publicOSS » legislation

$50 per page

Edgar Maldonado — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:32:20 +0000

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.

Books again

Edgar Maldonado — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:04:44 +0000

The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has announced recently a digital textbook program (he even wrote an editorial for the Mercury News about it). According to the governor, the state spent $350 million in schoolbooks last year, and the move to digital textbooks could help to reduce this number.

I have been using the example of school books a lot in this blog. I hope California’s government get it right. Althought, if this project is not going to be a completaly Free Libre Open initiative, may be a good start for a new business model in the academic press world.

Software has a price

Edgar Maldonado — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:20:43 +0000

I always patiently listen to the people that complain about how Free Libre Open Source Software threats their jobs and their profession (usually the people complaining are developers). Their argument, a valid one, is that they should be able to make a living. I agree with that.

The problem with the argument is that FLOSS is not only Debian, GIMP, or any other project that gathers hundreds of people working only for the sake of the community. You can work for a project that has a budget, and you are going to receive a payment for your work. This will be software that is not going to generate profits every year or every time it is needed to add a new user. A software that after is developed will become Free (as free beer and as freedom). Of course, who is going to pay for the full development? The answer is simple: the government.

Let’s do an exercise. Imagine the system the runs behind a public library. Usually that system is proprietary, and usually is different for each library you visit. Each library has to pay licenses, and get support for a single vendor. It works fine if you have a lot of money. Now imagine that the government asks to a software company to develop a library universal system. The system must be scalable, meet all the international standards (any you can imagine), and be able to do all what actual systems do. The system maybe cost a lot. The government is the only one with the money to go ahead with a project like that. Let’s said it does it. Then, after the system is done, the government makes the software Free. Any library of the country can used. An anyone can provide support because the code is open. Did developers get paid? Sure, they receive money for the product. But after that they should go and work on other project (or create their own company to provide support to the software). Happy developers, happy libraries, and open good code.

In the next post I will discuss how this idea can be translated to other goods.