the business model because of enforced Job Evaluation
> exercises that are not favourable to technically skilled people.
>
Job evaluation can be made to work but as long as you realise that a
teacher and a techy require different management. Management, surprise
surprise, is key.
> Not that I want to sound negative but, given the "skills drain", the
> recession and the lack of political will to convert to open source /
> free software, I think your lobbying will fall of deaf ears.....
>
:) The only power I have is stating clearly that Devon County Council
are losing between £0.5m and £13m with their insistence on staying with
proprietary software. If those figures are stated often enough, perhaps
someone might decide to do something about it. Perhaps. I am not holding
my breath.
> If central government where really committed to open source / free
> software then the landscape would be very much different now. As it is
> the political noises made (in this country) about open source / free
> software are not currently on the "must do" list.
>
The current Government seems more interested in spin than government.
What was that wonderful comment "the end of boom and bust". Hmm
> More likely that local authorities will turn more and more to the
> "commissioning model" which will involve contracting out every last
> piece of IT work to some commercial facilitator like South West One (IBM
> consortium) or (even worse) Capita.
>
Commissioning out is fine: if managed properly. Big IF.
Frankly if the authorities are getting rid of the good techies then it is
probably good that the work is outsourced. I wonder if they could
outsource the management as well.
Mind you the issue of value for money then appears.
> Local government is highly political and there any process that can be
> out sourced means less responsibility / risk for the authority. The
> hope of council management is that the attention will be focused on
> the bad service provider than the bad choice of service provider when
> things go wrong.
>
I am sure that the service provider will be happy to accept the blame as
long as they get appropriately paid. The fiasco on the exam results over
the summer is a case in point
"Ed Balls was accused today of "sexing up" his evidence to the inquiry into last
summer's school tests fiasco and seeking to dodge blame for the debacle."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6146805.ece
> Having said all that I wish you luck in your lobbying.
>
The only advantage of living in a democracy is the ability to choose
someone else.
--
Henry
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