Re: [Fsfe-uk] Fwd: Open Source Motion

[Karsten Gerloff]

Hi,

Tom, thanks for posting this!

On Thursday 01 July 2010 21:29:38 Tom Chance wrote:
> The below may be of interest. See Chris' introductory note, they had
> hoped to use the description 'free software' but it's progress for
> Norwich nonetheless.

I agree that this is a step in the right direction, and Norwich should 
be commended for taking it. 

But I'd  hesitate to make this motion a template for others. Some things 
that I would have liked to see in there are: 

 - Free Software gives you strategic freedom. It enables the city / 
organisation to determine the shape of its IT solution according to its 
own needs, rather than according to what the vendor wants.

 - For TCO considerations, it's important to apply a longer time frame 
than a single budget year. A migration from proprietary to Free Software 
might carry slightly higher costs (though migrations are *always* 
expensive, even from one proprietary version to the next). But if you 
look at these costs over 2-5 years, they tend to decrease rapidly.

 - Free Software uses Open Standards and open document formats. This 
ensures that citizens' data will be readable in perpetuity. It also 
removes exit costs. (For proprietary software, exit costs -- the costs 
of moving to open document formats -- should always be figured into the 
TCO calculation.)

 - Most importantly, Free Software in the city council means that 
citizens aren't forced into using proprietary software just so they can 
talk to their authorities.


These points could be included in future motions in Norwich and 
elsewhere. Or even better, applied in practice :-)



Best regards,
Karsten
-- 
Karsten Gerloff
President 
Free Software Foundation Europe [http://fsfe.org]
Tel: +49 176 9690 4298  
Jabber <address@hidden>
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Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered
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