Who wants to help?? (was: An Open Letter...)

[David Symons]

On Sat, 2006-05-06 at 07:34 +1000, dave kempe wrote:
> Steven Tucker wrote:
> > Who wants to help??
> 
> me.

And me!

I am hoping the responses and experiences related to my post to other
lists (see below) will become a HowTo on approaching established IT
support providers - what to say, what might be asked.

BTW my personal focus is Ubuntu so it will be a major feature of my
discussions.

On Fri, 2006-05-05 at 18:54 +1000, dave kempe wrote:
> We offer commercial support for Ubuntu, we also offer it for Redhat 
> and Gentoo and Suse. We prefer Ubuntu, its better. 

Dave, this was one of the best things to come out of the recent ...
um ... discussions.  I'm sure you won't mind if I use it.

If any of you aren't on the lists I posted to and have any thoughts on
it please respond.  Apologies to those you getting it for the 2nd, 3rd
and even 4th time :) .

Cheers, Dave.

======================================================================

                              From: 
David Symons
<david.symons at liberatedcomputing.net>
                                To: 
Canberra Linux Users Group
<linux at lists.samba.org>, OSIA
<osia-discuss at lists.osia.net.au>,
Linux Australia
<linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au>
                           Subject: 
Input Sought on Encouraging
Established IT Support Providers to
Support FOSS Initiatives
                              Date: 
Sat, 06 May 2006 08:21:21 +1000

Hi all,

(Apologies to those of you will get this 2 or 3 times due to the
cross-post. I do want to cast the net widely.)

I contract through an established IT Support provider in Canberra.  A
company with a long history (over 20 years) and very good
profile/reputation in the local marketplace.  As present they do not
include something such as "Support for Initiatives based on Free and
Open Source Software" in their offering.

I've submitted a proposal to the managers/owners as to how they might
develop such a capability.  Essentially it's based around identifying
those amongst its existing employee/contractor base that have an
skills/interest in FOSS, verifying that skillbase through interview and
certification (yes perhaps not optimal) and developing an offering based
around the skills identified.

The company's managing partner has expressed interest and I have a
meeting with him this Wednesday (10/5).

I'm interested in any advice/thoughts/ideas you might have on what you
would discuss as well what sorts of questions are likely to be asked.
The main one will, of course, be "What's in it for us?".  I have my own
thoughts on these things but any that you have will be greatly
appreciated.

Some might wonder, why bother?  If they've not shown interest
previously, just start a business or your own.  Well it might end up
happening that way anyway but I feel there are a couple of very good
reasons:

1. They have reputation, experience, contacts, presence on panels, and
other structures already in place.  These are significant assets that
take time to develop.

2. Having companies with established reputations raise a FOSS banner
will be a significant signal to the marketplace in itself (eg. the
effect of Linux being supported by IBM on Linux's reputation).

Also, they're a good company to work for/through, I feel they deserve to
be given the chance to ride the next big wave :) .

Looking forward to your responses.

Cheers, Dave.

PS. Don't worry, I'm dusting off the suit for the occasion :P .
-- 
David Symons
https://launchpad.net/people/bimberi