RE: Use of Free Software within the State

Dear Mr. Mejía:

As you have already migrated systems to open source software, you can
actually prepare a formal document that establishes what have you earned
from your own migration. First think in terms of reliablility and then in
terms of money. Take your hand out of your heart, and be as objective and
accurate as possible. With this real, measurable results, you can then be
creative and try extrapolating your results to the economical benefit of
using open source software government-wide (education, hospitals, police,
courts, local governments, etc.).

Make some calculations on the social side. For instance, "if we migrate to
Linux, we can earn $XXX yearly in terms of licenses, and with that money we
can provide with computers to yy public schools, were NNNNN kids would
benefit". Get help from economists at local reknown universities, and
estimate how open vs. close software would reflect on your balance of
payment. Analyze reports of success *and* failures of governments and
companies implementing open source software. Once your document is made,
make it publicly available to United Nations, World Bank, IMF, Universities,
and Panama's Government, opposite parties, and, of course, the press. Don't
think only about local press. Think about popular tv news broadcasts in
Latin America, such as Primer Impacto, Al Rojo Vivo, etc. Put some drama on
it, and they would make you a hero for a couple of minutes, which may be
enough. I would recommend that you locate the corresponsals of Deutsche
Welle and Televisión Española so that you get some exposure seconds in
Europe. Be serious with these guys.

Success requires three steps: 1. Know how to do it, 2. Do it, 3. Let it
know!

Best regards,

-Manuel A. Camacho Q.



-----Mensaje original-----
De: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]En nombre de Juan Carlo
Mejía
Enviado el: Miércoles, 05 de Junio de 2002 08:30 a.m.
Para: [email protected]
Asunto: Use of Free Software within the State


Hello there!

I work for the Science & Technology Office of the Republic of Panama, at
this moment the Panamanian Government is in the process of creating the
"Electronic Government Bill", that I am afraid is going to favor major
closed software companies as part of the deal.

Right know I am doing this project by myself, trying to find legal (and
practical) bases to propose the use of Free Software within the State or
at least to create some kind of information campaign to generate
awareness over this issue.  I already visited GNU and the like sites for
references, now i looking for public offices migration references, I
hope this mailing list is the right place, if not, just advise.

At the moment the Institution I work for has lots of social projects
that can be migration candidates, and we also run Education
Infrastructures (A certified Cisco Academy & a Certifed M$ education
(indoctrination?) center) that could host a RedHat training center, I
will enter into more details if this is the place to discuss it.

Why a Red Hat migration list? well when I started here (10/2001) I
migrated all the Public Services Servers of this Institution from some
puny commercial os to Red Hat, since that time everything runs fine, end
of the story.

Any help will be appreciated.

--
___________________________________

Juan Carlo Mejía
Coordinador de Servicios de Internet
SENACYT
Panamá
Tel: 	(507) 317.00.14
Email:	[email protected]






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