[HLUG] hereford councils contract with microsoft up for renewal

[Sarah Chard]

I think it is important to at least open the possibility for open source
- I cannot speak from a technical point of view but from a practical one
only - people are resistant to change at all levels and for a variety of
reasons it is therefore unlikely that anybody will be able to persuade
the council to move to open source overnight particularly if there are
integration problems which both malcolm and steve have mentioned and as
Bristol Council discovered - however at this stage where budget problems
and cuts are very real for councils and they are looking to reduce costs
not just this year but in the long term and given the increasing
strength of the open source position then it is in the councils interest
to position themselves now so that they can escape the lock-in a little
further down the line.
If you do nothing to promote change then nothing will happen - however
if you offer the possibility of change along with some practical
solutions as a starting point - then you are opening the door for
change.
Moving to open source is both a practical and a political decision and
we should be able to influence on both levels if the right approach is
used - and I think this is an opportunity to start the ball rolling as
asking how and why the council intends to spend their IT budget is a
legitimate question and offering an alternative perspective may not be
greeted as negatively as you think.
So yes Malcolm - I am happy to help get the ball rolling - if we don't
do it now we may have to wait another 3 years - 

-- 
Sarah




On Wed, 2010-09-29 at 10:01 +0100, Malcolm Herbert wrote:
> If we want a meeting with the council staff and elected members on IT
> policy I'm happy to pull in some speakers and clout. I'm a bit
> motivated
> on this at the moment. 
>