Re: [Fsfe-uk] open source software and uk government

[Alex Hudson]

On Mon, 2001-12-17 at 15:22, Georg C. F. Greve wrote:
> After reading your comment, it became obvious. I guess it just looked
> too much like the old "you must not charge money for Free Software"
> misunderstanding. 

I know; I didn't realise how ambigous it was when I wrote it, sorry!! 

> How this would be easier to understand for newcomers than "Free
> Software is software that gives you certain freedoms" totally escapes
> me.

I find the four freedoms simpler than the eight (? I think) terms of the
ISD, too...

> But it seems they are being heard by the UK government, so we should
> try to explain things to them so the UK government won't receive
> totally confused and warped information.

I have a feeling this was a commissioned report, which might even make
it worse. I'm actually trying to get a full copy of it (the pagination
indicates this is should be almost 400 pages long; not the 50 or so that
they give us, but it might be that someone screwed that up, since the
TOC doesn't indicate further pages).

>  ah> It may well be worth writing something to both QinetiQ and the
>  ah> Government, about where we agree with this document (some of it
>  ah> is very good), where we disagree and why the benefits of 'Open
>  ah> Source' this document points out are actually the benefits of
>  ah> Free Software, and why the Open Source game is dangerous.
> 
> Do you feel capable of writing such a document? If it works out well,
> we might even consider sending it in the name of your new organization
> and the FSF Europe.

I will; I'm already writing one government-related document (about the
situation in the UK with regards patenting software). I think if we
(AFFS) start making noises, I'm sure places like The Register will run
stories - and if we can be fully formed by then, all the better.

I think the AFFS ought to get a website sorted out soon too - even if we
don't have a design/logo at the moment, I think we ought to start
archiving important documents / information. Storing minutes, irc logs,
we're beginning to collect stuff. Did anyone volunteer to actually start
writing pages? If we write to xhtml/xml as suggested, it won't be too
problematic to redo the layout in the future when we actually get a
proper site design.

Cheers,

Alex.

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