Becoming an Open Source Lobbyist?

Random Guru 42 asks: "With the recent MFP scandal in Toronto, with we taxpayers having to take the brunt of the cost of licensing and leasing software the city doesn't need, I'm wondering what it would take to lobby the city to start switching over to open source software. Has anyone ever tried to lobby your local council to make the jump away from expensive, closed software?"

I tried it for a while,

[Mordant]

but the pay sucks, and the benefits are even worse. ;>

Information is the key

[schnits0r]

Information is the key. Get your friends to write letters to officials. Talk to politicians. From my experience many many politicians are intersted in ways to reduce the cost of operation (Lorne Calvert, Jack Layton, so forth).


If you get involved, and convince them to go opensource, you might find yourself with a job working for them as a techie/trainer assuming you have the qualifications. When I convinced the CIC (a section of the reserves) to use open source software for the public terminals, they we

Re:Information is the key

[TheMysteriousFuture]

$65 USD per DAY? Or did you mean per hour? If you did indeed mean day, and assuming an 8 hour day that would be $8.125 per hour... ... ... ...

Re:Information is the key

[Chess_the_cat]

He probably did mean day. And that would be $65CDN.

He meant day.

[themusicgod1]

and don't assume a 8 hour day. assume 12 or 16 hour day, pray that it wasn't closer to a 24 hour day. And he had the easy job!

I worked at PACSTC some years before he did (iirc I as staff one year he was there as a cadet >:D ) ...65$ is a little bit more than I got(not adjusted for inflation) ...and accumulated over a summer that's a lot compared to the average job round these parts.

I tried this in my spare time.

[kingkade]

It takes a lot of dedication and preparation, remembering that persistence is key.

There are many approaches from writing (or emailing) your local congressthing to getting involving in the local gov't.

However, I find the best way to get through to a politician is to ly in wait behind their car in the underground parking garage at work (even better if they've been working a late night). Don't forget to wear an all black jumpsuit and a black knit cap. When they approach, leap up from behind the car, arms flailing wildly and scream: "USE OPEN SOURCE! MOZILLA -- FEAR THE LIZARD!!". And then run away.

Re:I tried this in my spare time.

[OAB_X]

No, no, you got it wrong this is what they should say:

From the Book of Mozilla 7:15 "And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror."

Re:Conquer from within?

[lphuberdeau]

I like the comment about the "real office". Most managers simply don't understand that the fact that it's Free and costs nothing means that it's crap. I heard many people thinking that OpenOffice.org is nothing more than an office clone. It really isn't. It's much better.

Money is an argument but it shouldn't be the only one used. The added-value features have much more weight in the balance than money (at least for north american governments). It's quite easy to sell Mozilla or Firefox to a manager as a

OpenOffice is dead easy to learn

[leonbrooks]

One PHB I worked for wrote a complaint about how bad OpenOffice was, and how bad Linux was. He calls the OS on his home machine (XP Home) "Word".

The punch-line? Said PHB wrote out the complaint using OpenOffice (1.1.2) on a Linux box (Mandrake 10.0 using KDE 3.2) without realising it. One of his receptionists used the same system for three days before she suddenly frowned at the screen and said, "Hey... this isn't Microsoft Word, is it?" Cue the quiet gristly sounds of Leon biting his tongue.

So... beware

Re:Conquer from within?

[haruchai]

As a plus, that site you linked to is hosted on Mandrake Advanced Extranet Webserver.
Very cool.
Nice to see that they eat their own dogfood.

Don't promote Open Source.

[Mmm coffee]

...Promote Free Software [gnu.org] instead.

Open Source is a development model, a way to create a work, usually software. While it does have many pluses compared to other development models, how a program is made generally has little impact on someones decision when they're choosing a program to use. On the other hand, Free Software is based on the Freedoms that a program has, and thus is much more business/government friendly.

Yes, you heard me. The Freedom that Free Software gives you is often the most compelling reason for anyone to switch, you just need to realize that different people value different freedoms. In this case, when talking to a government you need to remind them what freedoms they are giving up by using proprietary software. Here's a brief list of points to get your started.

• Any workstation will most likely be using Microsoft Windows XP. If you actually read their license agreement [microsoft.com] it is very easy to find clauses that would make any government worker with half a brain stem wet themselves. In sections 2.1, 2.4, and 6 you give them permission to snoop on your machine. The text is so broad that you pretty much give them permission to do whatever they want. Section 5 is so ambiguous that technically any file sharing voids the agreement. This is bad news if you allow other people to download/copy documents off your machine in a business setting. When you combine sections 7 and 8 you may be giving them permission to disable your ability to do any networking, including getting on the internet. Note that the final sentence of S8 says "any internet-based service", they didn't say "Any service provided by Microsoft via the internet".
  
  My personal favorite of XP's EULA - Section 9 concerns upgrading and says "After upgrading, you may no longer use the software that formed the basis for your upgrade." This means that if you have a CD of XP SP1 and upgrade to SP2, then according to this agreement you have to buy a totally new copy of Windows to reinstall should your system get hosed.
  
  EULAs are intentionally vague, and chain the user with restrictions so draconian that it's nearly impossible to use the software normally without voiding the EULA. Do some research, it is very easy to come up with a very long list of legal traps that would persuade a user away from proprietary software.
  
