NoOp wrote:
On 01/26/2009 08:03 AM, Web Kracked wrote:
I know this is way off topic, but in response to my efforts
to get our local City Government to switch, one of their
responses/questions was stated as;
"If you know of any open source software that is available or becomes
available that is designed for municipal management (fire, police, clerk,
tax collection, etc.), please feel free to share and we will certainly
take a look at it."
So everyone out there,
please let me know is you have heard of any free and/or open source
software packages that could be used for their needs. Someone
out there must have written a package or portal modification to suit the
needs of a municipal government.
Best to respond to this email off the list. But I have to ask it here,
since the
readership is all over the USA and the world. Someone may have seen or
heard
of a package that fits their needs, hopefully.
Tim Lungstrom - Web Kracked
[email protected]
thanks.
As much as I hate to say this, I'd be *very* cautious about promoting
OOo in those environments. And certainly not before understanding what
is already in place in the way of forms used by those departments. Most
municipalities, in particular fire, police, etc., have custom, or
bought, designed forms in MS Word or other, that, at this time simply
cannot be transfered over, or even reasonably used with OOo. A prime
example is:
See:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=79720
[Protect Document but allow input field entry - MS Word to OOo]
and it gets worse, as that leads to the long outstanding:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=33737
[Allow for in-place editing of input field (turn off pop-up)]
So, as much as I promote OOo, I can pretty well guarantee that you'll
quickly lose the municipality form shoot out. Even if you were to
completely redesign at form in OOo you'd lose; no clerk, police office,
fireman et al would stand for not being able to simply click the box, or
select from a dropdown,without the ability of having protected form
sections, and the ability to tab between the form fields.
What I am looking for is any open source software, not just OOo
templates and add-ons,
that could work with a municipality. The person I was in contact said
they looked into
OOo before, and would like to find an open source solution to their
needs, as a cost saving
option(s).
I said I would look and ask around.
He did tell me that there was no money to train their people to use
OOo. I told him
that if they would hand out copies of the open source software, like
OOo, to their
employees to take those copies home with them to try on their home
systems. The
normal idea is have the people use the software at home and them they
would want
to use it at work.
We will see.
I hope to find some stuff later.
A good action is they use Paint.NET and it is installed on "all" of their
employee's computers. So it they use one open source package, they are
open to use others.
Thanks
Tim L.
retired and tired of MS
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