Best of luck to those attending and trying to get some consensus from the attendees.
Hope that FOSSAP also addresses the global need for low-cost Healthcare.
Issues ancillary to those stated will have to be addressed, e.g., political and legal.
In the US Senator Hillary Clinton took a bold step in essentially suggesting funding of
a study. Hope she succeeds, but with the political focus on other matters and control
in the hands of the opposition, reason and logic are unlikely to prevail. The legislators,
and others, are more interested in personal benefit at any time and continue to reinforce
that opinion.
The best hope is to gather a collection of states and representatives that can really and
immediately use any benefits and forge some on-the-ground approach. I'll include the
UN since they have accomplished great feats in the presence of these prior obstacles.
With a very large number of IT personnel in the US wearing-out shoe leather looking
for employment, my guess is that some number of volunteers could be assembled.
Then perhaps, with the assistence of established organizations and researchers in the EU,
and hopefully volunteers from Asia, a partially global organization might result.
Open-Source-Software (OSS) would be both appropriate and necessary. Ensuring that
related organizations and support remain low-cost would also be important. Products and
services delivered would be very afforable. A major issue would, however, appear
immediately on the horizon, i.e., would the appearence of any major componet or
individual service be accepted in countries where NIH (Not Invented Here) prevails?
Perhaps one should think about an organization with a global reach that can oversee and
provide management services for 'OS - Free and Open Source Software' and its application
in low-cost Healthcare globally.
Regards!
-Thomas Clark
Molly Cheah wrote:
There is an effort being made to influence top decision on OS - Free and Open Source Software Asia-Pacific (FOSSAP) Consultation on 9-11 February 2004 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The FOSSAP consultation will primarily target decision-makers that influence national policy. http://www.iosn.net/fossap/
but let's not be depressed! Anyone who expects OS to be created as a principle from the top down rather than the bottom up is probably dreaming.
UNDP/IOSN actually fund participants for this meeting. Since this is for Asia-Pacific region, Australia should qualify to attend....
Molly
