Re: [Fsuk-manchester] UK Government Gets Really Serious About Open Source

[Simon Ward]

On Sat, Mar 05, 2011 at 06:54:35PM +0000, EVISON ROY wrote:

> the fact that it has Cameron's backing (possibly) is worry enough,
> substance and practicability are not Cameron’s strong points.

I mentioned the article as something that came out of some meeting with
the cabinet office recently.  I would appreciate if we discussed the
article and its ramnifications rather than just lambasting a person who
just happens to be our current prime minister.

> Yes it is good that the 'powers that be' seem to be looking at the
> issue more seriously but the cost 'rug' will be be pulled from their
> arguments to decision makers by the offer of free licences (for a
> period), perhaps?

I’m certain that cost is a big issue, but, and if you actually read the
article you would have noticed, it wasn’t mentioned.  We know that the
government has been duped by free of charge* proprietary software, and
the above isn’t detailed or authoritative enough to say it won’t happen
with this government, but that’s not really what I wanted to point out.
What I wanted to point out was that there is an opening for us to nudge
the cabinet in the right direction, rather than just being critical
bystanders.

Talking about being critical:  Your message is very much critical, and
negative, and not really very constructive at all.  This might work for
the Daily Mail, Star, Sun, etc, but this list is not a tabloid
newspaper.  I firmly believe that positive encouragement works much
better when getting people to do things you want them to do, even
politicians.  Not only do you get closer to something you want, but
someone also gets to feel good about what they have done right.
Humanity likes feeling good about itself.  Just tell someone they’re
doing it badly will just end up demoralising them,  A bit of both may be
in order, but negative criticism is often overdone.

*Please clarify “free” when used in relation to cost to avoid ambiguity.
We talk about “free software” on this list, and the “free” in this
context means something quite different.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

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