This is unlikely to be a problem if we simply consistently refer to the organization as either
'LibertyMSF' and/or 'Liberty Medical Software Foundation' please help me be referring to it that way. Once we have do that for a while, the distinction should become clear. -FT On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 9:42 AM, David Forslund <forsl...@mail.com> wrote: > My only concern about this proposal is that there is a company with the > name Liberty Medical out there (http://www.libertymedical.com). That > might create some confusion as well as some legal issues, but then I'm > no lawyer. (in fact, when I saw the title of the email, I initially > thought it was something connected with that company, which does a lot > of advertising on TV). > > Dave Forslund > > > fred trotter wrote: >> >> >> Hi, >> At the behest of many of the vendors and individuals within >> the community, we are now announcing the creation of the Liberty >> Medical Software Foundation. >> >> http://libertymsf.org <http://libertymsf.org> >> >> This organization will exist to be our HIMSS, our EHR vendor >> association and, if needed, our CCHIT. It is intended to serve both >> the needs of the FOSS vendor community, and the community of >> individual developers and clinical users of FOSS EHR software. It is >> intended to be a place where FOSS companies like Medsphere or >> ClearHealth can sit at the same table with FOSS friendly proprietary >> companies like Misys and DSS! This is intended to be a place where a >> single developer from OpenEMR will be shown the same deference and >> respect as the CEO of IBM. >> >> We cannot afford an Open Source vs. Free Software divide in >> our community. That is the reason we chose the term 'Liberty' for our >> name. Openness is good, but it is not enough, we need freedom. But we >> cannot go around having the conversation: >> "When I say Free, I do not mean what you hope it means. You hope it >> means costless. In fact I plan to charge quite allot of money for this >> free stuff, but you will have freedom when I am done. Of course it is >> -often- true that when I say free I mean that you can just download it >> off sourceforge for no cost. So I mean 'Free-as-in-freedom' and >> 'free-as-in-beer' at different points in this conversation and you >> are expected to keep up based on context clues." >> >> The vendors are going to have trouble trying to sell 'free' stuff no >> matter how you cut it. Also, even if we wanted to use Open, everyone >> and their dog has an organization that begins with 'Open' I can rattle >> off seven without thinking hard. When we previously discussed starting >> something like this using the term 'Free' people got pretty huffy. >> >> Liberty is the compromise. You might be paying millions for the >> deployment of software that you can download from sourceforge for no >> cost, and that is OK but what you need to have is 'Liberty'. I hope >> everyone is as please with this compromise as I am. We will be >> announcing membership and leadership shortly, but you can be assured >> the usual suspects will be involved or at least invited. >> >> Our first project, and the reason that we are unveiling this now, is >> to activate the community in support of the Health IT Public Utility >> Act of 2009. >> >> We have created a petition that we will be submitting to generously to >> congressional representatives. (Just go to our homepage) Note that we >> specifically choose a petition engine that allows you to sign with >> comments, and those comments will be passed along as slightly modified >> petitions. Essentially this is a way for you to both sign a letter to >> Congress, and also send an individual note, with LibertyMSF doing most >> of the grunt work. (Note: Dr. Billings did much of the content of the >> petition in his letter published here earlier) >> >> Most importantly, you can forward the petition to your email contacts, >> or your favorite social network. If you are reading this, and you >> agree with the basic principles outlined in the legislation, please >> take it upon yourself to get ten people you know who are not in this >> community to sign the petition. >> >> I want to be clear: The only thing this community has going for it >> politically is being right. The profit margins of the average large >> proprietary EHR vendor will always dwarf the resources of even our >> largest vendors. They can always leverage their vendor lock-in to >> force more and more money out of their customers. We simply cannot >> compete with their lobbying dollars. We have to organize and mobilize. >> We need to reach out to the larger FOSS movement. We need to get out >> local Linux Users Groups or Python users group or PHP or whatever, >> aware of the basic tenants of our argument. We need to reach many, >> many more doctors. We need to get nurses involved. >> >> VistA has proven that the only way to solve the problem of healthcare >> automation is through the use of collaborative development that is >> only possible inside the VA with a single shared employer who owns >> everything or the use of FOSS licenses outside the VA. >> >> Please also signup for an account on LibertyMSF.org so that we can get >> ahold of you. We do not have direct access to the details of petition >> signers. Please email me personally if you are interested in fomenting >> a local chapter of LibertyMSF in your area or something like... >> >> Regards, >> -FT >> >> -- >> Fred Trotter >> http://www.fredtrotter.com <http://www.fredtrotter.com> >> > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > -- Fred Trotter http://www.fredtrotter.com
