Re: [MLUG] Open Document Format in Minnesota?

["Jerry Gamblin" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I think that is totally different from what he was doing.  It would be
> more like this:  You are an advocate for a type of router that is produced
> by 7 different companies.  You are invited to speak at a conference called
> Modern Networking that is being funded by 5 of those companies and also by
> 12 others.  They give you nothing except that they reimburse your travel
> costs but you agree to do it anyway.
>
> Search through this for "Score:5, I" and see what others were saying:
>
> http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/26/225231
>
> Mike

It no different at all, its probably actually worse. In his job as
State CIO he was in charge of an 80-120 million dollar budget that he
could pretty well spend anyway he saw fit.  I would be interested if
the state of Massachusetts entered into any contracts with the
companies who sponsored his travel.

I don't know if you have been to many computer conferences but they
are more about "activities" and less about learning. Why do you think
they happens in 5 Star resorts and Vegas.

I took your advice and searched the slashdot article and this comment
said it better than I could:

At worst, if Quinn got free vacations at OSS conferences paid by OSS
corporations, it will show that at least OSS corporations are fighting
proprietary corporations like Microsoft in an arena where victories
are won every day: buying political decisions. The OSS revolution is a
practical one, not an ideological one (though some ideologues like
Stallman can be useful). Maybe once the tiny sector of government that
is its technology formats and software is open and transparent, we'll
have some luck fixing the political part. Until then, I remember the
fortune cookie "it's best not to know how laws and sausages are made".

--
Thanks,

Jerry Gamblin

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