Re: looks like it's happening everywhere but the US.

On Thu, Oct 23, 2003 at 06:40:07PM -0500, lon jones wrote:
> 	South Africa launches OSS center
> http://www.opensector.org/1066933242
> 
> 	Danish paper on the
>     	 Potential for major public savings in open source software 
> http://www.tekno.dk/subpage.php3?article=969&survey=14&language=uk&front=1
> 
> 	the paper in english (pdf)
> http://www.tekno.dk/pdf/projekter/p03_opensource_paper_english.pdf
> 
> 	The IDA Open Source Migration Guidelines
> http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/jsps/index.jsp?fuseAction=showDocument&parent=news&documentID=1647
> 
> 	China urged to join Asian Linux push
> http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7612224%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
> 
> 	Open Asia: Open source in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, 
> 	and Singapore
> http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/10/09/200248

Umm - No.   Lots of things are happening in the US, but the nature of
our democracy makes it very unlikely and even illegal to enact
laws that prohibit open access to bidding for government work. 

Even so, conversion to Open Source is happening anyway.

          * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

               MASSACHUSETTS GOES OPEN SOURCE

          * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 


http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Oct/gee20031021022279.htm

Massachusetts has mandated a policy of purchasing Open Source software
over proprietary alternatives. The mandate was announced by the state's
Administration and Finance Secretary, Eric Kriss, in a memo to the head
of information technology for the state. The move toward Open Source is
also outlined in a September 29th memo concerning "The Capital Budget"
on Kriss' state government website.

The new policy seems to take direct aim at Microsoft products.
Massachusetts' US$80 million dollar technology budget may still have
some Microsoft line items in it, though. Kriss stated that in situations
where the Open Source alternative is not cost effective, Microsoft
products could be used.

(Notice that the above allows all vendors, even microsoft, to bid for
work but they all have to meet the Open Source requirement.)
The Massachusetts economy moved 5 trillion in 1999, larger than many
countries.  This change will definitely have an effect on the status of 
Open Source in the US.


For another example - look at the city of Largo in Florida:
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/12/04/2346215&mode=thread&tid=110&tid=132&tid=2&tid=37


> 

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Jeff Kinz, Open-PC, Emergent Research,  Hudson, MA.  [email protected]
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