Re: Deer in the Headlights

Taran Rampersad wrote:

>> A formal body is a catch 22, as many people know.
>
I don't.
We have even formed one, just to prove the point.

In Israel, there is now an NPO called "hamakor" (which translates to 
"the source", but also to "the beak") which tries to promote foss, with 
some success (we are meeting the most technologies minister on Sunday, 
maybe our moderate success will be better then). It was, by and large, a 
welcome move by both community and most of the commercial market (i.e. - 
they took it for granted that such a body exist), to the point where 
noone today is likely to believe that we were only formally founded in 
January 1st (we already have 81 members).

Web site is at http://hamakor.org.il (mostly in Hebrew, though).

The most difficult hurdle to pass is to differentiate ourselves from 
Oracle, IBM and CA, which are the "formal" Linux enthusiastics (and 
often show ignorance in what Open Source really is).

While that holds true, we can say that it's not such a body's place to 
answer bids. There are a bunch of Israeli guys (mostly school students) 
that are working on a Knoppix based CD for the education market. There 
are other initiatives to teach something other than MFC. Still, one 
would and should expect Sun, IBM and the rest to try and answer bids 
with, at the very least, semi open source based solutions.

>> There is a problem with Microsoft, yes, but the problem isn't 
>> Microsoft here as far as I can tell. It's about reaching the people 
>> who make decisions.
>
The thing we are trying to do on Sunday is pass a decision mandating 
open standards in all governmental communications with the public. We 
are trying to say "give us a chance". If you want, I can fill you in as 
to how it went.

          Shachar Shemesh
          "Hamakor" board member

-- 
Shachar Shemesh
Open Source integration consultant
Home page & resume - http://www.shemesh.biz/