Re: Linux Advocacy Document

On 26 April 2013 07:21, Ashwin Dixit <[email protected]> wrote:
> I have the rare privilege of getting the attention of someone who
> frames technology policy for India. I have been asked to prepare a
> document in 1000 ASCII characters or less, that makes the case for
> Linux. My contact is highly educated, yet not very technical.

So typical of India, that someone who "frames technology policy" is
considered "not very technical". :-)

Apart from that, your document has a bunch of issues, like:

- Usage of weasel words - "generally considered", "goes a long way towards".

- Blames the reader (the policy maker) - the whole "foreign mechanics"
reference.

- Easily beaten by counterarguments - "We have the shared source
programme - your students can also study, improve and share our
software freely".

- Structurally too, I find it haphazardly organized. I would suggest
you put it up on a public Wiki somewhere and let us all edit it.

Here is how it could be structured (a framework suggested by a
professor of mine, and one which I find is very effective):

Feature being recommended: "Open source in government and education"
Evidence that the feature is good: "The world uses it and contributes
to it, no vendor lock-in/dependency on American corporates"
Benefits of adopting the feature: "Reduces cost, less chance of
defacing/PR disasters (not strictly true!), helps us compete with the
world".

I don't have the time to do a full rewrite now, maybe over the
weekend. When do you have to submit this?

Binand
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