Re: [MLUG] Open Document Format in Minnesota?

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Jerry Gamblin wrote:

> > 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.

I guess you are not going to be reasonable today.  Your example involved a 
proprietary vendor lobbying for a proprietary product.  The real-life 
story involves adoption of an open file format that doesn't give an 
advantage to any one company.  In fact, as you pointed out, the story ends 
with the largest megacorp of the software industry creating an open format 
and using that to get more contracts.


> 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.

Well, as you know, people were concerned, and he was investigated, and he 
was found to be not guilty of any wrongdoing.  So I guess your imagination 
is just running wild here.


> 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.

Academics also like to have conferences in nice places.  Why?  So people 
will show up.  One group I belong to had annual meetings in consecutive 
years in Hollywood, CA, then in Storrs, CT, then (next year) in Amsterdam, 
Netherlands.  Guess which of the three meetings had low turnout!


> 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".

I already knew your opinion, Jerry.  "If Quinn got free vacations..." 
But he didn't.  So you believe that Microsoft is "buying political 
decisions" every day.  What is the evidence for that claim?  What does it 
mean to say that "The OSS revolution is a practical one, not an 
ideological one"?

Mike

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