Ho'ala Greevy wrote:
queue to minute 32 on the show.
http://www.thinktechhawaii.com/sounds/davidigebrainschatz.mp3
world domination. and fast.
-ho'ala
Ho'ala, good job quoting statistics. It greatly improved your
credibility and peaked attention. =)
Senator Ige
34:10 "Can I get the support that I need?"
Representative Schatz
34:40 Save money and some create efficiencies
Operational choice
do not legislate every decision
Resolution - pursue as possibility, do assessment of cost & benefits
My commentary:
Regarding Legislation
=====================
Both Senator Ige and Representative Schatz were very wise in saying that
it should not be legislated. Everything going to government contracts
should be put on a level playing field, going through the same bidding
process as any other solution. It may potentially be seen as "unfair"
if Open Source solutions are mandated by law. Price and technical merit
should be the main factors in choosing anything.
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/28/1829254&mode=thread&tid=3
This article is related to this topic. What is important about DevIS
mentioned in this article is that they do not sell "Open Source". They
sell technical solutions that just happen to be served well by Open
Source solutions. You cannot appeal to morality or emotion and demand
"Open Source" when it comes to government and business.
Of course what I say about "level playing field" is currently not true
as long as the general populace does not understand Open Source. We are
currently at a disadvantage because of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that
is inherent in any new concept. What Representative Schatz said about a
resolution pursuing the possibility, and doing an assessment of cost &
benefits is exactly the proper course of action. It is always the duty
of government to find more efficient ways of using our taxpayer dollars.
Such an assessment of the cost/effectivness of Open Source solutions
should be done, then knowledge of Open Source potential will be better
known and the playing field will be more level.
(Perhaps after the general populace understands Open Source, then you
can point at the social benefits of openness and appeal to emotion,
although that may be an unfair advantage at that point. =)
Regarding Support
=================
Currently there are mainly IBM, HP, and Red Hat who are the largest Open
Source service providers in America. We also of course have many small
business people in Hawaii who have Open Source support services. This
is where we can actively promote Linux as one angle of State economic
growth.
Open Source as good for the state economy.
Why?
1) When Open Source solutions are used, much less money is exported to
mainland companies in the form of proprietary licensing fees. This of
course has a direct positive impact on local service providers, but also
an indirect effect of more money being spent in other local products and
services.
2) Economic efficiency with fair market competition
Current IT spending goes largely to monopolies. Introductory
microeconomics (as does common sense) makes a clear case that monopolies
always lead to a certain amount of economic dead-weight loss while fair
market competition reduces overall economic loss to society. Open
Source promotes fair market competition.
3) Open Source reduces the potential for abuse of secrets
Another requirement for "fair market competition" in microeconomics is
equal knowledge by all parties. It is legally difficult to hide unfair
practices when it comes to Open Source software due to the nature of the
GNU (L)GPL licenses. This makes it more difficult for abusive uses of
secrets to be leveraged to lock out competitors. This lowers the cost
of entry for potential competitors, allowing firms to more freely enter
or leave a market, another requirement of "free market competition".
Thus...
Open Source is good for our state economy. It diverts funds that would
otherwise leave the state back into local product and service providers
while promoting greater economic efficiency through fair market competition.
Warren Togami
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
