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

Don't confuse open standards with open source.  The two are not
synonymous.  We could clear up a huge problem by mandating open
standards.  Mandating open source is a mistake.  Sometimes the
proprietary solution *is* the correct solution (at least until someone
replaces it with a better open source solution).  Open source is not a
religion for me, it just makes sense - in some cases.  Also, it might be
a large shock to those outside the DoD to know how much OS is being used
here.

Jan

On Sun, 2003-10-26 at 17:55, Russell McOrmond wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, Jeff Kinz wrote:
> 
> > You misunderstood. I'm saying that the US is moving to Open Source, but
> > that we can't enact laws that prohibit specific vendors from competing
> > to do the work for the government.
> > 
> > In order to disagree with me you would have to be saying that Americans
> > can enact laws that prohibit a specific vendor from competing for work.
> 
>   What does specifying vendors have to do with Open Source or the various
> laws that are being proposed or enacted in other countries?  I believe we
> all misunderstood what you were saying as it appeared as if you were
> suggested that the two had a link to each other.
> 
>   Free/Libre and Open Source Software is not a vendor, but a
> vendor-neutral methodology.  Even if the government mandated FLOSS
> licenses for all software procured/used/distributed by government this
> would not prohibit any specific vendor from competing to do the work any
> more than governments requiring construction workers conform to safety
> standards does not prohibit any suppliers.
> 
>   Trade agreements not allowing vendors to be mandated in procurements
> should be helping us, but we have a long way to go to stop people from
> thinking that pro-FLOSS legislation is somehow discouraged by
> pro-competition aspects of trade agreements.  Mandating preferential
> treatment for FLOSS is really just a logical and simple extension to NAFTA
> chapter 10 which already mandates preferential treatment for open
> standards.
> 
>   Canadian International Trade Tribunal and FLOSS
>   http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=448
> 
>   First step is getting the policy in place.  Next and much harder step is
> educating current bureaucrats to the reasoning and benefit to them and
> society of these policies so that they will discontinue looking for
> loopholes.
> 
> ---
>  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
>  Governance software that controls ICT, automates government policy, or
>  electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than 
>  politicians should be bought.  -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/
-- 

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Jan C. Depner
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I'm a programmer with a soldering iron, and I'm not afraid to use it.