hi.
On Jan 15, 2009, at 3:56 PM, Bradley Holt wrote:
Jim,
Help educate them on why free/open source software and open standards
should be part of their selection criteria. If it's a web application,
then open standards should be an easy sell as it will help them reach
the broadest audience. Free/open source software can:
* help them avoid vendor lock-in;
* allow them to customize the software by hiring internal staff or
external resources; and
* let them share the burden of maintenance across a bigger group.
This is an excellent list, Bradley, thanks for posting it. Please let
me build on your foundation here. As you point out, F/OSS is not about
cost. It is about many things, but cost is the least of them. To me, F/
OSS is about learning, sharing information, and building on the
shoulders of others (instead of trying (and failing) to invent it all
from scratch). Proprietary software is really about the opposite: keep
it secret, don't share, invent it all (over again) by yourself.
Now, though you might accuse me of information overload...
I recently felt the need to research some of the differences of
philosophy between the way that businesses and business people (and by
extension) government think about F/OSS in the USA. In general, they
all seem to be under the impression that it is just about cost. They
haven't seen the benefits we, as users, developers, and early adopters
have seen. I encourage everyone on this list to read David Wheeler's
excellent survey and analysis of Why Open Source (if you have not
already):
http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
Of particular note, is the section on Europe, and a little later on
Government. On Europe--- where the EU is really holding M$ feet to the
fire--- the following explains some of the reasons they have a much
greater adoption of F/OSS. See: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf
as the kind Mr. Wheeler points out.
DARPA and many military contracts favor F/OSS, because they want to
avoid vendor lock-in. Governments have a habit of outliving
corporations. (At least, they did before the change in Copyright Law
of 1996, and the DMCA, call me crazy...)
If they pay for something to be custom developed then they can (and
should) license the code to be used by other organizations with
similar needs. There is no cost to them, only the upside of helping
others. This can only be done if they insist on an free/open source
license (or copyright transfer) from their vendor. Hope this helps!
have a day.yad
jdpf
