Re: [Fsfe-uk] Re: Schools etc. [was:RE: accu-general: Where to setup web site]

[ian]

On Sat, 2003-07-12 at 11:04, Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:

> Businesses that live off it should pay greater attention than usual to 
> respect the freedoms of the end users.
> Surely, whether these businesses are private or not is non issue, here.

Well said. In the debate about private and public sector, there is no
magical reason why one is superior to the other. A private sector
monopoly is just as bad as a public sector monopoly, probably worse. If
there is no sensible alternative to a monopoly I would rather it was in
the public sector. eg Rail management (though the train services might
well be private sector) Its why I am dubious about PFI in schools
because it is effectively giving a long term monopoly to single
companies in building and managing school buildings. This type of
arrangement with IT is a disaster because the technology changes too
quickly and tie in for 25 years to one supplier is extremely risky.Not
so bad with buildings because they should last 25 years plus without too
much change. 

-- 
ian <address@hidden>