RE: Proposed Letter Text to Decision-makers - Re-Draft

I am very impressed with all the points made.  I will try another
re-draft this weekend to incorporate them.  There are also one or two
questions that arise as a result of all the postings:

1. Why OpenSource?  A lot of valid arguments have been made for
products that work for people - such as Excel.  The problem is not that
Microsoft Office is the de-facto standard, the point that we need make
is that there is an inherent problem with a proprietary standard when
used by governments.  

Microsoft's attention and focus on useability is a very important
contribution to software.  The only way to get OpenSource on the
desktop is when Joe user doesn't need the F1 key anymore.  If a bunch
of governments suddenly make OpenOffice the standard, just watch as it
takes off!  I can't imagine that they wouldn't invest heavily in
development to improve the code.
 
2. What OpenSource software should be included in the letter?  Points
have been made in favour of KDE and Postgres - for example - and
against vapourware (Kroupware).  I like all these arguments.  What I
want are compelling arguments in favour of making the switch.  Do you
go toe-to-toe, feature-for-feature?  Would that be unwise?  Open Source
needs some serious marketing.  Strong, compelling reasons and 'hooks'
need to be thrown out there.  If you don't capture people's
imaginations, then why would they wonder about choice?  Any ideas?

One more thing:  I included Kroupware because I think it is a key
element in the 'office' puzzle.  How can the OpenSource community be
accused of vapourware when closed-source has been doing it for so long?
 The fact that there is an open spec and the code is available makes
Kroupware a lot less like vapourware and a lot more like:  "why isn't
your government pitching in on what we have here to make it happen
sooner?"

3. RE: KDE.  How do you explain KDE and GNOME (or the fact that those
aren't your only window manager choices) - to a lay person anyway?!!

4. With regards to China - The idea I'm trying to demonstrate is that
Open Source is politically agnostic.  Governments of all stripes use
it.  This forum isn't about politics anyway.  I'll try to use the
Norway idea , but I used China because of it's size.  Also, I think
China is sexy to government people - it represents vast trade and
marketing opportunities and the holy grail:  jobs, jobs, jobs as a
result!

5. How do we make the letter shorter?  More like an Executive Briefing?
 I'm sure many of the target audience will be off to their next nosh
before the third paragraph.  I like Bill White's idea of putting the
strengths at the beginning - pitching the reader first, then going into
detail later.

6. Jan's point about migration is an interesting one - I'm trying to
propose that the migration take place the other way:  move existing
users off MS Office, IE etc. and into OpenOffice and Mozilla - while
still (initially) in a Windows environment. Outlook/Notes play an
integral part in many desktops - they have to be dealt with too.
Network using Samba.  Then start to mandate OpenSource document
standards within the office/department.  Once the standards are in
place, switch the O/S.  What do you think of this migration strategy?

Thanks again for all the input - the 'lurkier' the better!

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