Re: [Fsfe-uk] Newham conspiracy

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

On Thu, 2004-01-15 at 12:21, Tom Coady wrote:

> The best article about Newham is at:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34724.html

Thanks.

[...]

> Newham's own trials of open source however predate the birth of the
> OGC's trials, and are still going on. "We are continuing to use these
> pilots to develop our knowledge of the potential of open source."
> 
> We were contracted by Newham to do a job which we did and which was well
> received. It is now up to Newham to decide the way forward for their IT
> strategy without the glare of publicity. It is not our role to discuss
> this publicly.

If I understand it correctly this is something to show that free
software levels the playing field so specialised outfits however small
they might be can do a good job with minimum fuss.

People need to know this instead of corporate speak alone.


[...]
> Eddie
> 
> to which I replied:

> Aha - that certainly clears up part of the mystery!

Now I am a bit mystified by what this story was all about and where do
they originate. And the other 8 projects?

http://www.silicon.com/hardware/servers/0,39024647,10006342,00.htm

The track ends at Silicon.com.  I still see inaccurate stories about how
IBM sorted out a London borough in India, where I first saw this story
last year!

> I have taken another look at the register and I have found another quote 
> from Mr Steel which does not make any sense to me:
> 
> "We were proposed to take part in a trial [of open source] with IBM," 
> says Steel, but ultimately they have declined to do so.
> 
> Which appears to contradict the story that IBM was doing any proactive 
> sales pitch, but in fact seemed to be turning away this business for 
> some reason. I notice the later part is not in quotes, so it could be 
> something constructed by the journalist.

Could I point out that there is a need for professional free media on UK
free software news.

All the best,

Ramanan

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