Re: [Fsfe-uk] Open Source Consortium

[Graham Seaman]

MJ Ray wrote:

> On 2004-12-23 21:11:40 +0000 Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > We are not "officially" in contact with them, but a number of our
> > committee work for companies who are participating.
>
>
> Yours. Who else, out of interest?
I'm intending to join but find their general approach (as shown on the 
website) so off-putting I keep putting it off. But the idea seems a good 
one. Would creating a 'free software consortium' be totally negative and 
pointlessly disruptive, or would it be a natural division of the 
marketplace? Nearly all (but not quite all) the companies listed talk 
about themselves as doing 'open source' rather than 'free software'. 
Maybe there is an equally long list of other  companies who develop free 
software, rather than just migrating organisations to open source, which 
is what the osc site describes?

A semi-related question: as I understand it the osc are  supposed to 
give small companies the advantages  of size by grouping them so they 
might realistically  be able to go for government  contracts.  Has 
anybody with a little company managed to get themselves registered on 
S-CAT (http://www.s-cat.gov.uk/) in spite of not being part of a 
consortium, or is it really necessary to be big?

Happy christmas
Graham