On your question does this document have teeth.
The Good news is that we where able to get this document passed. But, now for the bad news. Where we are with getting FOSS to be universally accepted throughout the State is a little like the emancipation of Slavery, and we are really only at about the stage where England set a ban on all slave ships on the open waters. There is a lot of work yet to be done. We purposely did not give this document a lot of teeth or a very big bite. Our main focus was to open the door for FOSS software without giving our hard line opposition a reason to reject it. The two biggest problems we face are replacing the Exchange Server (more importantly getting acceptance to do so) and rooting out the MS Access evil doers. There are countless rouge desperate Access databases floating around and there is no easy, and quick, way to convert the interfaces to another type of software. We are doing all we can to move all the back end operations to SQL Server, which unfortunately is still not FOSS.
Many times we would run into people who requested special hand-holding and treatment if they where to consider using FOSS. We opted to choose wording that would place FOSS software on equal terms as Proprietary software. We where also looking to give FOSS software credit, where credit is due. In one meeting, one of the network admins said (and correctly so) that if the State was to remove all Open Source software from its current systems, all of the systems would grind to a halt. Just for a moment consider: TCP/IP, DNS, Email protocols, The World Wide Web Protocol, HTML, XML, ... and the list goes on.
So with that I can say thank you all for your time and contributions. Keep up the good work, there is much more to be done, and like Church Hill said "Never give up!"
Also, I am going to be moving to Boca Raton FL in August, so
my position will be open and posted soon.
Cheers,
Andrew Tomczak
System Developer II
State of VT, ANR IT Department
Old Laundry Building
103 South Main Street
Waterbury, VT 05671
(802) 241-1043
https://anrnode.anr.state.vt.us/ssl/sga/index.cfm
On Tue Mar 9 12:40 , Stanley Brinkerhoff sent:
This document sets the stage for fact based discussions about Open Source. DII has a policy on the books now that *FOSS* is worth looking at, and encourages departments to ask for Open Standards. This is a huge building block and enabler for proposals for FOSS, and the discussion to come down to real discussion rather than "FOSS Can't do what we need".
The document still leaves plenty of room for non-FOSS use and handwaving, encapsulated in section 2, Policy, quoted here:a. Decisions on whether to utilize open source software should be made within the context of total cost of ownership. The total cost of ownership includes both fixed costs (direct purchases and licensing) and operational costs for support, testing, upgrades, maintenance and training.b. Each agency and department should carefully review their business requirements for technology solutions as they consider new projects.c. The selection of any software solution, whether open source or proprietary, should be based on whether the proposed solution meets the business objectives of the department or agency. Agencies and Departments may be asked to document that they have vetted opportunities to consider open source software as part of the contracting process
The "may be asked to document" language is outstanding. There can still be "Only Outlook/Exchange can do what we need" hand waving, and state employees like Flint can keep their Microsoft Word, but this makes room for larger projects to seriously consider the use of FOSS. The VOKAL group (Using KOHA in Vermont Libraries) will likely be hugely empowered by this Policy as the DOL begins to look at replacing aging software with a new infrastructure.
I'd put money on an Exchange server being replaced with FOSS before a single Linux/OOo deployment happens.
StanOn Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 11:29 AM, joe golden <[email protected]> wrote:
Has the State finally come to its senses? Please peruse this doc closely. Does it have teeth? Will people read it?
It certainly seems to be the real deal. Section 1.2, page 3 says "... an investigation of potential open source software solutions should be conducted prior to issuing a bid for proprietary software solutions, ..." This could be huge for Open Sourcerers.
Can someone convert the damn PDF image of the doc to a text format. That should make for easier dissemination and discussion. (This is not a droll/troll ;-) )
Note that the Euros are aware of this: http://www.openforumeurope.org/press-room/latest-news/vermont-adopts-open-source-software-policy
Happy Techno Spring.
--
Joe Golden /_\ www.triangul.us /_\ People, Ideas, Connections
---- Act Locally. Connect Globally. Burlington Telecom: It's Your Network.
