[report-card] Preparations for conference presentation and other OSA work

[Andy Oram]

After participating for a few weeks on several OSA lists, I felt that
the volunteers on these lists needed some guidelines for moving
forward. I'd like to ask for all your help in making some basic
definitions and plans. I'm posting this message during a holiday
period (a bad time to ask for help from some people, but an especially
good time for others) because I want to put together a proposal to
present a session about OSA's work at an upcoming conference (which I
already posted to this list: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, May
6-7, http://www.umass.edu/jitp/) and the deadline for submissions is
January 10.

I think some definitions around which we need clarity include:

* What is an open standard? To illustrate the importance of this
  question, just look at the confusion around OOXML, which I trust
  would not be considered an open standard or even a viable standard
  by the members of this list.

* How do government agencies evaluate free software for adoption? There are
  certainly precedents in both government and business.

* Is it useful to acquire free software in a context that imposes
  restrictions, such as Red Hat's contracts (which restrict changes
  and installations of new software), mobile devices that are locked
  down (remember that mobile devices are growing in importance in many
  organizations), or trusted computer systems (also likely to become
  mainstream)?

* Given that conventional TCO and ROI calculations don't account for
  many of the potential benefits and costs of migration to free
  software, what financial and qualitative guidelines can we offer for
  making the decision?

I now have some questions for organizers who are close to the OSA
center:

* Have the questions I've asked been answered already?

* Are there people on these mailing lists who work in government and
  deal directly with the issues I've talked about, such as
  acquisition? Are there advisors or lobbyists on these lists who
  interact closely with such government staff?

* Are there people in OSA officially tasked with making presentations
  such as the one I mentioned ?

Regarding recent documents circulated on these lists about
transparency in government: I think these are fine, and I don't want
anyone to doubt that I see the value of transparency. In fact, I can
show my commitment to it through a series I wrote on that topic last
summer:

  http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/personal-democracy-forum-ramp-.html
  http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/personal-democracy-forum-ramp--1.html
  http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/personal-democracy-forum-ramp--2.html

I just think we can be most helpful by starting at square one with
background on open source, such as the questions I listed at the start
of this email. I ask you all to help with that, and I ask the
organizers of OSA to enhance the organization's transparency by
answering the questions I asked concerning the organization.

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Andy Oram  O'Reilly Media                     email: andyo at oreilly.com
Editor     10 Fawcett Street, Fourth Floor         voice: 617-499-7479
           Cambridge, MA 02138-1175, USA             fax: 617-661-1116
           identi.ca/twitter:praxagora http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/
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