On 7/17/06, Charles Yao <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> What should be done is have the government hire programmers so they put together software that meets government needs and provide it for free to others who will need it. And in so doing get automatic peer review from the thousands of programmers around the world. and also provide "vital infrastructure" to our economy.
[snipped]
This is a good idea, however, we must remember that it is not the governments job to provide this softwae. It is not their competencey. Their job is to run the country department by department.
Thats where we differ. I believe that its their job to provide the software. Imagine the quezon city mayor hiring a group of programmers to develop ways of displaying all relevant information about the city in a single display in his office. If they outsource the software how much is it going to cost? And who else are going to afford it? Everbody needs that kind of software right? For the government
technology is a tool to do whatever they have to do. They are not an IT firm. That is why most of IT projects are done by outsourced companies.
This is the status quo. It is hostile to open source. Im working for a communications company and yet i build system management software. I am even studying the linux kernel. I am stuying plan9 and 9p and im building and rebuilding a distribution. im writing a new gui. whats that got to do with sending and receiving sms from ocean going cargo vessels? A lot. An improvement in the platform benefits me directly. I dont need a NOC. My network is redundant and i dont have to edit config files anymore. Desktop design applied to servers. Another point is that the present development strategies recognized by government and the industry is spec driven. Somebody writes a spec, then somebody bids then somebody delivers the software then maintainance follows. Thats a broken system. Specs are always unrealistic and delivered software is always overengineered with 80% of the features actually unneeded. I have been burned by that too many times already and i believe that development strategy is only for big companies who can absorb the losses incurred. on the second thought even IBM is beginning to feel the pain. I guess M$ is the only company who is not.
Secondly, considering the budget deficit, I doubt the government can offer competitive packages to programmers. One question I have is what do you mean by "vital infrastructure" to our economy?
A standard api. Maybe a way to search their databases or documents. Analogous to bridges and roads. I would love to have access to expense reports for example. And i would like to be able to use a digital certificate as an ID. IT can be used to gain power. In the end thats how open source will become indispensable. -- things i hate about my linux pc: 1. it takes more than a second to boot up 2. keeps asking about filenames and directories 3. does not remember what i was working on yesterday 4. does not remember all the changes i have ever made 5.cannot figure out necessary settings by itself _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
