Hi All,
Following up on the postings here and Friday night's brief
discussion at SLUG, I have now created a page on the SLUG
wiki under advocacy.
See
<http://wiki.slug.org.au/advocacy>
Marghanita
Kevin Saenz wrote:
Also the problem is that Open source needs to jump through the same hoops
proprietary software. That is a majority of the time they would need to be DSD
approved and each open source project would need to pay a minimum of $50k to
get DSD to qualify it. Without DSD approval open source will not get a look in
when it comes to networks that are rated Protected and higher.
imho, I would have thought that Open Standards are for more critical for a
government to require the use and enforcement of.. But even this would be a
great win for open source in general as this would also force big companies
to support properly open standards in their own products, which then also
increases the viability of open source products that also support the
standard in the future when migrations are considered.
But as far as "active participation" in open source is concerned, it would
be great if any software commissioned by the government was then released as
open source. This may be problematic though, as the government would
(presumably) never actually write the software itself, but would outsource
it's development. Companies that do write the software would then have an
active interest in some kind of maintenance or ongoing support program with
the government, and would probably see releasing the code to the public as
an active threat to that interest. Still, the government could insist (as a
large enough customer), and that would be beneficial too
That said, obviously there are OS business models that work based upon the
ongoing technical support requirements of organisations that do adopt the
software, so working with a vendor that does this necessarily means that any
bugs or features that the government finds or requires would be given back
to the community as well.
Anyway, at least it something, and in general I think that Kate Lundy has
her head screwed on and is pushing in the right direction
On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Kevin Saenz <[email protected]>wrote:
It's been a while since I have responded to slug emails.
You need to put this in to perspective. There are a number departments that
actually use open source, to some extent. You must bear in mind that there
are others who have a strictly microsoft.
I know of one department 6 years ago required the skills of Linux and Unix
people to convert the department from opensource to microsoft only
environment, because said department employed a "microsoft ranger", and to
this date he is still their CIO.
What you have to be aware to be successful with tenders or projects you
need to sit on a board of vendors to even be considered for a job or
contract for a scope of work. the Federal government is a large market and
you have fight your case on a departmental and divisional level.
there are other departments who employed the same web technology as
President Obama.
Yes Open source has a place in Public sector IT but sadly it's not in
business critical areas of the sector, and it has been visible for a long
time.
The policy includes three principles as well as some draft text for
government departments and agencies to include in future RFT documentation:
* Principle 1: Australian Government ICT procurement processes must
actively and fairly consider all types of available software.
* Principle 2: Suppliers must consider all types of available software
when dealing with Australian Government agencies.
* Principle 3: Australian Government agencies will actively
participate in open source software communities and contribute back where
appropriate.
<
http://www.katelundy.com.au/2011/02/03/welcome-news-for-open-source/comment-page-1/
Policy available in HTML at
<
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/guide-to-open-source-software/index.html
Marghanita
--
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202
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Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
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Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
--
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
