I found a report by Ovum PLC about UK’s FLOSS policy. The report is titled: UK government and open source adoption in a recession: right direction, at times clumsy moves. It has 16 pages and cost $825 (the digital version). Each page is worthy around $50, so I have not had the opportunity of read it.
If you had the money and the interest, maybe you bought the report. It would be nice to hear from you (I am not asking for a copy). Maybe Ovum found out that what other people have said about Open Source Software is true. I wonder if a PhD student can have done the same in 200 pages, getting a small grant from the UK government, and liberating the report later. Or the government can have paid for the report to Ovu and then made it available.
Anyway, it is good to know that some people thinks that is worthy to make this kind of document, and other people think that is worthy to pay that much. That indicates that FLOSS in governments is in its way.
December 9, 2009 at 3:15 am |
The irony of charging $825 for a report on open source has clearly escaped people at Ovum. But the report is probably targeted at those who intend to make money from OSS and its adoption in government. Don’t forget about the “professional open-source model”, where the software is given away but support and services are charged for. You can figure out how to install or fix the software on your own, but it would probably be cheaper to pay someone else with expertise in this area. The report is these “extra services” on top of OSS that are charged for.