Re: [Fsfe-uk] Fwd: OSS Watch inaugural conference, 11 December 2003

[Tom Coady]

Kevin Donnelly said the following on 27/11/2003 11:52:

> On Thursday 27 November 2003 8:07 am, Marc Eberhard wrote:
>  
>
> > > The list of presenters at the conference includes:
> > > Nick McGrath, Head of Platform Strategy, Microsoft Ltd
> > >      
>
> Perhaps I'm being a boring old fart, but why is an open-source group at an 
> open-source conference having an MS presenter?  Presumably it's in some sort 
> of misguided attempt to be "fair" and hear "both sides of the story".  

Na, they are just going through the motions of their constitutional 
objectives to justify JISC funding:

  1. To provide the UK HE/FE community with a reliable, focussed[sic],
     and ongoing *unbiassed[sic] appraisal* of those items of OSS and
     those associated open standards which are perceived as having
     major relevance to the needs and objectives of the UK HE/FE community.
  2. To offer *learning opportunities* about OSS for HE/FE
     institutions, by means of at least two public meetings in each
     year of the service.