> why is the state > pushing MS Office? Inertia. They are rarely ahead of the technology curve on anything, and open source is still pretty rare on the desktop. How many people do you know who use linux or have some OSS app on their windows desktop that you don't know through this list or some high-tech connection? For me it's still zero. The day will come when Joe Sixpack will be using OSS because it's cheaper & better, but it ain't here yet.
> Just on Tuesday I was a visitor at UH Engineering college, they > too have so much to offer the state, I'm saying why not use the > college to develop open source programs, other equiptment > (servers, computers) for the state and keep the money and the > knowledge base in the state. They already do major research > projects that can mean $$$ for the state. 1) It would have to be part of some research project, not just a production deal. The university is in the research business, not high tech job training (perhaps unfortunately). Still I suppose it could be done somehow - ANCL <http://ancl.ics.hawaii.edu/ > might be a good model, they have research stuff in their mission statement, but I am tempted to think of them as primarily a testing lab (formerly for Internet Week, now InfoWorld). You'd need to find some OSS guru to lead it. Anyone want to go for a PHD at UH to fill this void? But if all the state wants is integration of existing software (seems likely?), then there's really no research aspect and so no role for the university. The HOSEF approach has been a bit conservative in this area (probably rightly), just "replace current windows-based computing capabilities of Hawaii schools or expand computing capabilities with OSS because it's cheaper & better." Maybe I'm not being creative enough, but I don't hear an obvious research question there. If that's our motivation, then the big question is "where do we get the resources we need?" and going through the university just complicates matters. 2) Someone at the legislature has to take a leadership position & carry the ball (at least nominally). Maybe Hoala's efforts with Ige will get this going. Alternative approaches would be to offer research grants in the area (generally, not just UH), or have a contest of some kind. But we need to be a bit more specific about what we want than "open source software developed or integrated or used or maintained in Hawaii." Don't we? And of course there's what we have now - let HOSEF volunteers do it. And the "business as usual" variant - have DOE hire some people to do it. TB
