Another way of saying it is, "the best things in this world are Free and Open". Think hard.
On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:01 PM, jonathan d p ferguson <[email protected]>wrote: > 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 > >> >> -- Chad Avery Montpelier Open Source 802.224.6481 www.montpelieropensource.com
