On Wednesday 28 Dec 2011 12:06:09 Terry Coles wrote: > On Wednesday 28 Dec 2011 11:14:30 Simon P Smith wrote: > > The withdrawal of PPN 3/11 is a scandal! > > > > I was using it to try and get some non-M$ products into a government > > project - looks like that particular prop to my case has been well and > > truly kicked out :( > > Can I suggest that you write to your MP and point this out. By pure > coincidence, I had just sealed the envelope holding my letter to my MP > (Annette Brooke) when I saw your post. I pointed out that the decision > favours the foreign corporates and disadvantages UK companies.
Well, it's taken very nearly three months, but I've finally got a reply to my letter. Annette Brooke responded almost immediately after the New Year break, saying that she had forwarded my letter to Vince Cable. It then went quiet for a while, until I got an email from her constituency office saying that the letter had gone to the Cabinet Office. Here's part of what it said: 'This is just to let you know that we have just heard from the Department of Business that Annette’s letter of 10 January on your behalf, has been passed to the Cabinet Office. BIS advised that the inordinate delay has been due to waiting for the Cabinet Office to accept the case. I am very sorry about this.' Today, I received via Annette Brooke's constituency office, a letter from Francis Maude. Unsurprisingly, he never answered my original question, which was effectively 'why did the Government reverse the perfectly adequate Policy on Open Standards in Government?'. Instead he tells me all about the current consultation that is ongoing on Open Standards, which I was already well aware of because I participated in the preliminary survey last year. This kind of response was only to be expected expected really. You can't expect a straight answer out of a senior politician. Anyway, can I encourage anyone who has an interest in this (and can spare the time), to go to http://consultation.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openstandards/, download the Policy Document and respond to the consultancy? Remember, this is about Open Standards, not Open Source. Even so, this country needs to adopt Open Standards in IT to prevent the kind of lock-in we've had for the last 20 years or so. Don't forget that if we don't participate, then the proprietary companies will prevail, because you can be sure they'll be responding. -- Terry Coles 64 bit computing with Kubuntu Linux -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday 2012-04-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread on mailing list: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
