Thanks for the insight on the meeting Miguel and Puneet. It was interesting to hear what the other side of the aisle thinks of us.
Landon -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of P Kishor Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 7:23 AM To: OSGeo Discussions Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Propietary vs. FOSS4GIS round-table in Spain On 12/26/07, Miguel Montesinos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi to everybody, > > A round-table with subject "free software, propietary software and GIS" was > held at Madrid, Spain, last december, the 18th of 2007, with people talking > from the propietary side (top managers from ESRI and Intergraph in Spain), > people from FOSSGIS side (gvSIG and regional Spanish governments) as well as > academics and National Public Administration, under the chair of IGN (Spanish > National Geographic Institute). > > A good thing about this event it's that it's been published in YouTube [1] > (with written acceptance by talkers). > > It's a pitty that it's only in Spanish, maybe from the OSGeo Spanish Chapter > we could translate something. Anyway I'll translate some funny things that > have been said there. > > - Alfonso Rubio (Top Manager at ESRI Spain): [2] "from an intellectual point > of view, I wonder that if free software is a software with freedom to be > modified at any time, that is just the opposite of guaranteeing that we are > able to work with standards, because any user, or even any implementation, > can modify it" > > - A. Rubio (ESRI) in a 2nd talk: [3] "it seems that standard support is less > guaranteed with free software from an intellectual point of view" > and finally: "a standard -in the end- is a boring thing" > > - Rubén Andreani (Top Manager at Intergraph Spain): [4] "How much does it > cost to make a software and to maintain it? There's a gossip which says that > a version of a GIS software costs around 100-200 million $ ... so, obviously > the software cannot be free (for *gratis*) because money has to come from > anywhere." > . In many ways I agree with both of them above. If their intent was to denigrate Free Software then they failed, because I see the above as the strength of FOSS. FOSS is indeed freedom to be modified at any time, but that doesn't obviate working with standards. Standards and software are related but in a different way. Someone once wrote on this list that a standard is an interface specification, which I found to be a very useful description. Software can create a specification, but that becomes a "standard" only either through wide-spread penetration and usage (MS-Word, Shapefile format) or via a consensual agreement of peers (W3, OGC). And, a "standard" is always open to change. If it is not malleable then it indeed is fossilized in time. As new functionalities are dreamed up, standards are modified to accommodate them. FOSS doesn't guarantee or break standards anymore than proprietary software does (afaik, Apache has never broken the HTML standard, or MapServer has never broken the Shapefile standard). Re. the cost of FOSS, I would contend that if we were to monetize an entire FOSS community's effort to create and support its FOSS (for example, MapServer community's effort to create and support MapServer -- this would include everyone -- from its developers to maintainers to bug fixers to advocates to those who help others on the lists to even those who just lurk and learn from others), yes, it would probably amount to a very large sum of money. It is irrelevant whether it would be US$100-200, because FOSS community has never been interested in monetizing it that way. Besides being incredibly difficult because of its loosey-goosey nature, if it could, it wouldn't be FOSS -- it would be something else. FOSS is much more than the money of it. So, I agree with both those folks. If there intent was to eulogize FOSS, they succeeded, and if their intent was to denigrate it, they failed. Puneet. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss