LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Richard Russell <richard@yellowgoanna.com>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 15:38:06 +1030

Re: Good news maybe ?? IT Minister

And I finally get around to a second draft...

----

Dear Senator Alston (Minister for Information Technology and
Telecommunications),

[can someone advise on the correct way of addressing? "Dear" sounds
too cosy to me, but maybe it's correct]

Firstly, congratulations on your winning of Government and subsequent
re-appointment as Minister for IT and Telecommunications. We, as IT
employees, employers, students, hobbyists, academics, programmers,
systems administrators and users take great interest in what happens
in this portfolio, as it affects us directly.

The thing that unifies us, apart from our links with the IT and
Telecommunications industries, is our common interest in Open Source
and Free Software. This includes the operating systems Linux and BSD,
the world's most popular web server, Apache, the Netscape/Mozilla
browser, and many other packages. These packages are used all over
the world, in business, government and academia, as well as in a
growing number of homes.

We choose to use this software in preference to commercial offerings
for many reasons, including cost, quality and (most importantly)
freedom. The licences on these packages free us from the confines of
restrictive (and expensive) software licencing agreements, and allows
us to modify and improve the software we use as we see fit, thereby
benefiting thousands of other users, while we also benefit from their
modifications. [1]

However, we are concerned about the some of the directions that the
Government's IT policies have taken in recent years. Three major areas
of concern are:


1) That access to Government online services is restricted to users of
specific commercial software (often Microsoft Windows with Internet
Explorer or Word).  We find that some Government sites block users of
alternate operating systems or browsers, or that the sites are
customised to use special features of specific browsers, and are
unusable unless that browser is used. This effectively makes the use
of those services subject to the users having purchased the specific
software required, when there is no inherent advantage in doing so.

Examples of blocked sites:
<could some people provide three or four Fed govt egs?>

Examples of sites that don't work correctly on all (most?) browsers:
<ditto?>

Examples of services with other restrictions (eg MS Word etc only):
<ditto?>

We request that the Government adopt a policy that all online services
are accessible to users no matter what their choice of operating
system or browser. This allows more people to use Government services,
and it encourages competition in the software marketplace. Acheiving
this would require no more than building these sites according to
established standards. In some cases, it would require only the
removal of the code that restricts access.


2) That Government IT contracts are often exclusive, to the detriment
of competition. This includes moves such as standardising on specific
desktop or server operating systems and applications. In many
situations, this means that innappropriate tools are being used simply
because they are standard, and it certainly reduces competition in the
industry.

Examples:
<again, could people who know please provide relevant egs?>

We request that the Government adopt a policy that all contracts are
designed to foster competition, and encourage the best solution for
the problem at hand to be used, as opposed to requiring a single
solution for all classes of problems. Diversity should be encouraged
in Government IT, for the dual purposes of fostering competition and
developing a more resiliant infrastructure -- it is an accepted fact
that while uniformity can bring some cost advantages, it accentuates
any weaknesses to the point where a single weakness can leave an
entire organisation vulnerable to the one threat, as has happenned a
number of times this year (viruses and worms such as NIMDA, Melissa,
CodeRed and others).


3) That Government software projects themselves are usually closed
source. We believe that by encouraging the release of source code for
Government-sponsored projects under an open licence, not only will the
community benefit from the use of this code, but the Government will
benefit from the community's use of this code. This applies
specifically in cases where the code being developed can have some
wider application, but even in cases where it won't, there is no
disadvantage in releasing the code.

We request that the Government adopt a policy that all new (and
preferably old) software projects undertaken by the Government have
their code released to the community under an open licence (eg GPL or
BSD). This is a situation where the collaboration between Government,
community, and even other Governments would result in a win-win-win
situation.


Thankyou,

Sincerely....



[1] A brief introduction to Open Source and Free Software:

Open Source and Free Software have existed in various forms for about
as long as software has existed. Much of the original internet was
developed with Open Source software, and much of the present internet
runs on it now.

The differentiating factor between Open and Closed software is the
license. Closed software is usually released as a "shrinkwrapped"
product, and the licensee is heavily restricted in how they can use
it. For example, if the user finds a problem with the software, or
finds that it requires some modifications to fit their purposes, they
are prohibited from changing even their own copy of the software. In
contrast, Open software allows the user free reign on how they use the
software. In most cases, it comes with no fees, and with the explicit
condition that if the user is to change the software in any way, they
must contribute that change back to the community. In this way,
software benefits from many many people's input, and any problems are
usually found quickly, and the fixes made available almost
immediately.

----------
more of my own comments...

I don't know if I actually fixed this up at all, or just modified it.
People with comments, please feel free to make edits, and I can see if
they make sense to me :)

It's still too long (IMHO), and too verbose, possibly too
jargon-filled...

I left telstra etc out, as I think that's a topic for a separate
letter.

Ditto for education.

Main thing missing is the EGs...

Thanks for criticism last time -- I ignored some of it... 

Any more comments? Anyone want to re-write this in 1/2 a page?

rr

-- 
Richard Russell
Yellow Goanna Pty Ltd
e: richard@yellowgoanna.com
m: +61 412 827 805
f: +61 8 8462 2362

-- 
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