Hi pluggers.
First of all, let me start by saying that I am a linux newbie, works for a government
office, and a recent admirer of Open Source Systems/Software (OSS) philosophy.
Especially now that I have finished reading a copy of the essay "In the beginning was
the command line" by Neal Stephenson.
Presently, my work deals chiefly with evaluating and providing advise and assistance
on technology matters for the office (which shall remain unnamed for now). This office
never had any specific person or unit that would handle IT tasks or systems, which
resulted to the acquisition of some sub-standard or inappropriate equipment, lack of
licenses (only about 15% of the units have licensed OS in them, they don't even have
the proper license for the office suite in use.) Recently, I have submitted my
proposal to re-organize a division for that purpose. The feedback I got was that
either they'd agree to the proposal or create an new division instead. In any case, my
present branch is called "Technical Support Services" - a catch-all branch for
anything technical or related to technology now butthis branch used to handle the
legal matters for the office.
Some mails back, I have inquired about local OSS developers/companies.The reason for
this is I'm doing a preliminary review of who might be able to provide consultancy
services for us . Gov't regulation requires public bidding for contract of such
services (or at the very least a canvass of quotations from potential contractors.)
My personal vision for the new/re-org'd division is that it will be primarily an OSS
shop (yeah i know i'm being biased on this), that all back-end systems will be running
on linux, and all new applications (we don't have a single IS in use now) will be
using OSS for development (outsourced or developed internally), data in open standard
databases, and adherence to open standards whenever possible. And that eventually,
even desktop systems will run on linux (Largo City has proven that it's possible)
Now, I realize that this is not impossible but that there would challenges.
Personally, I don't have advance linux technical skills, and hiring local people who
have it may be a bit hard too. But, I'd rather allocate budget on IT skill upgrading
and training for my people rather than spending it on over-rated, over-priced
proprietary software.
My first priority after the reorganization and hiring will be the parallel
implementation of Linux-skills development for the whole staff (including me), and
outsourcing the initial phases/project(s) of application development. Eventually, the
contractor will be required to include people from my team in the applications
development effort. So basically, they'd be handholding us through a critical period
of the learning stage, but at the same time we can still provide the necessary IT/IS
support to our organization.
An application that is among my top priority will require the system to interact with
other existing proprietary systems. Or this can be made the other way around, so that
it would be the other agency who would be implementing the middle-wares. But on our
part, XML seems to be way to go for the data inter-changes we have to do with external
organizations.
I feel that this project is a major step towards embracing OSS in the Philippines and
in the Government, our office may be small but it is not inconsequential, and has the
power to influence others (especially the "right" people.) The success of this project
may well break the myth that I use to hold - that Microsoft is the only way to go.
PS
And if all goes well, I'd like to suggest a sub-section of the PLUG group:
GULP - Government Users of Linux in the Philippines
or
PIG - Penguinistas in Goverment
The primary focus of which, is to showcase and advance the use of Linux and OSS in
the Government
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