On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 2:15 PM, Ashik S <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all > > The Free Software Users' Group Thiruvananthapuram has sent the following > letter to the Chief Minister of Kerala as well as the secretary of state for > IT. ( link: > http://www.fosscommunity.in/wiki/Letter_to_Chief_Minister_of_Kerala_on_IT_Policy_Violation > ). > > "We, the Free Software Community in Thiruvananthapuram, understand that the > Kerala State IT Mission is setting up a new organization called KSDI ( Kerala > State Spatial Data Infrastructure ). They have put up a Request for Proposals > (RFP), on the IT Mission's website, for selection of total solution providers > for setting up a Geoportal and Clearinghouse for the Kerala State Spatial Data > Infrastructure (KSDI). The tender document available for download in the above > link describes an infrastructure that could be completely supported by Free > and Open Source Software, but it calls for using proprietary solutions. The > state's IT Policy mandates the use of Free Software for government agencies > and the tender document is a blatant violation of this policy. > > Specific points that we wish to point out: > > 1. A clear violation in the stated IT policy : The tender document > specifically calls for the purchase of proprietary software (pages 109-110) > like > > Microsoft Windows XP Professional > ERDAS imagine > ERDAS Vector, autoSync, VirtualGis, > ERDAS Map2PDF, MosaicPro > LPS Core, LPS Stereo, LPS Automatic terrain > Editor, Terrain Extraction > ArcInfo > ArcGIS 3D Analyst, Network analyst > ArcView > Oracle 10i, SQL Server, .net > > 2. In several sections in the RFP, support for some proprietary > technologies like Active Directory Services are being demanded. These are > neither requisites nor irreplaceable as per the requirements in the RFP. No > free software solution will be able to provide support for these proprietary > technologies fully but there are many that might effectively replace them. > > 3. The RFP does not necessitate that the software developed for the > government is to be under free software license. Nor is it asking for handing > over the copyright to the government so that the government can release it and > maintain it under free software licenses. This is serious since this makes the > government dependant on the service provider forever and effectively bars any > future move by the government to change the service provider and switch over > to a better or self supporting scheme. > > 4. The RFP demands that proprietary geo data formats have to be supported. > This leaves a loop hole for usage of proprietary software to be used. This > also prevents usage of free software to access and manipulate data in such > format, limiting the current as well as future scope for free software usage. > > > We do not know how this document with such blatant violation of the state's IT > policy has come through from a government which is actively promoting Free > Software. But we are sure that if the government goes ahead with the purchase > of such expensive proprietary software it is only the third party proprietary > software providers who are going to benefit for as long as the project stays > alive. We believe that it is our responsibility to bring this to your > attention and to bring to your notice that the requirements could be satisfied > using Free Software without risking vendor lock in and without wasting public > funds. > > We, the Free Software Community in Thiruvananthapuram, request the Honourable > Chief Minister to look into the situation and take necessary steps to avoid > this violation and save the state money amounting to crores of rupees. We also > request the government to invest money that is being held for these purposes > to build reusable free software components for this project so that similar > future endeavours by the government as well as the community might benefit > from it. Such move also guarantees employment generation at the local level > and the money the state spends will remain in the state itself instead of > going out to foreign software monopolies. " >
Great Initiative Ashik, and ILUG TVM friends, lets draft a letter from FOSSCOMM using same points . anyone want to add more points? Anivar _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
