[luau] RE:open source article

TB tburns at despammed.com
Fri May 2 09:05:01 PDT 2003


> why is the state 
> pushing MS Office?  

Inertia. They are rarely ahead of the technology curve
on anything, and open source is still pretty rare on
the desktop. How many people do you know who use linux
or have some OSS app on their windows desktop that you
don't know through this list or some high-tech
connection? For me it's still zero. The day will come
when Joe Sixpack will be using OSS because it's
cheaper & better, but it ain't here yet.

> Just on Tuesday I was a visitor at UH Engineering
college, they 
> too have so much to offer the state, I'm saying why
not use the 
> college to develop open source programs, other
equiptment 
> (servers, computers) for the state and keep the
money and the 
> knowledge base in the state.  They already do major
research 
> projects that can mean $$$ for the state.  

1) It would have to be part of some research project,
not just a production deal. The university is in the
research business, not high tech job training (perhaps
unfortunately).  Still I suppose it could be done
somehow - ANCL <http://ancl.ics.hawaii.edu/ > might be
a good model, they have research stuff in their
mission statement, but I am tempted to think of them
as primarily a testing lab (formerly for Internet
Week, now InfoWorld). You'd need to find some OSS guru
to lead it. Anyone want to go for a PHD at UH to fill
this void? 

But if all the state wants is integration of existing
software (seems likely?), then there's really no
research aspect and so no role for the university. The
HOSEF approach has been a bit conservative in this
area (probably rightly), just "replace current
windows-based computing capabilities of Hawaii schools
or expand computing capabilities with OSS because it's
cheaper & better." Maybe I'm not being creative
enough, but I don't hear an obvious research question
there. If that's our motivation, then the big question
is "where do we get the resources we need?" and going
through the university just complicates matters.

2) Someone at the legislature has to take a leadership
position & carry the ball (at least nominally). Maybe
Hoala's efforts with Ige will get this going.

Alternative approaches would be to offer research
grants in the area (generally, not just UH), or have a
contest of some kind. But we need to be a bit more
specific about what we want than "open source software
developed or integrated or used or maintained in
Hawaii." Don't we? 

And of course there's what we have now - let HOSEF
volunteers do it.

And the "business as usual" variant - have DOE hire
some people to do it.

TB



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