[Linux-aus] New Federal Govt's Education/PC plans

[Marco Ostini]

Jeff Waugh wrote:
> The challenge for the community is that we offer ideology, not solutions --
> and both this government *and* this project are going to be totally focused
> on solutions. (I hold our values dear, but our message must be appropriate
> to our audience.)
> 
> We need to be careful about how we approach this, to avoid coming across as
> a difficult, single-issue-driven, political hot potato.
> 
> (As such, I think OSIA is the place for pursuing this.)

Senectus . wrote:
> Not to mention the fact that a Gov network is more than likely going
> to have some pretty stringent rules and policies on installing rouge
> software on their machines...

One aspect I'd really like to highlight in neon is that *we've just had a
change of Federal Government*.

Please, for a moment humour me by disabling your sarcasm circuits and
political despondency devices. This fresh new Government is keen to do a
number of things. Some are clear to anyone following the election promises
and do impact on us. ie:

	* Education revolution
	* High speed broadband

Other intentions are more subtle, but just as vital politicaly, most new
Governments want to be perceived to be:

	* Innovative
	* Intelligent
	* Responsible
	* Efficient
	* Trustworthy

My point, that I wish to highlight in neon is that our shiny new Government
 is ripe for some fresh lobbying. We can influence their decisions.

It's not (just) the schools I want to have consider FOSS here. I especially
want _every_ MP in government to be aware of it and to have used it, hence
the link to theopendisc.com.

An MP having one of their kids install Inkscape on their home PC and see
them draw and have fun is an informed MP when they see a School want to
spend $10k on Adobe and Corel licenses.

Having that MP install Ubuntu would be great, but baby steps first.

My intention is to make a concerted an sustained effort to influence the
understanding and awareness of our new government, so that FOSS will be
natural to them and not and unknown factor when they make 'Education
revolution' and 'High speed broadband' decisions.

To that end, some of us will need to 'adopt' and MP and spend some hands on
time with them, showing benefits, answering questions and gently having
them understand and value the ideology the animates FOSS.

What do LA people think of a renewed Federal Government lobbying effort?
Could some of us do it in cooperation with the OSIA?

Cheers,
Marco
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