Creating a Paradise FOSS Development Team

[David Lloyd]

David,

> ***Anonymous wrote***

Anonymous DSL, aka ADSL, strikes again - but is it an improvement?

>> That said, the only advice that I'd give you is that the risk of a 
>> transition to open source software is actually MORE than $350K. I 
>> suspect a church might actually use more metrics than simply 
>> money and 
>> would factor in metrics such as: "We couldn't perform outreach 
>> programmes to XYZ community because the ICT infrastructure failed.".

> I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here...  How is the _risk_
> more than $350k?

I'll do my best to explain.

> Not being a  sysadmin I have less than no idea what
> you mean when you use the term metrics.  (I'd always thought metric
> referred to measurement - and have no idea how this can be applied to
> Linux or FOSS)

Yes, metrics does refer to measurement. In this case, PCC would be asking:

  - why would a switch to open source software benefit us?

Metrics come into play because PCC would need to find out ways it could 
measure or predict any potential benefits.

For example, it might say:

"We want to switch to open source software on all our administrator's
  desktops"

How would you measure that?

"We would measure this by: the number of desktops that have been 
switched to use open source over the period of measurement."

A result might be:

"Last year, out of 300 desktops, we switched over 200, or two thirds of 
them."

That's a fairly easy one to measure.

Really, I'm not applying this to Linux or FOSS but if someone's going to 
give a presentation to an organisation, such as the PCC, that an open 
source solution might benefit them, you'll need to think of reasons WHY 
and how they might MEASURE those benefits.

> And as to outreach's - what has the ICT infrastructure
> got to do with whether PCC's ICT 'foundation' is Linux or Microsoft?
> (Sorry for not understanding - these things are probably very obvious to
> a Sysadmin/engineer, but are wayyyyy over my head.)

Actually, it's on a business level that I was talking about.

I'd expect that PCC might have outreach programmes. One of the goals of 
these programmes might be something like:

"To spread Christ's message throughout the community using technology 
broadcasts, including but not limited to: online web presence, 
multimedia content streams."

It's very difficult to put a price value on what church's achieve. I 
suspect that PCC would know the 'average dollar value' of its 
parishioners (in terms of money donated at collection, average bequests 
and other measurements) but how in the world would it value 'someone who 
has become a faithful, practising Christian?'.

It's these types of values that make me think that the real metric is 
worth more than $350K. There's other 'costs' here which are extremely 
difficult to measure in dollar terms.

If using another solution hinders or prevents - as opposed to alters and 
improves - an outreach programme, then it may be true that the outreach 
programme costs LESS than it originally did. But it's hindered and less 
effective, and when that might be measured in 'the number of people who 
are exposed to the outreach programme' that can be difficult to justify 
to hard line accountant like business people...

Really, what I'm saying here, is: PCC's ICT may cost $350K per year - 
however that figure is made up. This $350K 'buys' PCC something it 
values [or it wouldn't be spending it at all].

I think I'm saying: make sure that you don't just concentrate on 
reducing the $350K cost - you might be able to keep ICT costs at $350K 
and deliver more value, for example. And remember, that not all 'costs' 
or 'values' can be easily measured in just dollars.

>> Without examining the situation even further, I think you'd 
>> agree that a 
>> transition to any other operating system (open or otherwise) would 
>> probably be a staged, managed process. Furthermore, given the risks 
>> involved and the time it is likely to take to:
>>
>>   a) Develop a plan
>>   b) Implement the plan
>>   c) Ensure said plan works
>>
>> ...I'd expect that any team doing it should expect some form of 
>> remuneration unless the team has sufficient number of members who are 
>> self-funded (or have their own vegetable gardens or farm so 
>> they can eat 
>> :P).
> This is the primary reason I've put this back to the list rather than
> leaving it off-list...  Everyone, I'm sorry that I didn't make it more
> clear that I had expected that whatever Team was assembled would put
> reasonable remuneration into the package that was being proposed to
> Paradise Community Church. (Translation: I expect people to be paid for
> their effort.)
> 
> I am _not_ asking anyone in the Paradise FOSS Development Team to work
> for free - but rather to offer a free quote that *if* accepted would
> include a price to supply, install software as well as training to use
> the software. (Preferably to also offer support for said software) that
> would knock hundreds of k off of what PCC are currently paying to
> Microsoft - on an annual basis.

That sounds like a good plan, however I think such a team would need to 
get together and actually work out what they're quoting for, what their 
goals are and what they believe is achievable first.

This team would:

  - work out an overall goal or vision
  - work out an overall scope for the project
  - work out a proposed plan for implementing a version of the project
    * remembering that it would be doing this without end user input at
      first
  - develop a presentation based on the proposed plan
  - present said presentation to the relevant stakeholders

The hope would be that the relevant stakeholders would respond: "We're 
interested and we're willing to go through the process of actuallly 
getting you to begin tendering and quoting for the work...".

I suspect that's what you're looking to arrange - I think I'm sounding 
like a project manager :(

DSL