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On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <matthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Quoting Henry Bremridge <henry.bremridge@xxxxxxxxx>: > > Hi Henry, > >> 1/ As far as I am concerned what is more important than licensing is >> that the Devon County Council look carefully at what IT systems >> they have and make appropriate choices to cut costs and improve >> service. While I do not believe that Opensource is the answer to >> every solution and proprietary software will continue to have its >> role; I believe that opensource should be the default model for >> public money. > > I agree entirely. > >> 2/ I have not run a PR campaign but comments in >> http://www.writetothem.com/about-guidelines make a lot of sense to me. > > I've just read them and they do make sense. What I'm trying (and have > been threatening for months now!) to put together is a site that is a > resource of information that can be used as templates for people to > help parliament/local govt/schools/others see the benefits of > opensource. This would include leaflets produced by LUGs/LoCos for > different events (SFD, LUG Meets, Install Days etc), letters that have > been written to organisations, booklets that are released under > CC/GFDL etc. and would provide a central repository of > Distribution-agnostic literature to promote FLOSS. I was hoping that > I might be able to include your letter as part of it. I like your idea. It makes me think of doing something akin to the VMWare total cost of ownership calculator for virtualization. I think in another thread (can't remember which sorry), somebody also discussed having shared tech-time amongst various schools that can't justify a FT person. Mashing in a way to resource-schedule for those types of organizations would add value. > >> 3/ The point of my letter was to ensure that the key decision makers >> were aware that opensource is not "mickey mouse / hacker / teenage >> kids" (insert your negative epithet) toy but a real tool >> increasingly used by local governments around the world. Even the >> Conservative Party seems to have twigged that opensource works. >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7853086.stm > > Hmmm, I'll let you know about this one, I recieved the conservative > press release yesterday via email and am waiting for 5 minutes free > time to read it. The report is yet to be published. There are loads of looks at open source mandates at the government level. usa, china, germany, brazil... Here's some links: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10147920-16.html http://www.gmanews.tv/story/112115/Microsoft-launches-open-source-lab-in-RP http://www.bios.org.bd/os_advocacy/germany.php http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/business/2008/0806111038.asp?O=FPTOP&S=IT%20in%20government&A=ITG http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/12/nanchang-china-mandates-linux.html Microsofts OS licenses: http://opensource.org/licenses/ms-pl.html http://opensource.org/licenses/ms-rl.html I don't necessarily agree with mandated open-source for anyone, but the links are good information nonetheless. > >> 4/ Given that the DCC is encouraging people to write to it on >> suggestions on how to spend money, and given that local council >> elections are due to take place on 04 Jun 09; then I feel the people >> should contact their representatives suggesting a switch to >> opensource. But in their own words and with their own, reasoned, >> arguments. > > That's fair enough, I'm looking for ways to help people in the > direction of writing well-structured letters/leflets by example. > > Kind regards, > > Matt > -- > Matthew Macdonald-Wallace > matthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://www.truthisfreedom.org.uk/ > > -- > The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG > http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list > FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html > -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html