[ILUG] email sent to politicians about Mary Hannafin'sdecisionnotto use open source

[Bryan O'Donoghue]

> 
> 	* The Government should mandate the use of Open Standards and
> 	  Open-standards products accross the board, where an Open
> 	  Standard is a published standard, available from a reputable
> 	  international standards body and there are at least two
> 	  independent implementations of software capable of fully
> 	  interpretting those standards.
> 
> 	* Recognising that Open Source has a different cost-model but
> 	  also that in some areas it represents good potential for
> 	  savings, the evaluation of Open Source software should be
> 	  a requirement of all future ICT public procurement 
> 	  procedures.
> 
> 	* Open Source software protects our national security intrests
> 



I agree with your points.

I also agree that what is really needed is some sort of non-business(x) 
specific Open Source lobby. The more community driven that appears, the harder 
it is to ignore, since, the first argument against it aka "You're all in it for 
the money" is spurious with relation to the group.

I question however that any actual progress can be made without associated 
humiliation of a government Minister.

Perhaps Mary Hannafin is an exception to the rule of Mr Cullen, perhaps not.

Before I get branded an anti-globalisation Linux-Communist by Minister Hannafin 
for suggesting that government policy might benefit from a change of opinion 
though, my inital reaction would be one of, get members of the oppositon on our 
side, have them make noises, the ethos behind Open Source should appeal to them 
in any case.

Perhaps the best thing to do here, is require the Minister's department to 
furnish either the ILUG or interested members of it, with the 
report/documentation as to where the government 'looked' into the total cost of 
ownership of Open Source solutions, so that we could formulate a rebuttal.

If after a reasoned rebuttal, where we assume that we can 'prove' TCO is lower 
with Open Source alternatives, the Minister and Department continue to proceed 
with what seems like a commitment to Propiatery software, in the face of 
reason, al-la E-Voting, it's time to lobby the opposition.

Perhaps, the easiest thing to do, is to forego the whole 'reasoned debate' 
thing and have some rabid members of the opposition shout "J'Accuse" from the 
rafters.

/shrun
-- 
Bryan O'Donoghue
Embedded Software Engineer

Europlex Technologies Ltd
Clonshaugh Business & Technology Park
Dublin 17
Ireland

T:+353 (0) 1 2500500
F:+353 (0) 1 2500590
E:bryano at euoplex.ie
W:www.europlex.ie