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On 27/09/10 20:35, tom brough wrote:
On 27/09/10 19:32, Gordon Henderson wrote:On Mon, 27 Sep 2010, tom wrote:http://toughchoices.co.uk/ If enough of us comment on FLOSS for savings.... One or two at each meeting would be interesting...FWIW: My wife (in her capacity as a participation/youth democracy worker) is going to try to get some young people (mostly the current members of the Devon Youth Parliament) to attend every one of these meetings to give the young people a chance to voice their concerns. I think some of us ought to attend them too and be positive about it all. I also don't think they'd be spending the money doing this if they weren't going to listen.Sorry Gordon... I strongly disagree with your interpretation of the above. The exercise is so that they can tick the "have I consulted the public?" box. The decision has already been made, the mechanics are ready to rumble and the axe ground to a slither. At least that's the way it works in Torbay.
So are you saying that these consultations that Torbay have been having have just been to make the public think they're taking the ideas and suggestions on board?
I've not been able to make it to any of them (I've been at home looking after the kids) so I don't know if anyone mentioned FLOSS. I wonder how many more people would be interested in the savings if they understood things better (like how councils are spending hundreds of thousands, maybe even a couple of million) on expensive software licensing when comparable FLOSS solutions are available (sure they might require a couple of sysadmins at £30k a year to implement but I bet it would be cheaper than what a whole load of enterprise licenses from Microsoft and other suppliers would cost, and maybe even the sysadmin resources could be pooled across a couple of neighbouring councils (such as maybe Devon, Teignbridge, South Hams, Torbay, Plymouth).
Whether they act on what we say is another matter, but at least we can have our say - and, more importantly have it recorded what we say in a public forum.Reminds me of a Yes Minister sketch when Hacker asks Sir Humphry to release a whole set of embarrassing documents. When Sir Humphry brings him the massive lever arch file there is only one piece of paper in their and a massive wadge of legal stuff explaining all the reasons why other papers had been "redacted" (although I don't think they used that word in those days). Now the will just say the Hard Disk got corrupted and the backup would not restore .... The cynic in me would say take your OWN video / audio recording device....
Hmmm... would they allow the public to being along such devices?
In Torbay we have regular "Road Shows" ... which the public are sick of because they don't motion any change in council behavior or bring jobs, security or prosperity in any shape or form.
Not surprised, as a Torbay resident I get fed up with the new schemes and things that Nick Bye comes up with, seems like he comes up with some barmy thing so we forget about the other barmy ideas he came up with the week before.
This first one is this Thursday: Cullompton 6:30pm Thursday 30 September Town Hall, 1 High Street, Cullompton EX15 1AB http://toughchoices.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Tough-choices-cullompton.pdf
I would go along alas again I'm looking after the kids that evening. If there is one closer though (say Teignbridge area) I'd be interested in going along with anyone else who might be going (dependent on child care).
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq