[ubuntu-uk] What aren't we doing? What should we be doing?

[Yorvyk]

On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:24:51 +0100
Carlos Ferreira <carlosemferreira at gmail.com> wrote:

> The UK team should be talking to Universities and other public services,
> doing advocacy and trying to figure out what the obstacles to the adoption
> of free software are, and how they can be overcome. In fact, it's something
> I'd like to do myself.
> 
The problem with this idea is that you have to find somebody with influence who is willing to listen to some oik that's just wandered in off the street and is telling them their IT strategy is wrong.  That's how it was described to me by a senior IT bod at a council.  His suggestion was that Canonical need to be doing this sort of thing with professional 'sales' people.  Also the philosophy of Open Source doesn't really wash,  what’s needed is numbers in Pounds Stirling.
He also pointed out that there is no single point of attack when trying to get FLOSS into these places.  As an example, when he put forward Open Office.  One of the excuses given was that people were familiar with Microsoft Office and that was what they got taught at college.  The college says it teaches MS Office because that's what industry uses.

-- 
Steve Cook (Yorvyk)

http://lubuntu.net