Getting into politics?

[Jan Claeys]

Op dinsdag 20-01-2009 om 07:38 uur [tijdzone +0530], schreef VidAyer:
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 9:19 AM, VidAyer <vid at svaksha.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:38 AM, Szilveszter Farkas
> > <szilveszter.farkas at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I really hope you could help us with some ideas about the situation...
> >> We're a bit desperate, because we see other European governments
> >> switching to FLOSS solutions, and ours locking itself into the
> >> proprietary world even more.
> >
> > We've had similar situations in India, especially with the OOXML and
> > patent issue gaining a backdoor entry.  In India the FSF-India is
> 
> You could try contacting FSF-Europe which might be able to guide you
> better. As Jan mentioned there would be some minimum standards/legal
> requirements that every government has to meet and the NGO
> (non-government organisations) can help the cause of Libre software.
> In India there are NGO's that work toward such public causes so its a
> matter of finding the lawyers collective that understands Libre
> software AND is sympathetic to the cause.

FFII might be able to help too (they did a lot of good work on the
software patents issue, but also on other things).
See: <http://ffii.org/>

There is also no reason to restrict this to open source: other companies
make software too, and they don't get a chance if the tender is
restricted to Microsoft software.

(And if no company makes the whole range of applications they need, the
same EU directive I mentioned in my previous mail says explicitly that a
group of smaller companies must be given the same chances, provided that
combined they can offer the same functionality.)


> You also need the media on your side...no, not the technical
> journals...the "mainstream" media (print, radio and TV) has a lot more
> reach potential so try and talk to a few of them who would be very
> keen to help if one deals with them patiently and professionally while
> explaining the upside of Libre software.  Try and explain how small
> and medium businesses would have to shell out a lot more money and
> keep comparative figures handy to quote from. With the economy going
> south, governments/business houses will understand money-speak a lot
> easier than philosophical aspects.

Also, having a Hungarian EP (EU Parliament) member ask questions might
help to get attention from the press, as the press knows him/her
already, and he/she knows the press (which is one reason I mentioned
that).


-- 
Jan Claeys