  And then you can mention that Free Software does not come with such restrictions. Indeed, one of the basic points of the Free Software definition is that the software should be free to use in any way the user sees fit, without restrictions. A little research into this and you can have one hell of an argument.
• Proprietary document formats discriminate against the users, which is a very stupid thing for a government to do. In specific, Microsoft Word files are at best a nuisance. Users of a non-Microsoft OS may have troubles viewing them. Buying the hardware and software necessary to view them can be very costly, and discriminates against the poor. They can be troublesome for people with poor vision. By sending word files to distribute information you strengthen the "everybody uses it" mentality, and thus strengthen Microsoft's monopoly. And so on. Combine this with my first point, and you can have a very convincing argument for Open Office. If you're not making word files, then why buy a $600+ text editor?
• Freedom to modify - Why have a browser on a machine when you don't need it? Why have a bunch of services running that only create vulnerabilities since you don't use them? Why should they settle for an unchangable program designed for everybody, when you can use flexible programs designed for your needs? Using a slimmed down system reduces the risks of bugs, crashes, and security vulnerabilities, making the system less costly in terms of time and money.
• ...And so on, this is but the tip of the iceberg. I'd suggest listening to some

Re:Don't promote Open Source.

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Section 9 concerns upgrading and says "After upgrading, you may no longer use the software that formed the basis for your upgrade." This means that if you have a CD of XP SP1 and upgrade to SP2, then according to this agreement you have to buy a totally new copy of Windows to reinstall should your system get hosed.

I would assume that SP2 doesn't count as an upgrade; otherwise, even Windows Update Security Patch 12345 would count.

I also assume that if your system is hosed, you can terminate and reaccept t

Re:Don't promote Open Source.

[91degrees]

I would assume that SP2 doesn't count as an upgrade; otherwise, even Windows Update Security Patch 12345 would count.

As the poster said - "It's intentionally vague". The main reason it doesn't count as an upgrade is that Microsoft feel that the benefits of not considering it an upgrade are greater than if they do.

Admittedly, any court would proably be fairly generous to the end-user when it came to interpreting something so vague.

Re:Don't promote Open Source.

[PeteQC]

..Promote Free Software [gnu.org] instead.

Lobby for Open Source OR Free Software is good. The important thing is to not divide our efforts in things the usual non-geek would not understand.

Re:Don't promote Open Source.

[ssimontis]

Also, make sure not to be a nearsighted zealot. There is no need to flame anyone who doesn't use your OS, and doing so will destroy your credibility.

Re:Don't promote Open Source.

[Mmm coffee]

Kudos to who ever reads this reply in such an old topic. :)

I agree and disagree with you. While the Free Software / Open Source "thing" is a mess to say the least, I don't think it has to be so. I can imagine the following after an explanation of the basics of the Free Software movement:

"While Free Software gives freedom to the users, it also gives a lot of freedom to the developers. A direct result of this is the Open Source development model, where many people have the ability to constantly look over t

Price alone isn't going to win you your point.

[jbn-o]

The poster asks

[...] I'm wondering what it would take to lobby the city to start switching over to open source software. Has anyone ever tried to lobby your local council to make the jump away from expensive, closed software?

My guess is that it will take more than just an argument over price to win people to software under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative. Serious proprietors looking at a big potential client will reduce their price to free if need be in order to secure the deal.

Mi

The best way

[OAB_X]

Is to go to one of the Open House budget meetings that are going on. That way you can explain that they dont need to pay 600 dollars per pc for office, when they can spend 0 dollars getting OpenOffice, and that it has more/better features. I would stay away from Linux pushing for now, as the councilor probably never heard of any os other then macs os. Even if you say its free, there is all the cost of re-training everone to use Linux instead. Keep with Windows OS programs

If you cant get to any of those, ge

My brother works at Toronto city hall

[mindaktiviti]

My brother works at Toronto city hall and he was complaining to me earlier about how his own computer (at work) barely works.

I asked him why he couldn't install Firefox, or OO.o, and it was all about IT. So then I asked him to tell IT to do it, but he said that he would have to get permission from this person, and that person, so it's very difficult to change anything there. I'm assuming it's very similar in many other organizations out there and I won't put the blame on the IT people, however they shoul

Very simple

[JediTrainer]

The City of Toronto recently put out RFPs for replacement PCs. The MFP-leased ones are now up, and the city had asked for companies to bid on contracts to replace them with new machines and software.

Guess what? The bidding process is over, and no companies that were offering free software qualified under the terms. The contract has now been awarded to another company (who will be providing MS software, surprise surprise), which I'm sure will be scrutinized quite a bit to make sure there's no rip-offs. So try again in 3 years when the next lease is up, but this time put together a professional proposal complying with their RFP requirements and I'm sure it would be considered.

I think if a company came along and actually BID on the contract, preparing a decent presentation as to how the city would save costs, they would have to listen. After all, the City of Toronto is very interested in saving money, as they've dug themselves quite the hole in recent years (mostly due to the Province of Ontario not being particularly generous).

I run IT for City Hall... and I know the secrets

[Anonymous Coward]

No seriously, I do.

I would like nothing more than eliminating the cost of my Microsoft contract.

How can you help City Hall accomplish this? Volunteer your services to work for them. Tell them you want to work on a program to manage -insert your software to promote-, and that you will give them a proof of concept before rolling it out that will not interfere with work already being done. "You wont even know I'm here."

Not just a great way to get yourself a job, but a career. Save a bunch of money by im