On Thursday the 18th of November, the WLUG was privileged to have RodneyHide, the leader of NewZealand's ACT political party, address us. See the MeetingTopics.2004-11-18 page for an outline of this enjoyable meeting.
Rodney is interested in open source software and told us about the powers of an opposition MP to ask questions of government departments regarding their use. He has offered to submit ParliamentaryQuestions on our behalf, which are written questions that must be answered within five working days. Rodney will endeavor to assist us in formulating these in the most effective manner.
Please note that the WLUG are not affilliated with any political party (and don't even have a leaning). This is not a "Government bashing" or "Microsoft bashing" exercise; this is a method to further the goals of the WlugCharter in advocating Linux and OpenSource software.
Also, anyone can edit this page - if you're going to discuss this project, doing so on this page ensures that everything you say can be taken on board and included in the process.
Notes on the process:
With that in mind:
RodneyHide asked us what questions we'd like various government departments asked. This page is where we can discuss questions and talk about rewording them before their submission. Each question is made into a title so that the discussion about that question can happen underneath.
Does this relate to maintaining/maintenance charges, or to purchase of new products? Suggest modifying to 'How much money has this department spent in the last financial year purchasing new commercial proprietary software products for which a viable open source alternative exists.'' - PaulL
This has the door open that they can claim out that an open source alternative isn't viable. if you want an answer, you have to make sure that they can't redefine terms on you :) -- PerryLorier
Also suggest specifying particular categories of open source software - lets not get into the argument about products like eAI tools that do not have a good and well accepted open source alternative. So perhaps 'How much money has this department spent in the last financial year purchasing new proprietary web servers where Apache web server offered a viable alternative.' etc etc. Perhaps also focus on the dollar figures spent on operating systems (we can safely include maintenance here, as we are making the point that if they moved to open source they wouldn't have this cost), and on desktop and productivity software in an environment such as a front-office application, where obscure toolsets aren't typically required - a front-office app usually requires only Office apps, browser, 3270 emulation and e-mail - PaulL
This question sounds a little vague... maybe 'internal applications' should be better defined -- JohnMcPherson
Suggest making it more specific by tying to a date (removing the argument that open source wasn't seen broadly as viable before a particular date), and by specifying custom developed applications rather than just 'internal applications.' Suggest rewording to 'How many custom developed applications for which development commenced after 1 Jan 2000 that are currently in use or under development within this department or by organisations contracted by this department are currently written in a way that is not immediately portable to other operating systems.' - PaulL
This question needs to be targetted only at the departments that do the above :) References:
Perhaps amusing facts can be found in these doc files
revision histories which can be rephrased in form of a question.
(zcat notes: searching for files of type "doc" with no search string works better than looking for the string ".doc" and then excluding the department of conservation.. :-)
(Paired with the above question where appropriate)
Given the availability of openoffice, is the format of the document really an open source issue? I would suggest focusing on the high value questions where clear dollar figures can be pointed to - PaulL
Yes it is important. OpenOffice isn't 100% at reading files. Posting doc files on the web is considered bad practice, even by microsoft. Also, there are devices which are unlikely to ever run any office software, eg, a cellphone. Having the document available in html means anyone can read it anywhere on anything. If it's a document that needs to be printed (a form perhaps to be mailed back if an online version of the form isn't feasible for some reason eg, requires signatures) then PDF is obviously the right answer (it always prints as intended where office documents won't print reliably the same between different versions of word). -- PerryLorier
This question perhaps in unanswerable, perhaps 'how many have been taken to court over software patent infringement in New Zealand?"
Something I think needs dicussing is the idea of Government (Tax Payer) funds being used by IT Contractors to develop custom appliations that are licensed under a proprietory license. I think all "new code" developed from Governmental organisations should be licensed under an Open Source license. We as tax payers paid for the software, we should own the software.
Agree with this one - generally the larger govt departments require that IP in any applications developed vests in the govt, it is worth a bash to convince them this should in turn be put in the public domain. A point of consideration is that many IT organisations would embed pre-existing proprietary code in the developed application, and generally give the Govt body a license to use these components and sell the application in its entirity. To make the software available as open source would make the individual components accessable - which might not be viable from a commercial perspective.
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