Hi Thomas, I have no insights in endorsing free software to mid-sized US city officials, however I have tried convincing IT and non-IT managers in Dutch primary education, to favor free software over proprietary solutions.
Unfortunately my arguments were rejected, based on the following findings of these managers: 1. No ad-hoc professional support for Free Software 2. Legal issues (What if free software causes data leakage?) 3. Problems finding free-software specialized companies 4. Expecting problems for end-users using free software interfaces I have tried to mitigate their concerns by: 1. Handing over a list of specialized free software companies 2. I opposed this argument by stating that proprietary software will always reject accusations, and there is no way to verify their arguments on data-leakage issues 3. See 1 4. I opposed by pointing that end-users were likely having no trouble when buying an iPad or Smartphone, which relies on a complete different interface and navigation compared to desktop-pc's or laptops I am interested in more 'transition' stories! Kind regards, Kees Epema On Mon, 13 Mar 2017 13:32:44 -0700 Thomas Lord <[email protected]> wrote: > > Do any readers of this list have experience helping a city, > particularly a mid-sized US city, begin to transition from > proprietary software systems to libre systems? If so, I would > be grateful to hear your experience and advice. > > I live in Berkeley California, and will soon be discussing libre > software with some city officials. Currently, Berkeley > exclusively uses proprietary software in its offices. Elected > officials use a corporate email service with poor privacy > policies to keep in contact with constituents. City Council > meetings and other important meetings are live streamed, but the > format requires recent versions of flash, and the vendor who > provides the streaming service both has poor privacy policies, > and refuses to support formats libre viewers can handle. > > Most immediately, I will try to help one elected official adopt > libre, and more privacy-respecting solutions to keeping in > contact with constituents. I'm not sure what direction to > prioritize beyond that. > > Does anyone have related experience or suggestions? > > Thanks, > -t > > Thomas Lord > [email protected] > Berkeley, CA USA > > p.s.: Perhaps of relevant interest is this ordinance from the > Berkeley Municipal Code, adopted in 2011. It provides both > constraints and support for adapting libre software: > > > 2.06.170 Technology standards. > > A. To provide for the accessibility of electronic information > on the City’s website, the City shall: > > 1. Meet or exceed the guidelines for accessibility specified by > the Federal General Services Administration pursuant to Section > 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d) as it may be > amended from time to time. > > 2. When feasible within resource constraints, use open, > non-proprietary, standards-based data formats on public facing > information systems. When platform-specific formats must be > used, provide an alternate format or a viewer to consume the > file types. > > 3. Make audio and video available for both download and > streaming using open, cross-platform, standards-based formats, > accessible by a broad range of computer operating systems and > portable devices. > > 4. When feasible within resource constraints, avoid web content > types that are not compatible across browsers (such as Flash). > > 5. Make substantive website changes trackable in an open, > cross-platform, standards-based journal format (such as RSS). > > B. Nothing in this Section shall require programming a computer > to respond to a request for information or to release > information that would violate a licensing agreement or > copyright law. (Ord. 7166-NS § 1 (part), 2011) > > > > _______________________________________________ > libreplanet-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss --- Groet, Kees Epema Rosa Spierweg 20 9408EV Assen T: 06 100 66 878 M: [email protected] Protect your privacy and encrypt your messages. Add my key to your keyring: PGP key: http://osmigratie.nl/keesepema.asc
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