Re: [Fsfe-uk] osc? who?

[Paul Tansom]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:14:53 +0000
Geoffrey Teale <address@hidden> wrote:
> I know people who founded and work for one of the companies listed
> personally (including the founders).  I won't name the company on a
> publicly available list but I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. 
> To be fair though they are very pro Free Software, just not people I'd
> do business with.  As for the rest of the companies, well I know at
> least one of them to be very reputable indeed. 
> 
> One problem Free (and more particularly, Open) software has is that
> anyone can hijack the agenda by simply adopting a similar sounding
> name. I'm sure we all know about  Microsoft's "Shared source"
> programme. 
> 
> While I applaud anything that helps the spread of free software, I do
> worry that this consortium may give F/OSS a bad name if they don't
> live up to their promises.  Maybe the "OSC Business Standard" will
> help in that respect.

As one of the companies listed I'll just chip in here and say that from
my understanding the purpose of OSC was/is to provide choice to local
government. I can't say as this is likely to be the only focus, and at
the moment I'm basically on the list and watching from the sidelines
with interest, so can't speak with any authority. I think the catalyst
was, as touched on earlier in the thread, a single company looking
towards getting work and seeing an opportunity. The opportunity being to
bring Open Source / Free Software / insert preferred term here companies
together to provide the potential for local government (primary initial
focus) to choose a solution other than one offered by the likes of Sun
or IBM. One of those uncomfortable balances of financial and ethical
motives I think, where someone on each side will see an ulterior motive
they don't like!

Anyway, I'll quickly add the disclaimer to this that I have been a tad
out of touch with mailing lists, etc. due to my wife having a baby on
the 21st, so haven't been following things closely (well, at all
really!) - so I could have missed something over the launch period (as
well as the beginning of this thread which I have very much scanned more
than read!). I'm also more than a tad on the tired side from trying to
keep my company ticking over at the same time as looking after the
existing and new family members!!!

-- 
Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/