[Linux-aus] Re: [Osia-discuss] Help with a political approach to Open Source please :)

[James Purser]

On Fri, 2005-10-07 at 09:46 +0930, anthony hornby wrote:
> No,
> a resource that shows the true nature of open source - when and why it
> worked and when and why it didn't. Something credible and warts n' all -
> not a "one-eyed" cynical exercise.
> 
> On a practical note ... for example where would you direct someone now
> to demonstrate to a pollie that there were government departments
> overseas that have adopted open document formats, and those departments
> analysis of why this was the way to go, if you somehow got one
> interested in finding out more?
> 
> Government departments have research assistants to find this stuff out,
> sure, but it would be nice to point them directly to a resource of
> relevant, credible stuff straight away. Information overload is the
> problem for people trying to find resources in the wider world at the
> moment - if we as a community are the experts in what is technically
> credible and what isn't, why can't we put together a "peer-reviewed"
> resource of this nature to help those who are having trouble separating
> the wheat from the chaff. People submitting content could annotate the
> resource to highlight the salient points and others in the community
> could also be enabled to add their comments, perform a moderating
> function etc.
> 
> I am just suggesting a means to help people navigate to those quality
> papers and resources already out there - not paying an affiliated
> organisation to conduct some "benchmarking and analysis" for us <grin>.
> 
> Bibliographies and directories have been used in the research community
> for this purpose for many years - why not put something together for
> open source resources that reflects an Australian flavour.
> 
> Anthony.

This sort of thing would be perfect and would be a nice counter to the
FUD being spread around by Microsoft and others. The main thing to watch
for would be vendor neutrality, we don't want to appear to be backing
one distro over another.

Does anybody know of any similar efforts that aren't linked to one
vendor or another?
-- 
James Purser
WINNET Developer
Ph: +61 2 4223 4131