whitehall

Selling Open Source software into the Public Sector

Why is it so hard to sell Free, Open Source solutions into the Public Sector especially Local Authorities?

You would have thought that it would be easy - after all FOSS solutions for services such as e-mail, collaboration software, and learning platforms are demonstrably cheaper and more effective than their proprietary equivalents.

You would also be encouraged by the Government mandating that all public sector IT procurements show that due consideration has been given to Open Source solutions alongside proprietary ones.

Open Source, P2P and the Pirate Party

The Swedish champion of civil liberties and scourge of outdated monopolist Copyright and Patent Laws has made it to the UK. The Pirate Party, famous for losing a recent P2P file-sharing trial, is bloodied unbowed and recruiting.

...good timing too. Riding roughshod over the Minister for Transformation Tom Watson, the First Secretary of State, Lord Peter Mandelson recently announced that whole families will have their broadband access cut if any one of them is caught illegally sharing files.

What?

Information Technology becomes a UK Election Issue

With an election on the horizon both the Conservatives and Labour are increasingly triangulating on issues they believe will win them votes. This is business-as-usual, but what is remarkable this time round is that Information Technology is heading for centre stage in the game.

Never before has ICT been considered political, but after a long string of Government projects most observers would characterise as failed or failing, absurdly late, and obscenely expensive it has earnt it's place.

It's political - a measure of both a Government's competence and it's financial acumen - both key issues in an election.

Software vendors and the UK Government: how to peer behind the scenes

In the Open Source world we are rarely privy to what goes on behind closed doors in the world of ICT in UK gov. However, we have been remarkably 'lucky' over the years to fish out just what is going on. By popular request here's how it's done: The Spencer System.

This is my own system used for detective work when dealing with official releases written or spoken in Mandarin-Speak. They invariably consist of: lies (verifiable and non verifiable); 'economical truths'; weasel words; spin and monkey shaking. A glossary is provided at the end for those unfamiliar with the terms.

The People's Cloud

Ok, so now we know,

John Suffolk's (the Cabinet Office CIO) generously replied to my questions posed in last week's blog. G-Cloud is 'go' and it will be a Private Cloud, based on Open Standards and will use a mix of proprietary and (free?) open source software. All I reckon is left it to see whether it's stitched together by Microsoft's technology or Red Hat's.

UK Government ditches Microsoft's Cloud in favour of Open Source?

In a world of spin, smoke and mirrors working out what is 'going down' is not easy and requires the full use of the "Spencer-scale".

At one end of this sale is 'paranoia', just feelings nothing more, moving through 'guessing' to 'speculation' and then on to 'putting two and two together'. At the other end is 'analysis' (of the facts) and ultimately a simple if rare report of the 'knowns'.

Linux procurement in a recession

Without getting into too much consumer psychology it's a fact that our impulse to purchase 'desirable' products increases as our ability to buy them decreases.

This much is understood well by marketeers; as we lose something we want it more. To illustrate one aspect of this situation consider the following: as folk stopped gardening (look out of the train window if you don't believe me) the number of gardening shows on TV increased; as home cooking fell so the number of TV celebrity chefs shot through the roof; as our roads get ever more congested and restrictive Top Gear becomes more popular, you get the idea. More on TopGear later.

Microsoft into all UK Primary Schools

Microsoft, not content merely to dominate the UK secondary school ICT curriculum with Office 'skills,' are now set fair to introduce them to children as young as 4. This brings to mind, a phrase long attributed to the Jesuits, "Give me the child till the age of seven and I will show you the man."

Now Steve Balmer is no Jesuit so how has this come about?

The recent Primary Curriculum Review by Sir Jim Rose has been widely reported in the press and there is plenty to read. The ICT part of the review is aptly summarised by this BBC reporter's title.

Computer technology is to move centre stage alongside English, Maths and personal skills in an overhaul of England's primary school curriculum.

Open Source Budget Special

Back to the future and back again with Tux 2000

 

 

A weary early 21st century Microsoft executive travels to the near 'post-recession' future UK and is greeted by an horrific situation:

Computer hardware is now just a commodity product; software is all free and open source and technical support on stable and secure software is merely an insurance policy. Worse, regulation and agreed standards are preventing monopolies from thriving and product interoperability is taken for granted.

Our hero is right to be shocked. Back in 2008 when he left ...