[Gllug] DTI/Government Open Source Software consultation

Wed May 7 17:42:11 UTC 2003

On Wed 07 May, Chris Bell wrote:
> 

>    I have sent two short emails to Dr Lee Vousden giving some information
> about OSS, and have received in reply an invitation to attend a policy
> discussion at the DTI building, 1 Victoria St, pm 15th May.
>    While I am able to attend, I am by no means the most expert member of
> this group. Would anyone more qualified than myself like me to ask for
> another invitation? I have no idea how much space will be available, or
> whether a larger hall would be available if neccessary.
> 
   Dr. Lee Vousden has asked me to put forward four names at present, with
others in reserve in case of late drop-outs. He already has someone from
SuSE on his list. I would be pleased if we could send the best people
possible, even if that means that I do not get along myself.

   The following is the correspondence so far:

Hello,
   I would like to see the current draft for OS policy. I do not consider
myself to be an expert, it is more a case of the more you know the more you
know that you do not know, but I have known enough very enthusiastic top
professionals to recognise just how good Open Source Software has become as
compared with commercial software. There are plenty of commercial software
designers who make all their output available as Open Source, both adding to
the pool of software available and allowing other users to suggest further
enhancements.
   If it has not already been suggested, you may wish to consider starting
one or more self-help newsgroups dedicated to the use of Open Source
Software in both local and national government. Many IT professionals are
well aware of what is available and wish to introduce various facilities,
but are reluctant because of the attitudes of other staff who are very
reluctant to change. All software carries a risk of errors, and the
slightest problem may cause further installation and development to be
halted, despite the fact that there are many known problems with existing
commercial software.

__________________

Chris

Thanks for your email asking for the Open Source draft policy doc. I have
attached it and some support material. And thanks too for the other comments
and suggestions, which I will happily pass off as my own.

Lee Vousden
__________________

   There is already a great wealth of Open Source Software available, so it
is not always necessary to re-invent the wheel, merely to apply the existing
technology. For example, there are very well tried and tested database
facilities, with tools available for setting up and using the software, but
the databases do still need to be configured to suit local requirements.
There are plenty of people able to make the most of these facilities,
including both self-trained enthusiasts and graduates from the various
government funded computer science courses. Much of the available software
originated in various universities and colleges. Many official and
governmental IT departments employ staff who are already enthusiastic users
of Open Source Software, but there is no advertising budget, and therefore
little or no advertising. There are plenty of self-help newsgroups,
organised either by location or purpose.
   I am using the current Debian stable distribution of Linux, codenamed
woody, version 3.0 revision 1, which has between 8000 and 9000 packages,
available free via the internet or as a set of 7 CDs. The standard email
package for this distribution is exim, written by Cambridge University. The
standard webserver is apache, which runs the majority of the internet
servers. The internet uses the TCP/IP system, with its Domain Name Service
system. The standard name server is the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon (BIND)
written originally by the University of Berkeley in California. Debian is
maintained by a large body of volunteers throughout the world, headed by a
leader elected annually by the group, and organised into smaller teams to
maintain individual packages. The current testing version, codenamed sarge,
has been available via the internet or as a set of 10 CDs for over a year,
and will be released as version 3.1 when it is fully tested and ready to be
declared stable.

__________________

Chris

Thanks. We have someone from SuSE who's already on the list.

Can I suggest at this stage you put forward four people to go on the
invitation list, with others on reserve in case we get late drop-outs?

Lee

__________________

References:

<mailto:lee.vousden at dti.gsi.gov.uk>
<http://www.gridoutreach.org.uk/> 
<http://www.st-outreach.org.uk/>
<http://www.nextwave.org.uk/>
 <<OSS R&D Discussion Event Record - interim conclusions for comment.doc>>  
<<OSS R&D - academic responses to interim conclusions.doc>>  <<OSS R&D
Discussion Event - presentation by AH and JA.ppt>>

-- 
Chris Bell

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