[Linux-aus] FTA/Open Source SIG in Sydney tomorrow

[Pia Smith]

On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 10:47, Arjen Lentz wrote:

> OIC jump on the OpenSource bandwagon. Various OSIA members have tried
> chatting with them in the past, and (hearsay) they were mostly
> interested in getting money off their members (high fees).
> It is interesting that noone of OIC appears to be known to LA, OSIA and
> other opensource community people.... that may be indicative.

We tried speaking with them in the past as well, and they don't seem
particularly willing to talk.

> What the good senator is doing there though, who knows.
> 
> > Anyone from LA going?

I attending this, and about 8 or 10 people were there. Kate Lundy gave
an excellent talk, that was a well informed and took into consideration
many of our issues. She even quoted Rusty (go Rusty!). They recorded the
talk, and it is available, as well as the slides of the OIC person
there.

The biggest message was, the fight isn't over, the signing of the FTA is
largely symbolic so we need to now more than ever have our say. Write to
you local senators! LA have a WIKI up to help people collaborate on
this. We hope that people can help each other with articulate letters to
the senators, which will help inform them on the issues. Several people
I've spoken to have written letters to various senators, and have met
with replies from each letter, but a suprising lack of understanding. We
should be trying to cover as many senators as possible, so make sure you
write who you've written to. As I said, if we do not educate them on
this, it will go through our government and be passed without the real
information. Leaving us no choice but the move to Europe :)

http://lactte.linux.org.au/twiki/bin/view/Main/FTA

Contact fta at linux.org.au for a WIKI username and password.

> It may be interesting if somewhere were able to go and check it out.
> That could provide us with some more real feedback on what OIC is.

It was interesting, the OIC gentleman was almost defending the FTA,
didn't seem to have anything worthwhile to contribute to the discussion,
and his gripe was that e-commerce only had 3 pages in the FTA. I told
him we should be so lucky to have only 3 pages in the FTA, as we are
quite restricted and it potentially ruins our section of the industry,
when e-commerce itself isn't so pillaged.

I think OIC is kind of like OSIA, run by businesses trying to understand
what is happening, it would be worthwhile for OSIA to contact them/their
members, as I don't believe they know the OS environment in Australia at
all, and so created their own discussion forum. 

Regards,
Pia
-- 
Pia Smith <pia at linux.org.au>
Linux Australia